Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...

Socratic seminars are a great way to encourage the development of critical thinking, speaking, and listening skills. And Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a perfect text for such a seminar. Use the questions in the packet to...

Round out your unit on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis with a series of reading comprehension questions. As kids read, they challenge each other to answer specific connection questions from the text.

Geometric volume calculations are brought into the real world in a quick set of application problems. Learners are asked to help a patient figure out how to drink a prescribed amount of water both at work and at home. This activity...

Gaining practice in translating a verbal description into a diagram and then an equation is the real point of this similar triangles exercise. Once the diagram is drawn, multiple methods are provided to reach the conclusion. An effective...

A quick discussion question that brings some collaboration into your classroom will allow your thinkers to make a decision about sampling. Mr. Briggs wants to know if the results from his class are a valuable comparison to the entire...

Without ever using the actual term, this exercise has the learner develop the key properties of the midsegment of a triangle. This task leads the class to discover a proof of similar triangles using the properties of parallel...

Every pupil with a sweet tooth will be clamoring for this lab and analysis, particularly when they're allowed to eat the results! Volume and surface area formulas for cones are developed from models, and then extended to the printing of...

What do you do when faced with a bully? Scholars answer this question when presented with a scenario regarding two learners and their spelling test grades. They take part in a grand conversation that leads to problem solving and...

You might just be responsible for launching a future career in rocket science. Pupils use Alka-Seltzer® tablets as the power source for a film-canister rocket. These rockets must able to carry a clay payload and hit a target on a wall.

Need an a-maize-ing lesson to show your class how regulatory genes work? If you use the well-written resource, they'll be all ears! Biology scholars discover the gene responsible for the evolution of the modern-day corn plant through a...

Learners practice relating rules of trigonometry and properties of circles. With a few simplifying assumptions such as a perfectly round earth, young mathematicians calculate the lengths of various paths between satellite and...

Sensory details can enhance the reading experience, especially during a guided imagery reading. Young readers close their eyes and listen to a passage from Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons before responding to discussion questions and...

What experiences lead people to change and how do they do it? After reading about Cole's encounter with Touching Spirit Bear, readers complete the second out of a series of five activities to predict future events in the text. The...

Cerebrum, cerebellum, brainstem, pituitary gland, and spinal cord. Prepare your class for a performance task assessment on the brain and how it works with a scripted plan that defines these terms and identifies the functions the...

R-e-s-p-e-c-t, find out what it means to your class! After a grand conversation about what is, and how one can show respect, scholars take part in a plethora of activity choices such as role playing, a game of Simon Says, wood working,...

What does it mean to have digital citizenship? A set of lessons teach middle schoolers how to be safe and productive online. From sharing posts to creating secure passwords, learners discuss the importance of remaining diligent—and...

To generate interest in some of the major issues in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, class members engage in a four corners activity that asks them or agree or disagree with a series of statements and provide reasons for their...

In an engaging activity on universal and unalienable rights, learners work in groups to establish a democratic nation and determine what principles they want to protect to ensure a democratic society. They conduct a "rights auction" in...

With minimal setup and maximum freedom, young geometers are encouraged to think outside the box on a seemingly simple application problem. Though the task seems simple, measuring a given paper clip and finding how many 10 meters can...

In the summer of 1815, snow fell every month in New England. Was this related to the volcanic eruption of Tambora in Indonesia earlier in the year? Young scientists design their own experiments to research the long-term effect a volcanic...

In this activity, students will write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.

This site is a lesson on creating and interpreting a line graph. It explains how a line graph is created and then asks questions about what is learned from the data. Students type in open responses, and answers and feedback follow.