A new school year means building relationships with a new group of interesting, unique young children. Get the process started with this simple survey that asks for students' basic information as well as their favorite subject,...

This resource provides an explanation of NASA's GALEX mission and how the space-based telescope can view distant galaxies as they were billions of years ago. The resource also discusses the other aspects of galaxies that GALEX...

Young scholars create a new project. They are told that the Garage Band is a program that comes on Macintosh computers. Students are told that they project doesn't matter what tempo or key if they are recording live music. They go back...

Consider the effects of green transportation. In this environmental stewardship lesson, determine how transportation has changed throughout history and then collaborate to solve New York City transportation issues.

This is an awesome resource for any elementary or middle school teacher about to start a new school year! This resource includes an extensive list of activities for introducing the members of your class to each other. Some of the ideas...

Students listen to the legend, Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back. They create a new moon for the calendar based on this natural part of everyday life in the seasons. They illustrate it under the story using water color paints.

Bring current events into your classroom! Middle schoolers complete word work activities before reading and discussing an online article. They complete worksheets and an online quiz. They discuss the Solar Sail as radical new idea and...

This writing prompt spans nine slides and encourages learners to discuss or write about how they feel about moving on to 5th grade. It is a great way to engage self-assessment, reflection, personal motivation, and fluid writing skills.

Japanese Internment and World war II are the focus of a KWHL strategy used to scaffold for a reading of Journey to Topaz,  Yoshiko Uchida's story of 11-year-old Yuki Sakane and her family. Complete directions for the activity...

It's sometimes the simple games that really grab a learner's attention. With this game-like app, young mathematicians can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. When they reach new high scores, they collect...

Examine the Great Depression with your pupils. First you'll discuss the causes of the Great Depression, such as the stock market crash of 1929. Then, you'll examine key facts, like the Dust Bowl, the New Deal, and economic recovery.

Create an online poster, or Glogster, with your class to promote Ray Bradbury's novel Dandelion Wine. This activity can be done at any time in the novel, although the directions suggest waiting until your readers near the end so...

Students combine imaginative powers with known map-making techniques to create a whole new world.

Students pretend to be citizens of a new space colony and have been elected to the Intergalactic Senate to consider adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. They break into groups and discuss what seems unfair and fair about the...

A periodic table of elements displays the elements in groups ordered by when they were discovered. Click-by-click, new elements are added, resulting in an almost up-to-date chart. In order to reinforce the idea that symbols are used in...

Help your learners attain vocabulary and practice reading comprehension with this cloze activity. Created by The Learning Network, this resource provides a New York Times article with the words already removed. Pupils can fill in the...

Here is a instructional activity designed to be an ongoing task for the entire year. Each day of the week, learners must perform research to answer a simple historical question. This particular instructional activity covers the month of...

Young scholars select a short story and apply various literary elements they have used throughout the year. They deconstruct a short story according to plot, setting, characterization, and theme. Students create a PowerPoint.

In this letter worksheet, students write a letter to Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society. Students describe what animal problems they would like to see the HSUS focus on in the next 50 years.

Three experiments involving pennies help young chemists see the chemical reactions between copper and other elements. The first experiment is rhetorical (it prompts students to leave a bright penny out for a year) but the second two...

For this Napier's Ancestor worksheet, students complete a chart using the family tree as a guide. Student figure out how many years are in a generation as well as the number of relatives in each.

Does your school compete in a spelling bee? Do you want your seventh graders to learn challenging new words? Here's a list of 100 words to prepare your kids for the National Spelling Bee. Since the words are from the 2010-2011 school...

Support scholars' ability to write complex sentences with a two-page instructional activity designed to inform and reinforce. Here, learners obtain a brief overview of what a complex sentence is and how one is made; then apply their...

Here is a brain-popper! Corn, or more appropriately, maize, was intentionally domesticated by humans around 9,000 years ago and over a period of hundreds to thousands of years! Genetics and botany researchers have collaborated to find...