They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles is the focus of a five-week language arts unit unit. Fifth graders listen to various poems and participate in thoughtful discussions, examining vocabulary and learning new words in...

The memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, is the focus of a unit designed for fourth graders. Scholars begin each lesson with a warm-up, then listen to a read-aloud of a section of the book. Pupils complete word work,...

The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.

Complex, disturbing, and challenging, Beloved is the focus of a activity that provides three activities to guide a close reading of Toni Morrison's novel. Readers create chapter titles based on key plot elements or themes,...

Break the chain. An engaging lesson examines why it is so hard to break free of the prison system in the US. Academics participate in a reader's theater, read primary sources, and discuss their thoughts. The lesson explains the hardships...

A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...

Why do the bases in DNA pair up the way they do? Unravel the mystery of the double helix in a virtual lab. Young scientists follow in the footsteps of Watson and Crick to determine the free energy associated with DNA base pair binding....

Plants provide a variety of delicious foods essential for human survival. In the fourth activity of this series on food science, young scientists investigate common fruits, vegetables, and grains in order to determine which plant part is...

Trace pollutants through the environment in the seventh instructional activity of this series on the science of food. Looking at a picture of the plants and animals in an aquatic ecosystem, learners use dot stickers to represent harmful...

Seeking to derive the formula for the volume of a square pyramid, geometry learners construct six square based pyramids that, when pieced together properly, form a cube. Two short videos demonstrate the relationship...

Study the chemistry of mining! Through nine lessons in the unit, learners explore different concepts related to mining. Their study ranges from rock and mineral analysis to the environmental impact of dynamite and the chemical reaction...

Discuss how diseases have impacted human history. Divide your class into groups and assign each group one of the following: tuberculosis, malaria, plague, cholera, smallpox, and AIDS. They read up on, complete a concept map, and present...

Mythic heroes, gods and goddesses, and epic tales come alive as young artists craft their own graphic novel or mind map for classic epics, including The Odyssey, Beowulf, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, identifying the...

In this engaging activity involving close analysis of abstract expressionist art, your class members will not only discover more about artist Friz Scholder's Native American art, but they will also have the opportunity to consider...

Take advantage of this interdisciplinary resource and bring together topics in science, language arts, and math. Use characters and events from the story Tillena Lou's Big Adventure as a context for practicing addition and...

Guide your kindergartners to create memorable, colorful number lines that they will use throughout the school year. Using sentence strip and a black marker or card stock printed in a teachers font, create traceable numbers from 1 to 20...

Devote an hour to computer coding ... it's time well spent! The activity has young computer scientists write code to solve puzzles in the Minecraft game. They learn how to apply block codes and repeat loops.

Why is the end of a spoon hot when it's not all the way in the hot water? A great question deserves a great answer, and learners with visual impairments will use their auditory and tactile senses to get that answer. A talking...

Should the president of the United States be voted by the Electoral College or the popular vote? Your young historians will consider the pros and cons of the Electoral College, and make an argument using reasons and evidence...