Students analyze, discuss, and research Georgia O'Keeffe and her flower paintings. They select a flower to paint and create a watercolor painting in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe. Students compose a poem describing their painting.

Fifth graders chart the elements of drama. In this performing arts lesson, 5th graders discuss the role of a playwrite, practice doing some Reader's Theatre scripts, write a paragraph about a problem between two people, and perform...

Looking for a activity about differing sentence types? Use this activity on compound and complex sentences in your grammar unit. After composing simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences individually and as part of a...

Students explore emotions and memories in preparation for poetry writing. In this poetry lesson students use a graphic organizer and prompts to begin to describe a specific memory which they will turned into a poem.

Students consider how the Civil War impacted their community. In this Civil War lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to research the Civil War in Henry County, Georgia. Students use their findings to create multimedia...

Students create a timeline. In this philanthropy lesson, students use sequential terminology and create a chronological list of philanthropic acts they have performed.

Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...

Linear perspective, estuaries, and water ways converge in a science-inspired art project. The class uses what they've learned about eco-systems, estuaries, and the food chain to create scale models of a local marsh. While the lesson...

Explore informative and explanatory writing with this lesson. Using a cube labeled with directives to describe, analyze, compare, associate, apply, and argue the topic, middle schoolers work individually or in groups to answer questions....

Challenge scholars to research a biome and create a presentation for the producers of Survivor to choose their ecosystem for the next season's show. The materials include outlines, worksheets, and grading rubrics for individuals as well...

Learners look at a variety of pieces of art and discuss them according to moods or feelings expressed. They pick a piece of art that they like and then write a poem or story to go with it.

Learners create individual works of art using cow cut-outs as their canvas in this hilarious lesson ideal for the High School Art or Art History classroom. The lesson includes resource links and can be adapted for any animal or mascot.

Create to learn! Your class can create posters of transitional words and phrases to help them compose an explanatory text. They work in groups and focus on one type of transition (time, place, importance, etc.). They also create a poster...

Engage your class in a scavenger hunt to find the main ideas and supporting details in a text. They follow the teacher while s/he models how to determine main idea and find supporting details, and then they work independently. A fun...

What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...

Create a "Double Bubble" to organize information in a Venn diagram-like graphic organizer.   There are a few options included to differentiate this assignment, but unfortunately, there are no topics for selection. Provide your...

Use this activity to focus on a compare and contrast writing structure in your middle school language arts class. Here, young writers compare and contrast two texts using graphic organizers. They use a double bubble format for their...

Use the present tense to create written assignments. Critical thinkers take a passage written in past or future tense and rewrite it in present tense. They then write a set of instructions in present tense.

Determine the author's purpose in writing a memoir. Eighth graders work in groups  to elicit author's purpose in memoirs, taking care to note how subtle the message can be hidden throughout the work. This lesson is a good way to...

Happy birthday! Celebrate everyone's birthday with this writing activity, which prompts seventh graders to research historical events in a country at the time of their birth to create an essay. Working in pairs, they proofread each...

This instructional activity is based on video clip 220 from the Count on it! series, however the same problem can be posed with out the video. Learners work independently to determine the amount of dried food they will need for a camping...

Fifth graders review two or three chapters of a novel. In this literature lesson, 5th graders list new words, write the definition of the word on the bottom of the paper and choose a picture in a magazine that represents that word.

Fifth graders review their writing for repetition of words at the beginning of the sentence.  In this informal writing lesson, 5th graders share examples of sentence beginnings.  Students use a thesaurus to find antonyms and...

Learners review what author's purpose is by understanding that authors either persuade, inform, describe, or entertain with their story. In this language arts lesson, students bring in junk mail and in small groups discuss what the each...