Shadow puppetry has an ancient past, it is also a great way to build oral expression and reading fluency. Young thespians research folk tales, compare and contrast reality and fantasy, then create and perform a shadow puppet play based...

Many developmentally disabled students struggle with accurately conveying messages and interpreting those of others around them, especially when they are non-verbal. This lesson contains fun activities and exercises, such as talking with...

Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...

Students explore appropriate ways to communicate feelings.  For this character development lesson, students listen to Hands are not for Hitting and several other books about expressing emotions appropriately.  Students observe...

Students create a pantomime. For this cooperative learning lesson, students are given a scenario to pantomime. Students work in small groups and then create and perform a pantomime for the class.

Young scholars express their knowledge of the vocabulary of creative dance by creating and performing a group dance.

What does it mean to rebuild and recover after a major event? Your class will explore this theme while they discuss and discover the events surrounding September 11. They will also look at other examples and then create art pieces that...

Eleventh graders research American culture of the Great Depression. In this role-playing lesson, groups of students develop "talking points" for their assigned topic and condense them into a Powerpoint or Hyper Studio presentation.

Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...

What makes story telling special? Young readers demonstrate how to tell a story to others. Kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders read biographies of "Building Blocks" characters and tell a story about a character to their...

Turn learners into detectives as they decipher encrypted messages.  Introduce your class to modular arithmetic and have a little fun encrypting and decoding secret messages. The activity does not hit many content standards, but...

Sixth graders recreate scenes from the theories about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. In this history and theatre instructional activity, 6th graders review the story of Earhart using a flip chart. Students work on one act plays to...

A series of 4 activities foster critical thinking, careful observation, and creative expression with the work of Canadian artist Robert Harris. Learners respond to half a painting and then to the whole picture while listening to a poem;...

Students explore the concept of Surrealism and how it can be expressed in various art forms. They next create a Surrealist collage, and engage in a Surrealist process to invent a title for their work. They critique a class exhibition of...

Eighth graders investigate historical documents of the United States by reading the Mayflower Compact.  In this U.S. History lesson, 8th graders analyze the wording of the original Mayflower Compact of the first U.S. settlers and...

Students observe and demonstrate pantomime and improvisation. They define and discuss improvisation and pantomime, then in small groups discuss and brainstorm ideas using a bag of props. Students then create and present a scene using...

Students investigate poetry by incorporating images into the words of a poem.  For this language arts lesson, students discuss poetry writing devices and self expression with their classmates.  Students create a film about the...

Learners create short oral presentations describing how Native American tribes use dance, poetry, music, art and other expressions to make a dedication to a physical concept or thing.

Students create puppets to teach concepts such as history and weather. In this Puppetmania lesson, students manipulate their puppets to show a range of emotions, facial expressions, and actions. Students design puppets and learn about...

Students collaborate in small groups to choose a scene that they write in place of a scene in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar". In this dramatic expression instructional activity, their scripts include roles, lines and stage...

Students watch a video and role play the development of a luxury hotel and how it effects the various groups in Maine. They write an editorial for a local newspaper expressing their individual opinions about the project.

Young scholars create a rainforest poster and move to music learning about the rainforest. In this rainforest lesson plan, students express themselves in a variety of ways using their knowledge of the rainforest. Activities include...

Students observe, identify and creatively express their ideas through literature and dramatize an original story that features a type of weather in the plot.

Fabulous! Your 5th graders should love this project. As an ongoing lesson throughout the year students use temperature probes to record outside temperature and then document their data using spreadsheets. They use their weather data and...