Urban development and habitat retention are often at odds. A three-part lesson examines the pros and cons of forest clearcutting. Learners review data and characteristics of a specific mammal to make conclusions about the effect...

Family and Friends is the theme of a unit offering extra support lessons. Follow each lesson plan's teach, blend, guided practice or practice/apply routine to reinforce concepts such as clusters, responding to reading, drawing...

Introduce expository writing with a unit that asks writers to craft an essay to explain a belief, value, or priority that is important to them. Mini-lessons within the unit focus on crafting thesis statements and conclusions, selecting...

Statistics come front and center in this unit all about analyzing discrete data. Real-world situations yield data sets that the class then uses to tease out connections and conclusions. Beginning with the basic histogram and...

Not all energy sources are renewable, as learners investigate in this unit. Made up of six lessons that span a few weeks of instruction, the unit has learners examining US energy reserves and consumption, using data to draw conclusions...

Learners make predictions and draw conclusions from given information as they learn the meaning of probability in this vocabulary-rich, integrated activity that presents a variety of teaching strategies to motivate and reach...

An engaging unit on wildfires includes three sections, including a background section with eight lessons and five activities, a field experience section with 13 lessons and five activities, and a conclusion section featuring an...

All the tools (and directions) you’ll need  to build an essay are included in a resource designed for learners and educators. The packet can be given to class members or divided into sections and used as part of a series of lesson...

Starting with similar triangles and dilation factors, this unit quickly and thoroughly progresses into the world of right triangle features and trigonometric relationships. Presented in easy-to-attack modules with copious application...

Probability, especially conditional probability, can be a slippery concept for young statisticians.  Statements that seem self-evident on the surface often require a daunting amount of calculations to explicate, or turn out to be...

Natural human interest in patterns and algebraic study of function notation are linked in this introductory unit on the properties of sequences. Once presented with a pattern or situation, the class works through how to justify...

Young seismologists learn more about plate tectonics with a set of pre-lab, lab, and post-lab lessons plans on earthquakes. After exploring how waves travel through various materials, sixth graders record their observations and...

Does the number of calories you eat affect the total time you sleep? Young mathematicians tackle this question by collecting their own data and making comparisons between others in the class through building scatter plots and regression...

Should you trust the water you drink every day? The hands-on activity has scholars test water from different sources for contaminants. Pupils perform chemical testing and make conclusions about pH, hardness, iron, chlorine, lead,...

How does a nation turn into a global superpower? The 16th installment of the 22-part series on American history investigates the rise of the United States to global importance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Groups...

The conclusion of the American Revolution brought about a new conflict—choosing the stye of government for the newly formed United States. Using the views of both Federalists and Anti-Federalists, learners work in pairs and groups to...

How far back is 40,000 years? Scholars research the first indigenous people in Aboriginal Australia. Using museum artifacts, maps, and background readings, they form conclusions on the life of the first Australians and their struggles to...

What exactly are those glowing eyes in the night? Learners run an experiment to attract local wildlife and then document the number of visitors by identifying their tracks. They then analyze the data to draw conclusions about the types...

Scientists use data to learn about species survival—and your classes can too! A set of four lessons guides learners through a process to draw conclusions about the fluctuations in the population of the Hellbender species. They read...

For kids who have already mastered the basic concepts in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on amazing animals, here's a packet of enrichment activities sure to provide food for fertile minds. 

Whether democracy will ever take hold in Islamic nations continues to be a topic of great debate. Here, a series of questions, research, and discussion provide a foundation for class members to come to their own conclusion which they...

A unit focuses on second-grade skills, specifically spelling, grammar, writing, and reading. Over six weeks, scholars review spelling patterns and tricky words, and explore verb tenses, adjectives, subjects, and predicates. They write...

Down on the Farm is the theme of this series of ESL lessons designed to support reading, speaking, and listening skills. Over three weeks, your learners will have the opportunity to sing songs, play guessing games, create masks,...

Introduce fourth graders to poetry with a three-week unit that has them examine the structural elements of poetry, analyze poems, and craft their own original poems rich in sensory details and other poetic devices. Young scholars study...