A game designed to support advanced phonics instruction challenges scholars to read and break a word into syllables. If the player is correct, they move their game piece forward on the board. Whoever gets to the end first wins!

How did the beginning of the Vietnam War factor into the Cold War with the Soviet Union? As part of a study of American involvement in Vietnam, class members read a letter address to President Kennedy and his response in which...

Global warming — what a hot topic! A thorough unit challenges learners to research, read, explore, and write about carbon, its role and increasing nature in our atmosphere, and how global warming is affecting lives and environments...

Can my windmill pick up a weight? Given the same set of materials, groups design and build the most efficient windmill. On the first day, groups concentrate on getting a windmill to spin, while on the second day, they modify their...

If I change the length, will they work better? After brainstorming the variables of wind turbine blade design, groups choose one variable to isolate and test. The groups then present their data to the class in order for all to have the...

I get a charge out of this. In order to learn how a generator works, groups build and test one in this ninth lesson of the series. The generators are tested at low speed and high speed to determine the watt output and whether they have...

Small groups use information they have learned about blade construction to design, build, and test their own concepts. The teams compete in order to determine which design has the best average power output. 

Dinnertime on the African savanna is a highly choreographed event! Introduce young ecologists to the concept of niche partitioning through a hands-on activity. Pupils research animal behaviors and use data to develop an understanding of...

Scholars analyze fiction and nonfiction text and fill in a worksheet detailing the text's title, genre, and reason for its classification.

Scholars work together to define words and answer questions using a dictionary cube.

How is sea coral like a thermometer? Part three of a six-part series from NOAA describes how oceanographers can use coral growth to estimate water temperature over time. Life science pupils manipulate data to determine the age of corals...

Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...

Rigorous and challenging, the AP Test for AP United States History contains a document-based question (with nine documents), as well as two additional free-response questions. Students who are preparing for the test will appreciate the...

Help young scholars name the letters of the alphabet. They use the provided alphabet border and letter cards to take turns saying and finding various alphabet letters. This simple game can be extended by having learners focus on the...

Boost letter recognition with an activity that challenges young scholars to match a plastic letter to one printed on a card. 

Beginning readers practice identifying alphabet letters using upper and lower case letter tiles. Each class member is given a T-chart, letter tiles, and a name card. They then separate the letter tiles in their name from those not in...

On your mark, get set, match! Learners use a complete set of letters, matching each to its outlined letter on an arc. As they choose letters, they name them aloud. For added difficulty, another arc is missing most of its letters to...

Scholars take turns writing and identifying letters on a whiteboard. Learner one writes a letter; learner two finds it on the alphabet strip. If they are correct, Mr. Mouse gets to eat that letter, and if they are incorrect, Mr. Mouse...

Practice letter recognition using this fun alphabet game! Focusing on a suggested six target letters, this partner activity has learners saying and recognizing letter names as quickly as possible. Using a randomly chosen letter as the...

Scholars practice identifying and counting syllables. Images of classmates are cut out and placed on a chart. Learners clap and count the syllables in each child's name. They finish by writing the number of syllables under the...

Scholars make a pictograph based on the number of syllables in each picture card. They choose a card, say the name of the object on the card, break the word into syllables, count the syllables, then glue the picture onto the number chart...

An activity challenges scholars to show what they know about onset and rime. Learners choose from a stack of picture cards and give onset and rhyming clues to see if their partners can guess the word they are holding.

Scholars sort words based on their initial phonemes. They choose cards, say their names, and match the initial phoneme to the one posted on one of the sorting bins. If the initial sound matches, they put the card in the sound maker bin,...

Go fishing for initial sounds with this engaging phoneme game! Similar to the card game Go Fish, pairs use picture cards and try to match initial sounds. They set aside any pictures that are a match and ask their partner for specific...