Your class can participate in a writing program involving four building blocks. By exploring words, sentences, writing forms, and story organization, they improve their creative writing skills throughout this year-long unit. Early in the...

Students create a My Favorite Holiday Calendar Page. They recall the months of the year and identify the various components of a calendar. Students also apply their learning about holiday customs to consider their own favorite holiday...

Family traditions help to instill personal values, social norms, and the warmest of childhood memories. Elementary and secondary learners share their favorite family traditions with a fun diorama project. Using modeling clay, they create...

Kids create a clown out of shapes. They work to show emotions while practicing their drawing skills. Pupils use circles, triangles, squares, oil pastels, and their imagination to draw, color, and decorate a sad or happy clown. Tip: Have...

Kids create leaf people out of sticks, glue, and leaves. They use their imagination to construct leaf people and then glue them onto construction paper. Tip: Extend this craft by incorporating writing. Have learners write a short story...

Young scholars create holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups, using Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express as a writing prompt.

Is your class looking forward to an upcoming event or holiday? Print links to a paper chain that inspire kids to use their waiting time to complete creative and fun activities.

Young scholars write two haiku poems in appropriate form. Writing haiku allows students to practice in the skills of dividing words into syllables, counting syllables, and searching for words to fit a structure.

What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...

Students construct Christmas cards for loved ones. In this holiday lesson, students use various art materials such as construction paper, sequins, buttons, cotton balls, and felt to decorate a Christmas card.

Young scholars explore holidays by participating in class singing activities. In this Thanksgiving history instructional activity, students discuss the importance of Thanksgiving Day and read several poems which discuss the history of...

Students explore the concept of reusing and recycling everyday materials and make holiday-oriented decorations and gift wrapping. Letters containing environmental issues are composed and sent to political and corporate decision-makers.

Pop, pop, pop! Can you hear the sound popcorn makes when it's being made? Start the day by reading The Popcorn Book. Youngsters will love stringing together popcorn necklaces and learning about popcorn. There are separate prompts and...

First graders explore the holiday of Ramadam. They listen to stories, create a class penny jar to collect pennies to give to a charity, and write a class letter to parents explaining about Ramadan and the penny jar.

Students create a timeline to represent state and national holidays. In this social studies lesson, students use colored popsicle sticks along a line drawn on a piece of paper to illustrate when holidays occur.

Anyone who has worked with small children know that color identification and color mixing can be fun! This simple idea has a lot of potential. It suggests to mix food coloring with corn syrup to provide an opportunity for color mixing...

Students examine the events and individuals that led to the observance of Memorial Day as a national holiday. They research Memorial Day with time-lines, writing projects, editorials and other creative projects.

Middle schoolers research Spanish speaking individuals and the holiday, The Day of the Dead, using Internet and print resources. They orally present their research. Students engage in Mexican traditions by making either a lapida...

Young scholars complete a variety of activities surrounding castle communities and fairy tales. They write a letter to a fairy tale character, write a fairy tale, create a model of a castle, and draw a map of a castle community.

Third graders explore art that reflects their cultural background. In this writing and research lesson students compare and contrast the Halloween with El Dia de los Muertos. Students study the visual art of these holidays. Then students...

Students plan a vacation to either a mountain, deep-sea location, rainforest or to the moon. In this vacation planning lesson, students research information about the location of their choice. They watch video clips on the SMARTBoard,...

Learners explore habitats. in this ecology and animal habitat activity, students listen to the book A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman. Learners discuss the basic needs of animals and go on a nature walk to observe animal...

Students use a variety of art media to create a picture.  In this mixed media lesson, students choose media as they move from one table to another.  At each table they add to their picture from the media at that table. ...

Students explore Grandparents' Day. They interview their grandparents and select an activity to highlight their interview. They select a project including writing an essay, composing a song, creating a poem or scrapbook, or writing a...