Let's heat things up! This simple experiment demonstrates for students the important role the sun plays in providing the earth with energy. Place one cup of water in direct sunlight and one in shade, then take measurements in order to...

A novel study examines The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller. Fifth graders participate in daily readings, discussions, and assignments following an "ask, explore, imagine, observe, and understand" routine. A final performance...

Here is a fabulous presentation that combines math and literature. Learners construct bar charts and frequency charts about things that happen in Narnia. Student pairs are assigned tasks regarding the variety of characters found in the...

It's amazing the complex figures that can be made using only a few simple shapes. Following a class reading of the children's book Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, young mathematicians use sets of tangrams to create models...

Different types of community helpers are the focus of this sociology activity. Learners read the book Community Helpers from A to Z, choose a community helper to focus on, complete a graphic organizer, draw a picture of their helper, and...

The class reads the book Heckedy Peg. Stopping to point out the prepositional phrases, the teacher models and guides the young scholars to deeper comprehension. Small groups collaborate to read A Sweet Smell of Roses. They thenfind the...

Here is an inventive, and educationally rich way to conduct a literature study of the book, The Midwife's Apprentice. After the book has been read, learners get into three groups. One group is assigned the task of being the writers....

Students read one of the following books: Minn of the Mississippi, Paddle-to-the-Sea, or Seabird, all by Holling C. Holling, and identify the five themes of geography as well as make a literature journal with chapter field notes. They...

What do a girl in foster care and a 91-year-old widow have in common? A crossword puzzle related to Orphan Train highlights some of the similarities the two characters share in the book. The puzzle pulls out key details from the novel to...

In this reading worksheet, students answer 10 multiple-choice questions about the book. For example, "Who took Hermione to the Yule Ball?"

Double negatives are a no-no in the English language, yet you hear people using them all the time. "I ain't got no pencils," is a classic example. This presentation addresses double negatives, and teaches learners how to avoid this...

Help mathematicians see that a formula found in a physics book has an algebraic structure. Though the formula given in the resource looks complicated, learners are to break down the expressions and interpret each part separately....

Because World War II encompassed most of the globe in one way or another, many pivotal battles and events are not as visible in the history books, leaving veterans of these conflicts feeling overlooked by more famous skirmishes. High...

For the final step of the performance task for this unit, class members will create an illustration to go with the paragraph on their bookmark. After looking at models, guide pupils toward recognizing the criteria for an effective...

How do core values and identity contribute to citizenship and leadership? After engaging in a series of activities that explore core values, writers craft a children’s story that focuses on one value. They arrange to read their story to...

One of the big challenges of assigning independent reading is helping class members find a book to read. Another is encouraging readers to read a variety of genres. Never fear, help is here in the form of a quest that asks individuals to...

Using everything they have learned about writing paragraphs over the past few lessons of the unit, class members compose an informative paragraph independently. This is an authentic assessment of their ability, since learners have...

Students participate in a shared writing experience about rice. For this writing lesson, students listen to  Norah Dooley's, Everybody Cooks Rice. They write about, and discuss different ways their families and those in the book use...

What a fun way to practice counting for youngsters! Especially effective for kinesthetic and visual learners, this activity has scholars stacking "books" on a "bookshelf." Templates are provided for the bookshelves and books; consider...

Art projects are great ways to stimulate all the senses. Learners with visual impairments create art to better grasp the concept of day and night. They'll discuss the ways they know the difference in the time of day, the animals that are...

Put on an eight-actor show based on Pan Munoz Ryan's When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson. The resource comes with a color-coded script that includes some images from the picture book.

Engaged learners discover how an owl beak works and how animals adapt to their environment. This task is part one of a three-part series. 

Thomas Jefferson lived a controversial life. A series of lesson plans shares information about Jefferson's Sons, a novel about the infamous founding father. Discussion questions and other tasks explore different points of view and cover...

Focusing on Doppo's "Unforgettable People" and late nineteenth century Japanese literature, this resource also leads to discussions of form being dictated by content. Explore the development of new literary styles first-hand by...