Students begin the lesson by reading a novel about the diversity of geography in Africa. They are to create an oral report based on information they research. They also communicate with someone through email about the situation in Africa.

Examine author's purpose in newspaper articles, comic books, cookbooks, encyclopedias and other forms of written materials. Working in groups, middle and high schoolers read teacher-selected articles and write an explanation of the...

Youngsters practice retelling a part of their favorite Native American tale to a small group of their peers. Peer partners assess each others performances. To keep comments positive and constructive, consider giving your class sentence...

Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.

Upper graders retrieve and verify information on life insurance policies through internet research. They discuss how life insurance policies work and make decisions as to what type of policy is best. They produce a timeline and define...

Young researchers work through the research cycle. They question, plan, gather, sort, synthesize, and evaluate the materials they collect at the library. There are web supplements for this lesson. 

Students examine the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. For this Abraham Lincoln lesson, students analyze the political and constitutional issues that Lincoln dealt with during his time in the White House as they play an online game and...

First graders examine biographical information about Tomie dePaola and create a birthday card for him. They play an Author Guessing Game, listen to the book "The Art Lesson," explore the Tomie dePaola website, and illustrate a birthday...

In this social studies learning exercise, students find all the important facts on a map. Students find any map and fill out the chart and answer 12 questions about what they find.

Young scholars identify the three types of plate boundaries and the Earth's tectonic plates system. They examine how the Galapagos Islands were formed and hydrothermal vents.

Students investigate racism in the 20th century by exploring U.S. History. In this Civil Rights instructional activity, students review the history of slavery, the Civil War and the fight for equality in the mid 1900's. Students complete...

Students examine the traditional Mexican musical form of corridos. In this cross curricular history and music lesson, students analyze the lyrics of popular corridos and the corridos' importance in Mexican culture. Students will...

Students are provided with a three-column chart about a fictional character named Jip: looks, personality, and situation. After chapter 1 and chapter 2, students make notes on the charts and share that information with one other. They...

Students, in groups, "shop" for eleven different items in a large mail order catalog. They locate the items and complete the order form. As a class, they discuss ways to find things more quickly.

Students explore kitchen math and following multi-step directions by making pancakes. They assemble the ingredients and make the batter. Students create faces, geometric figures, shapes or lines using pancake batter.

Children discover with parent supervision, places where medications are stored and identify any chemical substances that are taken to change how one's body or mind works. Child discusses with parent differences between medicine and...

Students study the butterfly life cycle. In this interdisciplinary life cycles lesson, students study the life cycle of a butterfly, their migration habits, and the culture of the region in Mexico where butterflies migrate to in the winter.

Students recognize traits of heroes as depicted in music, art and literature. In this cross curricular lesson, students evaluate and analyze various works fo art from different cultures that depict heroes.

Sixth graders explore and analyze Newbery Medal books. They view a Powerpoint presentation on the Newbery Medal book of that current year, select a book, read and analyze the book, and prepare a multimedia book report presentation.

Twelfth graders compare/contrast the Greek myth to explain an aspect of nature. They create an explanatory myth about some aspect of nature and design a mythological business card using Microsoft Word.

Young scholars define terms, and identify three ways in which plankton are adapted for life in the open ocean.  In this ocean drift lesson plan students design a planktonic organism. 

Students write a paper in which they detail the daily routine of an architect.  For this The Stone Cutter lesson, students discuss the end of the novel and share journals with peers.  Students choose a time period in which to...

Students identify the different parts of a wave. In this physics activity, students explain how animals communicate using sound waves. They discuss the effect of Navy's sonar on dolphins and whales.

Students interpret scenes from a novel they are reading. In this literature lesson, students select scenes from The Stone Cutter to perform for their classmates. Students should attempt to recreate the emotions that think the...