Houses come in all shapes and sizes, but not all houses are safe from Mr. and Mrs. Twit. The 10th activity in a unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl turns learners into architects. While designing houses for the monkeys,...

Fish, fowl, foul fish, or foul fowl? Just what is a siren? Young scholars listen to a video clip and draw what they imagine when they hear the word "siren." After watching several videos depicting sirens, class members read "The Sirens'...

Does the fastest one always win the race? Look deeper into The Tortoise and the Hare with a set of discussion questions for before, during, and after reading the story.

Will this water source support life? Small groups test the chemistry of the water drawn from two different sources. They then compare the collected data to acceptable levels to draw conclusions about the health of the source. The...

Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...

Family and Friends is the theme of a unit offering extra support lessons. Follow each lesson plan's teach, blend, guided practice or practice/apply routine to reinforce concepts such as clusters, responding to reading, drawing...

Discover firsthand the effects of internal waves on coral reefs. Through a series of experiments, learners simulate internal waves and upwelling events as they make observations on the movement of water and other debris. They then...

Young history sleuths examine an inventory of the belongings of a Virginia colonist and use deductive reasoning to determine what the document reveals about colonial life. They then use a Venn diagram to compare the inventory with a...

Peter Pan doesn't want to grow up and doesn't want to change. Many middle schoolers feel the same way. The first lesson in the "Looking to the Future" module underscores the concept that change is a natural part of life and that a...

In May of 1981, the Winter Park Sinkhole in Florida first appeared and is now referred to as Lake Rose. Scholars learn about the causes of sinkholes through an inquiry project. Then, they analyze recent data and draw conclusions to...

What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...

Can the force of falling water through a tube vary by altering the diameter of the tube or its height? That is what physical scientists aim to discover in this activity, the third in successively more revealing activities on the power of...

Young seismologists learn more about plate tectonics with a set of pre-lab, lab, and post-lab lessons plans on earthquakes. After exploring how waves travel through various materials, sixth graders record their observations and...

It is impossible to cool down a glass of water by adding ice. Young scientists explore heat transfer through videos, experiments, and interactive games. They quickly catch on that the water melts the ice and things aren't always as they...

This lesson demonstrates differentiated instruction at its best. Over the course of 2-3 class periods, young chemists have the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of metals and their chemical properties from a variety of...

How do astronauts do anything with those gloves on? Learners mimic what astronauts need to overcome as they complete puzzles while wearing multiple gloves. They time themselves and use the information to draw conclusions about the...

Is the sky falling? Learners use a simulator to modify the mass and velocity of asteroids and collect data on how they influence the diameter and depth of the impact crater. They use their results to draw conclusions and make predictions...

To continue their study of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the beginning of the civil rights movement, class members watch the YouTube video of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" as an introduction to an examination of...

Super scientists visit ten stations to predict, observe, and draw conclusions about the physical and chemical changes that occur when different states of matter—liquid, solid, and gas—are placed under a variety of conditions. To...

Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's...

Is there a correlation between a country's wealth and the extent of its ecological footprint? What exactly constitutes an ecological footprint, and how does one country stack up against the rest? This is a unique lesson to incorporate...

Explore angle relationships associated with transversals. Pupils construct parallel lines with a transversal and find the measures of the angles formed. They figure out how the different angles are related before constructing...

Turn readers into investigative journalists. The 11th and final lesson plan that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl asks the question "What happened to Mr. and Mrs. Twit?" The lesson plan uses mind maps and group discussion to help...

Levitation tricks have been documented from the early 1900s, so how do they do it? Scholars learn about the force of magnetism in an attractive resource. They watch videos and design experiments to understand the strength and...