The Harlem Renaissance if the focus of a carefully crafted, interdisciplinary unit designed to introduce middle schoolers to the contributions key figures made to American art and culture during the period. Class members select...

As a reading comprehension exercise, kids examine a short article on the apprentice system, and then use information found in the text to respond to a series of comprehension questions.

The beginning, a very good place to start, is also a very difficult thing to craft. Provide your writers with this handout that identifies, and provides examples of, six different types of narrative leads.

Chris McCandless's life, adventures, and untimely death is the subject of Jon Krakauer's nonfiction work, Into the Wild. A thorough crossword puzzle includes quotes, characters, and key details from the book as clues.

“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...

After reading Loree Leedy's There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, kids create and illustrate their own poems that convey the meaning of an idiom. The poems are then transferred into Shutterfly's Photo...

Need some ideas for poetry lessons? Check out this packet loaded with suggestions for elementary, middle, and high school writers.

Sensory details can enhance the reading experience, especially during a guided imagery reading. Young readers close their eyes and listen to a passage from Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons before responding to discussion questions and...

Wrapping presents, singing Christmas carols, writing Christmas cards and learning holiday vocabulary are all wrapped into this one exciting ESL lesson.

Double the enjoyment of the Scottish play with a crossword puzzle based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. The activity tasks readers to identify characters and events and to fill in the missing words from Shakespeare's tragedy about the...

Emotional appeal or argument? That is the question. An informative instructional activity helps your class recognize the difference between a logical argument and an emotional appeal and learn how to craft an argumentative response....

Students create Maracas out of various supplies while learning about percussion instruments in this Art and Music lesson for the elementary and middle level classroom. Detailed directions for two different methods are given.

Students create homes for fairytale characters. In this early childhood lesson plan, students develop literacy, language, and problem-solving concepts as they create block structures related to specific fairy tales.

Explore the human body through hands-on activities. Young learners will trace their bodies and place cut out body organs in the proper place, print patterns using cut fruit, sing songs about good nutrition, and use their five senses...

Students create a Mayflower craft object. In this visual arts lesson, students cut out sails and waves from construction paper and glue Popsicle sticks to the sails.

Students create "Harp" pictures using harp shapes, shoe box lids, paints, old sheet music, and inspiration from Harp music in this inter-disciplinary Art and Music lesson for the elementary classroom. Resource links are included for...

Learners, in groups, analyze the characterization of Shakespeare's Shylock from "Merchant of Venice". They examine text, view movies and interpretative drawings and conduct historical research.

Students investigate ways to save our environment by creating a recycled product.  In this sustainable materials lesson, students create a magazine holder by recycling a large cardboard box and gift wrap or wallpaper.  Students...

In this online/interactive Halloween worksheet, students view and listen to the "Five Little Pumpkins" video to fill in the blanks to complete sentences, use picture clues to unscramble words about Halloween, match sentences and...

Students explore U.S. history by reading biographical material in class. In this Benjamin Franklin instructional activity, students identify the life of Franklin and the events that led him to become one of America's first heroes....

In this comprehension check worksheet, young scholars define 3 vocabulary words, define 2 literary terms, and respond to 10 short answer questions pertaining to chapter 10 of A Separate Peace by John Knowles in order to help them better...

Think beyond the animals and habitats we've already discovered and allow scholars to dream up their very own habitat and an animal that lives there. Class members present the new habitat and animal on a poster alongside an...

Young engineers turn poets with a hands-on activity that challenges them to apply the concept of rhythm to crafting a poem.

Students listen to the book "Zigzag" by Robert D. San Souci, and examine the concepts of friendship, respect, and determination. They answer story comprehension questions, then create a fabric doll using the shapes from the book.