After completing S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, eighth graders compose a personal letter to their teacher detailing what they liked about the novel and the activities assigned during the course of the unit. A clever way to get feedback,...

Students identify and label acute, obtuse, and right angles within a picture. Using Kid Pix software and digital photos, they manipulate, identify, and label the angles and describe the angles to a classmate.

In addition to the catchy title, this lesson plan provides upper graders an opportunity to more closely scrutinize the attributes of plane figures. In particular, they focus on the similarity of different shapes. Both whole-class and...

Ninth graders examine the causes and major events of the Cold War. They listen to a lecture and fill in the blanks on a handout, and in two groups develop a proposal to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Alegebra amateurs identify the slope and the y-intercept given a linear equation in slope-intercept form by correctly completing some in class problems. They write the linear equation in slope-intercept form that corresponds to the given...

Have you ever saved your money to buy something you really wanted? Elementary schoolers share how they saved their money for things they wanted, and they bring in one or two items that they bought with their personal savings.

This outlines steps for reviewing chapters 9-12 of The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman. Small groups read the chapters together and then clarify any confusing parts. The class compares 2 different letters to determine which is better...

Seventh graders write a few sentences explaining the most important events of their lives during the past year. As a class, they discuss why they chose the elements they did for their sentences. To end the lesson plan, they read a...

Eighth graders label and define geometrical lines and angles. They identify angles on the board as acute, obtuse, straight, or right. In groups, 8th graders build with masking tape on the wall a pair of parallel lines, and a transverse...

Sixth graders are able to identify personal pronouns and understand their function. They are able to use personal pronouns correctly as subjects and objects in sentences. Then they look at sentences given by the teacher, and they list...

Explore indirect and direct characterization and review rules of punctuation. After a review, middle schoolers complete a short worksheet, labeling sentences as an example of a direct or indirect characterization. In groups, they play a...

Engaging and fun, this lesson is a good way to reinforce context clues with this lesson, in which middle schoolers investigate literary puzzles. They apply critical thinking skills to codes in order to solve them. They use a variety of...

This is a week-long lesson on analyzing the similarities and differences between sources of tension and terrorism in eight locations around the world. The class is divided into eight groups and assigned one of the locations to research....

Students practice their multiplication facts by reinforcement and repetition. Students write facts in their math journals, and use labeled soccer ball and deck of cards to practice multiplying by "number of the day." Play continues until...

Dedicate one or two class periods to creating a class glossary of geometry terms. Many geometry terms also appear in our every day vocabulary, but they have very different meanings. For example, the word gross in geometry is very...

Help your young writers recognize the importance of composing formal letters. Middle schoolers read letters written by Thomas Jefferson and analyze the components that make it a formal letter.  They will then compose their own...

After choosing a figure from Greek mythology, middle schoolers design, draw, and color a constellation to represent that person.  Additionally, they create a story to tell how the constellation came to be. This lesson plan is a...

First graders discuss what compound words are and what they look like as a whole group.  In this compound words instructional activity, learnerseach have a single word card and pair up with another student to create a compound word....

Everyone wants to be part of a royal family. Let your pupils experience the privilege of royalty by rewriting the story The Frog Prince from the point of view of the princess. While the story line remains the same, perspective is bound...

Scholars will compare fractions using objects and pictures. They view pre-made pictures and concrete objects of fractions. Then use small white boards to draw pictorial representations of fractions.

Readers explore rhyming words. They will use the story The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs to identify rhyming words. Then they will create their own lists of rhyming words. In the end, they will be able to come up with words that rhyme...

Here is a quick 15 minute lesson intended to introduce subtraction. Learners count and subtract gummy bears to complete 5 problems. The lessons suggest that the gummy bears can be saved and used the next day, but gummy bears get gross...

What is a Hoosier? 4th graders will identify sayings/expressions to reflect a region or culture. They will research Indiana history to work in groups to prepare for the annual 4th grade program where they will present the information...

First graders identify heroes by researching their family history. In this personal heritage lesson plan, 1st graders define the term "hero" and the characteristics that represent it. Students research family resources and family trees...