The phonemic awareness activities in this packet are designed to help kids develop skills in rhyming, syllabication, blending onsets and rimes, and beginning and ending sounds. Well worth a place in your curriculum library.

Students explore folk art and tradition. They work in small groups and produce an essay about folk art or traditions practiced in their community. Students discuss the creation and preservation of a tradition. They discuss various...

Students determine ways of conserving water and write a Big Book about them. In this water conservation lesson, students participate in a puppet show about Drip and Drop, and ways to conserve water. They write a book that tells about...

Consider the role that shari'ah played in the development of Muslim civilization during the Abbasid caliphate. Learners become acquainted with both the religious and scholarly basis of Islamic law to help them understand the differences...

Drama and story elements go hand-in-hand. Have the class dive into a dramatic play to show character intention, conflict resolution, main events, and the dialogue in a Hawaiian folk tale. They read the story, then group-up to...

Shed light on the beauty of language with a great poetry activity. After learning about Austin Kleon's blackout poetry model, pupils respond to some of his poetry and use it as a model to produce their own. Young writers also share their...

Students recognize injustice in the world. For this social justice lesson, students discuss the responsibility they have to be advocates for justice and kindness and identify a time when they felt they were treated unfairly.

Students discuss attitudes toward different sexual orientations and how to recognize and combat homophobia and discrimination in their own lives, schools, and communities.

Elizabeth Peyton is an artist who creates images of people (often famous) that she doesn't personally know. These images become part of her imagined community. Learners analyze her work, her community of imagined friends, and then create...

Summer slide. Alas, not a term synonymous with a type of sliding board, summer slide refers to the fact that learning slips during summer break, especially in the areas of spelling and math facts. Enrich summer break with a...

Take note. Soul music. Gospel music. Country music. Summer comes alive with the sounds of music as program participants learn about various genres of music, create instruments, and write and perform songs about the facts and traditions...

The first of a three-part series on bullying, this plan has class members present skits about bullying, write and sign an anti-bullying pledge, and complete a service project. For the skit, learners use information from previous lessons...

This is a great way to build community in your school, experience process-based art, and explore the critical-thinking process. While quilting as a class collectively (just like a quilting bee) pupils listen to poetry and prose of a...

Whose responsibility is it to improve schools in developing countries? How does quality education affect my neighborhood? Questions of responsibility, whether global or local, form the heart of this lesson. Using the UN’s Millennium...

Sand mandalas are transitory art forms that are created by a group for the purpose of healing. Upper graders learn how Tibetan monks create these amazing works of art, and study symbolism and metaphor. Then pupils work together in a...

Students participate in an interview of a school employee. In this interview lesson, students develop appropriate interview questions and carry out an interview of a school employee to show that all jobs well done is worthy of respect....

Inspire your class to look at their environments as if they were seeing them for the first time in order to gain a better understanding of the concept of perspective. After exploring their communities and keeping a journal of major...

Clara becomes Marie, The Mouse King becomes a rat, and the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh becomes the setting for a modern interpretation of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. Intended as a resource guide for a 2012 performance, the...

Your high schoolers will examine the community in which they live and discuss with the class. Using the Internet, they identify the importance of African-American art and how it relates to the African-American culture. Individually, they...

Have your older students assist young children with writing in this community service and literacy lesson. Middle schoolers become partners with a local elementary school. They assist the grade school children in writing a pattern book...

Review the components of a well-written paragraph with your class. Be sure your writers include a topic sentence supported with main ideas and followed by a conclusion. Unity, coherence, and transition words are emphasized. Experiment...

Some words leave a lasting impact. After reading paragraph 11 of the text "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," scholars closely examine how Du Bois describes the impact prejudice left on the African American community. They discuss the...

Have your learners use their surroundings as inspiration for an art project. Class members first examine and discuss art. They then choose an area and spend five days taking down observations in written and sketch form. These...

Second graders complete a variety of activities related to the book "The Clever Monkey" by Rob Cleveland. They answer story comprehension questions, and rewrite the story. Students also complete a comprehension and fact or opinion...