Every successful climb of Mount Everest can be attributed to the assistance of the local Sherpas. A short, informative article explains the history behind the Sherpa's involvement in Mount Everest expeditions, the physiological reasons...

Scientific knowledge of genetic information has grown quickly over the last decade. An interactive lesson has learners research the role of science and medicine in diagnosing and treating genetic disorders. They consider the job of the...

High schoolers explore the overall strategies pursued by the Japanese and the Allies in the initial months of World War II. What each side hoped to accomplish what what actually happened forms the basis of a comparison made in this...

In September we celebrate Constitution Day. Begin the celebration with a grand conversation about the US Constitution. Follow up the in-depth discussion with a learning game in which scholars match terms to images such as...

Help promote a positive classroom environment with these six rainbow-colored class rules.  Create a corresponding contract with these rules and have each child/parent sign the contract at the beginning of the...

Students explore apartheid. In this South Africa lesson, students discover details regarding apartheid and determine how the black majority suffered under apartheid. Students discuss why the white minority leadership...

An evaporation investigation! This collection of slides walks future scientists through the process of setting up an experiment on how to speed up evaporation. The experiment is simple enough to use at the beginning of the school...

What will happen in Hatchet by Gary Paulsen? Kids read a series of possible events that will occur in the novel and mark whether they agree or disagree with the probability of each event happening.

Young scholars examine communist Russia. In this lesson on changes in politics, students work in small groups to compare and contrast soviet communist era citizen rights to those of the US. They participate in discussion of a film and...

In this irregular verbs instructional activity, students fill in the blanks with the correct form of the irregular verbs given. Students complete 13 short answer, 18 multiple choice, and 10 fill in the blank questions.

Students examine Afghanistan's contemporary history. In this global issues lesson, students research print and Internet sources about the Taliban and their control of the nation. Students share their findings with their classmates.

Learners research the life of a powerful woman of the Maya Empire. They analyze the role of women in Maya society and compare them to powerful women of today in an essay.

Students explore a portion of the Chinese Zodiac with projects centered around the year of the rabbit. Students research types of rabbits, actual and fictional. Working in groups, they create a written or multimedia presentation.

This online quiz may be used as a basic check for understanding, however most of the questions address unimportant factual information and require no higher-level thinking. Additionally, as anyone can make these online quizzes it may be...

Students listen to numerous claims concerning the hamburger's origins and then compose an original tall tale on the subject. Students name some tall tales they have heard or read about. Students make books that feature tall tales...

Have learners try their hands at an online quiz. There are 32 multiple choice questions all related to the three branches of the US government. Questions regarding US economics are also included. 

One of the reasons plants found success on land relates to seed development. Scholars learn about many different forms of seeds and how they changed over time. It describes the structure and function of many different types of seeds in...

Use text marking and highlighting to explore the structure of a poem. After listening to Allan Ahlberg read "Please Mrs. Butler," learners locate stanzas and patterns on their copy of the poem using the text marking technique. Class...

What child doesn't like trains? Use this fun idea to practice writing. Young readers learn to write complete sentences by using a train graphic organizer made out of construction paper. Each section of the train (engine, boxcar, and...

Why are rules so important? Just ask the main characters in the children's book Officer Buckle and Gloria. After a class read aloud, compare and contrast the safety tips mentioned in the story with your classroom rules, noting any...

A graph not only tells us who won the bike race, but also what happened during the race. Use this resource to help learners understand graphs. The commentary suggests waiting until the end of the year to introduce this topic, but why...

This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...

Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...

"I can" statements are a great way to break down the discrete skills within a set of standards for young learners. Included here are the Common Core standards for second grade speaking and listening broken down into a check list of "I...