What is meant by the phrase "form follows function?" Allow your budding biologists to discover first-hand through two activities. In the first, groups work together to discover whether a solid cylinder or an empty cylinder can support...

And they're off! Working in pairs, young mathematicians roll dice to see who can fill in their double ten-frames first. When students finally fill in their arrays, they create addition number sentences that represent their rolls, helping...

Your task today: count all the trees on a tree farm. To complete the assignment, learners first estimate the number of trees on a tree farm using random sampling. To improve their own response they then evaluate provided...

Presenting ... the gold standard for a instructional activity. Learners first investigate a task maximizing the area of a plot for gold prospecting. They then examine a set of sample student responses to evaluate their strengths and...

Our teacher told us the formula had one-third, but why? Using manipulatives, classmates try to explain the volume formula for a pyramid. After constructing a cube with six congruent pyramids, pupils use scaling principles from...

Multiplication in polar form is nice and neat—that is not the case for coordinate representation. Multiplication by a complex number results in a dilation and a rotation in the plane. The formulas to show the dilation and rotation are...

Prove that an equation in slope-intercept form names only one line. At the beginning, the teacher leads the class through a proof that there is only one line passing through a given point with a given slope using contradiction. The 19th...

Use the value of a ratio to set up equations. The teacher leads a discussion on determining equations from ratio tables in the 13th portion of a 29-part series. Pupils determine which of two equations to use to find the solution....

When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...

Role sheets clearly define expectations of all group members in this introduction to literature circles. By using a variety of picture books or short texts, readers can practice roles while the teacher circulates to each group observing...

Improve high schoolers' public speaking with an engaging activity. Class members select three personally relevant quotes from a list. They then write a short speech for each quote, explaining how the quotes are personally relevant....

Learners practice their number sense throughout the day. They practice their use and understanding of numbers in every part of the day. Students watch and listen to the teacher count students in class, sort themselves based on colors or...

Lead your class through a writing exercise that explores personification. After listening to the teacher read a poem that personifies the sky, they go step by step through the writing their own personification poems.

Toss the ball! Help readers listen for the number of syllables in a word. They play an interactive ball game where they toss the ball to a peer and state a word using the number of syllables called out by the teacher. This is a great...

Have your class use the life of a quarter to understand and design plot and flow charts. They read the book, The Go-Around Dollar, think about how their teacher got her quarters that day, then create a flow chart. They have to show how...

Should Charlie undergo an operation to increase his intelligence? A mini-lesson for a unit on Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon uses a RAFT activity, which prompts learners to write a letter to Charlie's doctors explaining why they...

Elementary schoolers learn about young John F. Kennedy. After a teacher-led discussion about his high school years, pupils examine a photograph of Kennedy and four of his friends taken on the grounds of the Choate School in Connecticut....

First graders recognize the variations of tempo in music as it changes. They repeat movements, define tempo and distinguish between fast and slow tempo while playing a teacher led game.

Students listen to a book read to them by their teacher and express the amount of money stated with their manipulative of play money and show different ways to express that amount of money.

Good reading practices can start at any age. Early readers work with the teacher to read a short story about a bear. First, they identify basic text features, such as the title, author, and illustrator. Then, they answer several simple...

Fourth graders witness cloud formation in a jar during a teacher lead simulation. They research, draw and predict weather using information they gather about clouds.

Students listen to facts about dental health and watch a tooth brushing and flossing demonstration by the teacher.

This lesson plan is more of a series of tips for you, the teacher, to implement when standardized testing comes around. The strongest component of this guide is that it invites the teacher to reflect on what worked the best, and what...

Pupils play a card game where they match the meaning of the word to the word or its prefix/suffix. They listen for the teacher to call out the definition and, with two players facing off, the first one to slap the correct card wins! Kids...