Hand it out and let them read all about the music of the Renaissance. The class will discscover basic terminology that developed during the time period, musical style, and how music was linked to the church and everyday life. 

Learn about the government's role in everyday life in a guided reading activity. Groups create a KWL chart concerning the government's impact on the community.

The teacher reads and retells Californian tribal origin or creation stories that come from the traditions of a variety of California Indian tribes. Then, pupils get together in groups and retell the stories they just heard; just as...

There are shapes everywhere you see! Use a presentation about shapes to encourage young learners to find squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles in a series of pictures. One slide shows kids what the shapes look like, and then a...

If you're looking to tie rap music into poetry writing, this would be a good presentation to use as you kick off your mini-unit. Learners are given a brief, but descriptive, history of rap music and rap poetry. The slides include...

How many classroom objects can your learners identify? Use a set of activities based on object recognition and color matching to help young kids use their observation to learn new vocabulary.

Help young learners become active listeners and strong public speakers with a set of activities that range from paraphrasing, to discussions, and self-reflection. Additionally, the lessons address social media skills and non-verbal...

What do you do when faced with a bully? Scholars answer this question when presented with a scenario regarding two learners and their spelling test grades. They take part in a grand conversation that leads to problem solving and...

Learners explore the origins of modern language. In this etymology instructional activity, students discuss the cultural influences of Ancient Greece on modern society. Learners design and complete charts that demonstrate the original...

Young scholars identify story elements.  In this stories lesson, students read a story and identify the chracter, character traits, plot, setting and theme.  Groups of young scholars match problem and solution cards.

Students experiment with a situation as if they were farmers in a co-op. In this democratic decision making lesson, students role-play as farmers that are members of a co-op and a have a serious decision to make about spreading their...

Fourth graders investigate eponyms in the English language. In this eponym lesson, 4th graders participate in a teacher led lesson on the definition of an eponym. They complete a worksheet in which they determine which eponym became part...

Young readers listen to the story The Three Little Pigs, and discuss what abnormal characteristics the pigs and the wolf have. They relate these characteristics to personification, and practice writing sentences using personification.

Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee  and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write...

Add many seconds of beauty to your class with a short film and related project. The resource centers around a competition based on one-second segments of film, and the final compilation that came from the contest. Pupils identify...

Making inferences can be a tricky proposition for middle schoolers. In the lesson presented here, pupils practice the skill of drawing a conclusion and making a judgment - which are what making an inference is all about! There are five...

Talk about a menu! Who would have thought SAT prep could be so delicious? Treat your class to a full course of SAT words with a timed activity that asks groups to create clues for dishes on their bill of fare. Distained veggies anyone?...

Computers need precise directions to complete a task. Class members experience what it is like to program a computer with an activity that asks one pupil to describe an image while classmates follow the directions to duplicate the picture.

The focus of this writing worksheet is to have writers revise and edit a three-paragraph passage to eliminate wordiness and repetition. The paragraphs are quite long, and this should take most students quite a while to complete.

Ninth graders illustrate words from their vocabulary logs. In this vocabulary lesson, 9th graders illustrate their vocabulary words and use them in a sentence. Students are encouraged to read their sentences aloud to the class and use...

Students explore American social movements. In this writing skills lesson plan, students read Orwell's "Politics and the English." Students then apply the rules for writing that are included in the piece. Students follow-up by completing...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

What is a haibun? With this interesting lesson, writers will experience the Japanese writing form haibun, identify elements important to Japanese writing styles, analyze a haibun, and compose their own. Different from the typical journal...

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...