When Europeans first came back with tales of China, they provided vivid written accounts and minimal visual imput. This resulted in art rendered mostly from descriptive language. Learners explore this phenomena by listening to...

Delve into the journey of Lewis and Clark using this instructional activity on Missouri. After sharing books on Lewis and Clark's journey across the United States, pupils discuss the descriptive language used in their writing, and come...

Even though this is technically an art lesson, haiku poetry is actually the main focus! Learners view photographs of Japanese tea caddies. They list five descriptive words for the caddies, then write haiku poems using the caddies as...

Whether you are viewing a landscape painting of a farm, examining a still-life portrait of a bowl of fruit, or reading a descriptive poem about cultivating food, you can't deny that agriculture plays a major role in visual and language...

Expand your class's vision of the French-speaking world by conducting this research project. Pupils focus on building 21st-century skills while they look up information about a French country and put together presentations.

Young journalists write diary entries from the point of view of a person involved in a historical event. They focus on including facts, clear narration, and accurate description of the individual's feelings. 

Young scholars practice descriptive language when one student describes an object to another student who cannot see it. They guess what the object is and relate the experience to that of the Lewis and Clark expeditionary journals.

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this instructional activity prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct...

Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...

Teach English language learners about the week-long holiday of Kwanzaa that is celebrated around the world during December. It includes holiday-themed reading comprehension passages, phrase matching, fill-in-the-blanks, and journaling...

Can your pupils identify these five important civil rights figures? Given five short descriptions, learners must match each person to his or her civil rights achievements. 

Students evaluate how important it can be to speak a language other than their own. They analyze the role language plays in bridging cultural differences and compare their reasons and see if the class can reach a consensus on the...

Students examine strategies an author uses to provide qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China. They apply the strategies to their own writing.

Students examine the importance of speaking more than one language. They read and discuss an account written by a Peace Corps teacher in Ukraine, answer discussion questions, and discuss why English is taught in Ukraine.

What do figures of speech have to do with financial literacy? Take an interdisciplinary look at The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Money to find out. Young analysts read about the cubs' spendthrift ways and how Mama and Papa Bear...

Students view and discuss a video on the legend of the Hope Diamond then compare and contrast other tales such as Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed. They analyze basic characteristics of these legends then use descriptive...

5th graders will gain an understanding of how, what, and why people invent tools. This PowerPoint provides a complete description of what tools are, types of tools, why we make tools and what impact they have had on society. There are...

Students brainstorm ideas about how and why legends are created. In groups, they discuss how legends show cultural ideas. After watching a video, they use descriptive language to write their own legend using different cultures...

Enhance your foreign language students' skills to describe a house. After reading a description of rooms in a house in their target language, they work to answer corresponding questions correctly. Additionally, they view a PowerPoint...

Students, after reading Chapter One in the book, "Finland," design and create in the computer lab a wildlife journal from an imaginary trip to Finland. They include different animals and plants that live in Finland as well as describing...

Middle schoolers write descriptions, narratives, and dialogues based on objects of art and time periods in a museum. They base several writing assignments on art objects and paintings, including a literal description and an emotional...

Students advertise for the perfect president. In this presidential duties lesson, students determine the attributes that the ideal president should have and then write job descriptions for the role.

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...

All about Canada! Learners explore the geography and providences of Canada by watching videos, studying maps and conducting internet research. By the end of this activity, your class should be able to locate major areas and compare and...