Students, after reading and analyzing Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell," explore and focus on the author's tone and genre analysis. They interpret different rhetorical situations as they...

Learners design a boat model with simplified steam engine. In this ecology lesson, students compare renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. They determine the efficiency of their boat model.

Learners create a symbol to represent their classroom community. In this community lesson plan, students discuss what their classroom community is like and create symbols in groups to present to the rest of the class.

Students explore services in their community. In this community services lesson, students discuss community services and work in teams to list the jobs within the service. Students may also shadow a worker from that community service area.

Young scholars examine the concept of giving. In this gifts and talents lesson, students read a story about giving one's talents in Native American culture. Young scholars analyze their own special gifts or talents and paint a picture...

Young scholars complete a service learning project to raise money for Relay for Life. In this service learning lesson, students discuss installation art and watch a video about Pepon Osorio. Young scholars review articles about service...

Discover how innovations can help your school and community. In the three-part STEM lesson, scholars learn the meaning of innovation and brainstorm innovations in their schools. They identify issues in their communities and think of...

Young community members explore philanthropic foundations. They discuss the work of community foundations, and then they listen to a guest speaker describe the vision and activities of a local foundation. Is there a way they can join the...

Besides serving as awe-inspiring monuments of human achievement, skyscrapers are built to perform a wide range of functions in urban communities. The second lesson in this series begins by exploring the history of the Empire State...

Students use a monochromatic palate, select shades and tints for a selected hue, or select complimentary or analogous colors for a quilt design. They design quilt squares using basic geometric shapes, repetition, balance, and proportion.

An interesting resource addresses the role of youth in civic participation and community events. It also explains the role of the justice system in creating boundaries and how citizens play a part in the judicial process.  Pupils...

Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks students to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible functions...

Fifth graders use modern technologies which allow them to gain a new, dynamic, and intersting understanding of themselves, their community, and the world. They focus on environmental education and the effect of the environment on plant...

Have your class analyze the narrative art in quilts. They identify elements in this domestic art and the stories they tell. They define a story quilt, view an example, and analyze the work of Harriet Power. This is a great activity to...

The tale of "Lon Po Po" is a Chinese story, very similar to the European tale of "Little Red Riding Hood." Learners make cross cultural comparisons between the two tales, focusing on themes common to both. They review story elements such...

Reading fairy tales is so much fun! Learners use dramatic play to assist them in defining and expressing the main theme found in the story of Cinderella. Each group is given a story card and will create a tableau based on the main point...

You can mix almost any subject with an arts curriculum. Find out how to use drama to find the main idea of a literary text. You'll read a story, and then learners will make tableaus showing what happened, or what they think will happen...

Get the word out about friendship, support, and a safe school community with a media literacy lesson about bullying. Young journalists investigate instances of bullying and take descriptive pictures as they compile a magazine to fight...

Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson...

Who says learning grammar can't be fun? Focusing on commonly used irregular verbs, this pair of card games helps young grammarians learn different tenses for verbs that fail to follow the regular rules of conjugation.

Recovery from substance addiction is an ongoing process. The final lesson in a series about painkiller abuse and addiction prompts learners to research various recovery options before writing a short story about a character who is going...

Here's a really cute lesson plan that utilizes all of your children's teddy bears. Each pupil brings their favorite teddy bear to school. The lesson plan has many wonderful suggestions for learning activities that can be done with the...

Demonstrate gift giving as an act of caring about someone versus gifts for show (or gifts from the purse). Elementary learners practice giving gifts from the heart by creating a poem for someone special to them.