Agnes Varda’s autobiographical “The Beaches of Agnes,” models for young filmmakers the cinematic self-portrait. Far from “old and plump,” Varda is a giant of filmmaking and will inspire your pupils. After watching a clip of this famous...

Whether you are viewing a landscape painting of a farm, examining a still-life portrait of a bowl of fruit, or reading a descriptive poem about cultivating food, you can't deny that agriculture plays a major role in visual and language...

The role of women in the early film industry, both on screen and behind the scenes, is the focus of a resource that asks class members to analyze movie posters and DVD covers from the 1910s and 1920s. Using examples drawn from the...

In this The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman instructional activity, students discuss the importance of the editor's introduction, Tee Bob's death, and Albert Cluveau. Students then analyze the importance of names, Jane's conversion...

Combine measurement, following directions, physics, and art with one fun activity. Learners read a set of instruction to create three different kinds of paper airplanes. They measure, fold, and fly the planes, and record data and answer...

Study the beauty of the landscape around you with an innovative art lesson. After discussing the foreground, background, and middle ground of landscape art, kids work on making their own piece of landscape art. The lesson provides...

Your class experiences dozens of messages about beauty every day by reading magazines, watching movies, and listening to the radio. Have them analyze society's view of beauty in groups after discussing several resources, including...

Students make a tree sculpture. In this trees and the environment lesson, students learn about the parts of a tree, discuss what a tree needs in order to grow, find images of trees in art and nature, use various materials to create a...

Students consider the notion of beauty and what impact the media and popular culture have on it. In this cross curricular lesson, students examine print ads, write down and share their thoughts on them. Then students form literary groups...

Help your charges investigate visual art by identifying sounds that are associated with the images. They view art galleries online and discuss which sounds would be present if the image was a real life situation. Additionally, they...

Students create a mixed media collage. For this visual arts lesson, students look at the work of Jane Ash Poitras. They create their own collage that shows their personal and collective history and experiences. 

Students create an airship that doesn't use fossil fuel. In this flying lesson, students research different types of flying machines that only use wind power. They discuss invention designs by Alexander Graham Bell and Leonardo Da Vinci...

Students observe how bird flight and machine flight are similar. In this aerodynamics activity, students observe how birds fly and the shapes of their wings, and investigate how observing birds helped develop the concept of machine...

Students investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class.  In this history of flight lesson, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....

Learners investigate air pressure by researching parachutes.  In this physics lesson plan, students participate in three separate experiments utilizing air pressure and paper products to test theories on parachutes.  Learners...

Students investigate cultural art from Canada by reading about Maud Lewis.  In this Canadian history lesson, students identify the work of Lewis by visiting her magazine website.  Students identify other heroes in Nova Scotia...

Students research the tetrahedral kites invented by Alexander Graham Bell. In this components of flight lesson, students examine the kites made by Bell and his team. Students create their own kite and add them together as a class to...

In this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Mother Teresa. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, grammar, to spelling.

Start your engines! Small groups collect data from websites pertaining to the Indianapolis 500 in order to determine average speed per lap and miles in each lap. The lesson requires prior knowledge of the the formula d=rt.

Young scholars investigate the June 2004 Transit of Venus, write a screen play, and produce a movie or animation of the transit including a narration. The difference between storytelling and storyboarding is made clear in this lesson.

Take an in-depth look at nutrient loading, eutrophication, and hypoxia using data on The Chesapeake Bay as an example. This comprehensive presentation includes detailed graphs, photos, and details about the changes in marine organism...

Visual arts lessons don't always mean the children need to make art. Here, they will practice using their visual literacy skills to analyze four images through the compare and contrast method. The first two images deal with gender...

Thinking of creating a Professional Learning Community in your school? Here's a list of organizations and educational researchers who endorse PLC concepts.

Sherman Alexie's coming-of-age social commentary is the focus of a review worksheet. Learners use clues from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to complete a crossword puzzle about the novel.