Seventh graders complete a challenge to create a catapult that projects a marble or other projectile at least one meter. While experimenting they apply the Four Question Strategy to answer the question, " How can I make one modification...

Eleventh graders ponder about what it means to be an "American." They discuss the impact of an author's word choice and sentence structure on text. They identify some major themes and development of the Letters... Compose paragraphs and...

Students assess the advantages of modern technology tools by creating a page in a class book utilizing pattern writing as well as the writing process. They organize and develop a composition on a selected topic after going through the...

Students compose a piece of poetry modeled after the poetry of Carl Sandburg and share their poem(s) with their colleagues. They use a cluster diagram to organize their thoughts and brainstorm their ideas.

Students create pages of a classroom book on the different structures that ants build. They view and discuss a video on ants then, in small groups, research a type of ant shelter. They relate the shelter to the environment in which the...

Students research a given nation and complete an activity chart for that country.   In this water crisis lesson students work in groups to organize and present the information for their given country. 

Students investigate their elected officials and their roles. In this governmental leadership lesson, students discuss the Constitution and research their elected officials. They also organize the information they find regarding the...

Students investigate the government structure of ancient Rome. In this government systems lesson, students compare and contrast the government of ancient Rome with the government of the United States.

Second graders study Earth's materials. In this air and weather lesson, 2nd graders note changes in the weather and examine tools that help us study the weather. Students analyze how changes in the environment make changes in the...

Students make thematic connections and organize their ideas using a Venn Diagram. In this Venn Diagram instructional activity, students compare 3 different stories from a novel and fill in a Venn Diagram. Students then discuss their...

Students combine sentences to create compound sentences. They write about creating their own soda, then make their own soda, comparing and contrasting it with a national brand. They write a paragraph containing compound sentences.

Fifth graders identify and acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and across the life span. Then they identify and practice through an experiment, time management skills and why it is...

Learners read several magazine articles on the same topic written from different political perspectives, paying particular attention to the diction, syntax, and arguments presented in support the point of view expressed. They then select...

Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers. 

Life comes in all different shapes and sizes, and fish are no exception. Here, young scientists create fish prints as they learn how specific characteristics allow different species to survive in their particular habitats.

Help the class visualize operations with complex numbers with a lesson that formally introduces complex numbers and reviews the visualization of complex numbers on the complex plane. The fifth installment of a 32-part series reviews...

Help young mathematicians crack the code of word problems with this three-lesson series on problem solving. Walking students step-by-step through the process of identifying key information, creating algebraic equations, and finally...

Let's go to the zoo! Take a pretend trip to the zoo with a lesson plan about animals that live at the zoo. Kids sing, match animals, practice animal sounds, and read about Sammy the Snake's birthday party.

If you're planning on including Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in your science fiction unit, use a concept analysis guide to frame your instruction. It covers literary elements such as setting, narrative voice, and theme, as...

Bridges rely on tension and compression to keep them standing. Pairs test this principle by constructing simple bridges and applying a force to the center. Teams use the provided worksheet to record their observations of the...

Develop children's basic locomotor and object control skills with an invigorating Adaptive PE lesson. A series of four, timed stations engaged the class in playing a game of Twister, walking on a balance beam,...

Great literature discussions are a consequence of carefully crafted questions, interpretative questions that permit more than one response, and responses supported by specific evidence from the text. The discussion questions in a guide...

Ella in Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted receives the gift of obedience and must do what others tell her, but her strong personality struggles with this gift. Scholars review how Ella handles her fate by completing...

Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...