Help your class participate in hands-on activities to get them back into the swing of going to school everyday. This list is designed for all grade levels with unique ideas for each (note that many ideas are geared for elementary, but...

Students work in pairs to out act and then retell a story.  In this personal experience lesson, students act out an event in their life and their partner retells the story. Students discuss sequence of events and dialogue. Students...

Third graders describe emotions/ feelings which may lead to loss of self-control, introduce the concept of consequences and alternative choices.

First graders assist in making a list of the many things that Brown Bear saw in the story. They create an illustration of the person, place, or thing that they wrote about in their pattern sentence.

Introduce rhythmic beat and melodic beat with a upbeat activity that asks young musicians to clap the beat to their favorite nursery rhyme. To introduce the rest beat, class members use small drums or other percussion instruments to play...

Students associate a hydria with Greek myths. In this Greek art and mythology lesson, students examine a scene on a hydria, then choose a Greek myth to illustrate on their own painting.

Students investigate primary and secondary colors. In this art lesson, students mix primary paint colors to develop secondary colors. Students identify each color they created.

Students analyze a scene depicting Herakles and the Hydra. In this Greek art lesson, students read Greek myths and choose one scene from a myth to illustrate. Students use tempera paint and a scratch technique using a wooden...

Young scholars examine artwork and create their own.  In this writing and illustrating instructional activity, students view illuminated letters from the Getty Museum's collection and discuss art vocabulary.  Young scholars...

Students pair up and talk about a story, plot, or incident they are working on in writing workshop. Ask the listener to note when his interest is piqued and to share those moments with the storyteller. Those points of intrigue are all...

Students run to the chalk board to spell a given word, pick up a basketball, dribble to the hoop and make one shot, run the basketball back to their starting place to score points for their team.

Third graders stand with letter cards to spell words given by the teacher. A quick time-filler game to practice spelling words.

Fifth graders use technology to research and collect data. They develop awareness and appreciation of authors and genres. They organize information for presentation.

First graders indicate the silent beats (rests) with an outward motion of the arms. They indicate a measure clapped out with a quarter rest, and a measure clapped out without a quarter rest.

Students determine that a quest is central to many folk stories. They name stories from their own literary traditions that involve quests and write their own, incorporating a quest. They design a board game that illustrates the czar's...

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 examine how to speak respectfully and in an encouraging manner to one another.

Children bring in a toy, favorite or otherwise, and describe it using adjectives and adverbs. They fold a piece of paper into two columns, and list the adjectives on one side, and the adverbs on the other.

Second graders observe and describe the similarities and differences in the African Mask exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum. They use describing words to express the feelings of the masks.

Students write stories, print hard copies, and use the GarageBand program to add music and record the narrations. A handout to download, of instructions is included in this early-elementary lesson.

Learners learn the history of Thanksgiving and Columbus Day, and they also create a "New World" mural in small groups.

O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is the classic example of irony in literature. Teach young writers about the ways irony can engage their readers with an activity in which they write scripts using dramatic irony, situational irony, and...

Elementary schoolers create a mosaic project. This simple art instructional activity produces big results! The tile mosaics are beautiful, and will be cherished by the young artists who create them, and their parents. These are the kind...

Young scholars create Inspiration webs using graphics or photographs that depict high and low points in their lives. This technology-based Language Arts lesson for the upper-elementary or middle-level classroom is excellent for improving...