The work of building and maintaining a democracy is, in the words of Justice William Hastie, "never finished." To better understand what Hastie sees as an ongoing building process, class members listen to a seven-minute podcast about two...

Answering questions is the best way to hone and revise your argument. Foster receptive writers with a workshop activity that promotes peer editing and argumentative writing skills. Given lists of both friendly and skeptical...

While teaching about endangered species, you can incorporate this activity as a take-home reminder of what is threatening the sea turtle population. It is one of those paper plate projects in which a wedge is cut out to reveal a picture...

Early learners explore shapes using colored blocks. They first get some hands-on time with the blocks and then look at beginning math concepts regarding spatial relationships. They work with a partner to build a 6-8 block tower...

Students answer questions about the clock.  In this time lesson, students answer questions using intervals of five minutes. Students solve problems about how long to the next activity, how much longer, and whether or not we have...

Designed as a professional development exercise to introduce teachers to the Internet, the activities in this resource ask novice web surfers to access a series of sites, bookmark them, and answer question about information found on the...

Students visit a pumpkin farm and discuss the characteristics of a pumpkin and how they grow. They create a class story about the trip to the farm with each student supplying a sequence for the story.

The seventh in a series of nine exercises focusing on songwriting models for young lyricists on how to find and develop their unique voice. Class members suggest songs that they feel sound authentic and contrast the wording with songs...

This detailed lesson plan from New York Times' The Learning Network centers around Carroll Academy and its girl's basketball team. Learners compare their school to Carroll Academy, read anywhere from 1 to 5 engaging articles about the...

Is losing cultural traditions the cost of social progress, or should people make stronger efforts to preserve these traditions? High schoolers watch a short film about the native Yup'ik people in Alaska and how they handle the shifts in...

Have you ever wondered what your own World Order would look like? Scholars use primary and secondary documents as well as video clips to investigate and analyze the Cold War. Using the sources, the principles and practices of nations...

First graders identify text features and how they communicate meaning to the reader. In this media literacy instructional activity, learners view the movie The Lorax and discuss how students from another country would respond to this...

What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...

Students practice telling time by completing the various activities. In this telling time lesson, students view a large clock and discuss the words 'to' and 'past' the hour. Students count in 5s using the clock and then set their own...

Readers explore rhyming words. They will use the story The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs to identify rhyming words. Then they will create their own lists of rhyming words. In the end, they will be able to come up with words that rhyme...

Even the littlest learners can become art historians if they have the right training. For the lesson, your preschoolers discuss the piece Long Jakes as they point out all the details they notice. They discuss what mountains and mountain...

Learners explore their perspectives of different occupations, discover what life skills will be valuable to them in whatever career path they choose, and discuss important terms related to the work environment. 

Pronouns are the most helpful parts of speech! Model the ways that interrogative, indefinite, personal, and demonstrative pronouns can specify meaning and enhance writing with a hands-on activity.

Tree rings from North America give a continuous history of El Nino intensity over the last 1,100 years. Scholars learn how scientists use tree rings to create timelines demonstrating variations in weather patterns. The cumulative...

What contributions have great peacebuilders made to our society? Civic-minded scholars take an in-depth look at people who have made a difference world-wide during the 12th lesson in a 15-part series. After researching facts about their...

The old aphorism, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions," might well serve as the title for a resource that asks viewers to consider the plight of the people of the Gamo Highlands, an area in southwestern Ethiopia. These...

Students listen to parent speakers who discuss how they use math in their professional or personal lives. They take notes and write business form thank you letters.

Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies.  After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...

Students examine the domino theory. For this cold war lesson, students watch a video about dominos and then get into groups that represent different nations. Students will then act out a mock simulation of the containment and domino theory.