Hydra/hygiene, Muse/music.  Many English words are built on roots derived from the names of Greek and Roman gods. After examining a list of Greek and Roman gods and the meaning of their names, class members find the root in a list...

Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...

As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...

Arkansas ranks first in the entire world in the production of bromine! Here is a lesson which guides middle schoolers through a study about the formation and history of Arkansas' bromine reserves. They also looks at the many uses of...

Happy Pi Day! This collection of games, experiments, and activities leads participants through an exploration of the many aspects and attributes of that mysterious quantity, pi. Activities range from using statistical...

Racist, independent, conflicted? Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brainstorm words that describe the traits of characters in Twain’s novel and then rate these qualities in several of their favorite characters. Individuals...

Are learners heavy sighing at the idea of reading a primary source, written in a language that is difficult to understand and in cursive? Look no further, because the resource breaks down the Declaration of Independence in an...

Plankton: so much more than just a SpongeBob character. Three different activities have kids looking at both phytoplankton and zooplankton in pictures, as well as collecting their own samples (depending on your access to a saltwater...

Young animal lovers engage in a lesson that's all about elephants. They access an elephant sanctuary website and read a story about Shirley the elephant. They perform a series of activities based upon that story, and also study about the...

If you are beginning Laurence Yep's Dragonwings, this will provide activities for the first five chapters. The objectives include making connections to oneself and the world, organizing information and events, vocabulary acquisition,...

Middle schoolers examine the way that many place names in Arkansas came to be. By looking at Arkansas highway maps, they find names that come from the characteristics of each of the state's six geographical divisions. This interesting...

Learners rearrange equations and formulas to solve for a specified variable. Includes multi-step equations with a variety of different variables and a few real-world applications. Great for use as a study guide when presenting the...

Here's a art project that lets kids use bold colors to express their inner wild beasts, and maybe even attract a few wild birds. Using old picture frames, canvases, and screen mesh, young fauvists craft bird feeders and...

Americans may think of Mount Everest as a region dedicated to adventurous hikers, but many cultures have flourished there! Learners read informative books, watch videos, participate in classroom discussion, analyze folk tales, and...

Intelligent? Arrogant? Obnoxious? After completing Chapter 18 of Freak the Mighty, individuals fill out a semantic feature chart for characters in Rodman Philbrick's novel. Group members then use their charts to discuss relationships...