Go over digraphs, vowel sounds, and affixes with a series of decoding and spelling lessons. Each lesson guides learners through a different reading and phonics skill, building on the lesson before, and challenging them with each step.

Use a familiar song and adorable baby animal pictures to teach youngsters about genetic variation. Begin by listening to "Twelve Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je Maman,'" which you will need to find online (there are several versions...

To gain an understanding of how images and sounds are used to influence viewers, class members analyze these features in Presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2012.

Old, ild, ind, and ost may sound like a foreign language, but they actually represent common final consonant blends. Help learners recognize and pronounce consonant blends with step-by-step instructions, including scripted conversations....

Pairs use onset and rime cards to make as many words as possible by blending the onsets with the rimes.

Build your class's knowledge with a vowel game. With a list of code words for each vowel, kids begin to construct fences with the words that share long vowel sounds.

This neat idea gets kids to use phonics and puzzle-solving skills. Pairs take turns picking picture cards from a pile, say the name of the object on the card, drop a letter to turn that word into a new word, then look for the new word on...

Take young scientists on a trip through the water cycle with this interactive science activity. After setting up a series of ten stations representing the different places water can be found, children use the included printable dice...

In the pre-lab, kindergarteners mimic the movements of the eruption of a volcano and discover various volcanoes around the United States. Then, pupils sort different types of volcanic rocks in the lab before learning how volcanoes grow...

Teach animal lovers how to decipher frog speak. Classes learn about the different calls using audio clips. They then imitate the calls as a group and make a recording. The challenge is to try to recognize individual sounds—can they do it?

Familiar sing-along rhymes about rain help scholars with phonemic awareness. They read the poems and write rhymes for four words. The clue here? Each of the words is out of one of the sing-along rhymes! Learners read a final poem about...

There is a reason why an Oscar is given each year for the Best Adaptation Screenplay. Adaptations are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare a work of literature with a least one adaptation of the work into a...

Young scientists explore many different types of energy including light, heat, nuclear, sound, potential, and more. They match the types of energy and identify when energy transfers from one type to another.

Did she cheat on her husband? Did the hospital switch the babies? Should they have children? As much as this sounds like the plot for a soap opera, all of these questions fit into a single lesson on genetics. Scholars read about three...

Surprise! is the theme of this series of challenge activities. The surprise comes from the information your scholars will discover when researching topics such as alligators and crocodiles, living in other countries, becoming a...

I'm compressed. Groups do a rapid research of different file types to determine what kind of compression the formats use and how it works. They share their information with the rest of the class until everyone has all the information for...

Don't want to sound corny, but your class will be a-maize-d by an engaging activity! Explore the history of the modern corn plant through a video and Punnett squares. Junior genetics experts get hands-on experience with actual research...

Four lessons spotlight a variety of professions while boosting listening and observational skills and making inferences. Lesson one challenges pupils to group cards based on a commonality then justify the relationship they see....

Is it really that big of a deal if the global climate undergoes a little change? Young environmentalists consider this very question as they discuss in small groups the impact of different climate change scenarios on their lives,...

Not only is pattern recognition an essential skill for young children to develop, it's also a lot of fun to teach! Over the course of this lesson, class members participate in shared readings, perform small group...

With so many different kinds of nouns, it can be hard for young learners to keep them all straight. Help clarify this important part of speech for your class with this series of worksheets which clearly addresses the difference...

A poet's word choice can be the difference between a poem that is merely sad, and a poem full of heartbreaking regret. Middle schoolers discern the tone in four different poems, noting the relevant textual evidence that supports...

How much can different shapes hold? The answer varies depending on the shape and dimensions. Individuals learn the formulas for the volume of a sphere, cone, and cylinder. They apply the formulas to find the volume of these...

Your kindergarten or first grade class works on recognizing the /a/ sound in spoken words. Use the fun tongue twister to help remember the target sound, and practice writing the letter a. Then have them write words that use this target...