Do history books tell the full story of Helen Keller? The sanitized version of Helen Keller found in most textbooks leaves out her most provocative ideas. She was a socialist, fought for workers' rights, and advocated for the use of...

Colors are more than just a pretty effect. Learners explore what color change means in terms of chemical properties and reactions. They create a pH solution using cabbage leaves and observe the changes when acids and bases are added. 

Soften up an egg. Learners use vinegar to test for calcium carbonate in an egg shell and an antacid tablet and compare the reaction with vinegar to the reaction with water. In a second experiment, class members break down an egg shell...

Drawings may be worth even more than a thousand words. Curious scholars query an artist's rendering of troops leaving a ship after they have arrived in Europe to fight in World War I. By zooming in and looking at the entire piece, class...

Take class members on a field trip to the forest without leaving the classroom. Scholars learn content-related vocabulary and factors affecting forest health with class discussions and during a presentation. Scientists combine forestry...

A multiplayer game challenges scholars to count to 10. Little chicks jump from leaf to leaf, matching the number of leaves to a number displayed on the screen.

Leave a message after the beep! Using the fun resource, pupils brush up on their communication skills by practicing taking and receiving phone messages. Additionally, they recreate an interoffice memo and create a meeting agenda to...

What would make someone leave home and travel thousands of miles to find another one? Young historians look at letters, demographic data, and artwork to answer the question for the Great Migration, or the movement of thousands of African...

Don't leave your classes in the dark! An inquiry-based lesson has young researchers analyze the light intensity before, during, and after a solar eclipse. They use their data to make inferences about the solar energy available during...

Young journalists select a news story, editorial, or opinion piece that they disagree with or one that leaves them with questions. They then create their report in response and share it with the class.

True! Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" makes readers nervous. But how? Young scholars create a drawing while listening to a reading of Poe's eerie tale to understand how writers create the mood of their stories and what their writing style...

Scholars examine a list of questions and sort them into corresponding groups based on similarities. A gallery walk allows peers to see how their peers sorted questions and leave notes. Costa's Level of Questions is the topic of a...

A free write, an image of magnolia leaves, and the Ed Roberson's poem "Once the Magnolia has Blossomed" ask scholars to use their noticing skills to reflect on the lesson beauty teaches about loss and grief.

Now that your class has read all of Esperanza Rising, take the time to tackle big metaphors and themes. Pupils will participate in an activity called Chalk Talk, in which they circulate around the room in small groups and add...

It's important that writers leave their readers with a strong and satisfying conclusion. Help your young writers develop the skills to compose a concluding sentence with the steps outlined here. After class members have had a chance to...

To get to the heart of a writer's purpose, remember to have some PIE (Persuade, Inform, or Entertain)! And, appropriately, here is a PIE chart that leaves room for pupils to identify each letter of the acronym and any other ideas or...

Fourth-grade writers applaud their historical narrative writing pieces through a Writer's Gallery. First, they read an assigned classmate's work and leave a positive comment on a sticky note. Once learners have read a couple of people's...

Don't leave your classes vulnerable in their calculations! Help them understand the importance of calculating a margin of error to represent the variability in their sample mean. 

Some words leave a lasting impact. After reading paragraph 11 of the text "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," scholars closely examine how Du Bois describes the impact prejudice left on the African American community. They discuss the...

Remainders don't need to remain a mystery. The 16th of 18 parts in Grade 5 Math Module 1 continues the study of dividing decimals by a whole number. Scholars see how to rename the remainder to a smaller unit, such as when dividing 1.7 or...

It's time to get active! Scholars participate in a World Café protocol to promote discussion and leadership. They leave their seats and move from group to group to discuss critical questions related to their read-aloud of Shakespeare's A...

Learners use a Analyzing Mediums handout to detail the advantages and disadvantages of communicating with mediums such as artwork, photographs, and political cartoons in the Japanese-American Internment during World War II primary...

Show what you know! Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment using text evidence from Frederick Douglass. The teacher then presents expectations for independent reading assignment. Leaving the class, pupils turn in an exit ticket...

Leave it to the experts. Scholars work in expert groups to analyze new myths. Each group is assigned to become an expert on either The Fates, The Story of Medusa and Athena, or Theseus and the Minotaur. They answer questions and...