Young scholars examine facial expressions to identify emotions, listen carefully to stories, and choose the appropriate reaction. Partners choose one story to rewrite, showing empathy for others.

Life changes may cause stress. Here, scholars identify stressful situations in a peer's life and offer coping skills to make for a better day. A short story, "Stressed Out Sally," provides pupils with a look inside a bad day. After...

Over two lessons, scholars examine depression—what it is, signs of it, and ways to cope. Through discussion, reading articles, writing a resource, and completing worksheets, participants make their way through the learning process,...

To regulate emotions in a conflict it is first necessary to be able to identify those emotions. To that end, class members engage in a series of activities, watch a series of videos, and compete worksheets that help them understand and...

Two lessons take a close look at stress. In lesson one, scholars identify common stressors and examine stress management strategies. Lesson two challenges pupils to keep a stress log for four weeks to aid in their personal journey of...

Following a viewing of Disney/Pixar's Inside Out, scholars list the five emotions depicted in the film—joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. Learners complete a handout and discuss their answers. To close the lesson, peers share a...

A lesson boosts relationship skills with a focus on empathy. Scholars define it, offer examples, and practice showing empathy with scenario cards. Five steps assist class members in empathizing in the classroom, home, and community.

Many teenagers in your class have not experienced violence in their lives, much less as a daily occurance. But some pupils are not so lucky. Bring hope to your class that violence is not an inevitable part of life, and that they can...

Students analyze the differences in similar songs.  In this music appreciation lesson plan, students discover the meaning of timbre and how it can drastically change similar pieces of music.  Students sing two pieces of music...

Although this resource is not a traditional lesson plan, it does explain an activity for creating a safe and supportive environment while teaching young learners the importance of being kind to one another. Start bt reading the...

Discuss race in the United States. Start by having each learner read a copy of Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream." Then, have them read the article "Shared Prayers, Mixed Blessings" about a church in Atlanta,...

How do you feel about cloning? This issue is highly debated, so educate your class before they participate in a similar debate! Read a New York Times article related to the use of cloned pig organs for human transplants. Groups develop...

Young scholars work in pairs to compose a duet (with percussion instruments) that contains syncopated rhythm sequences. Each student will research a piece of music that they feel uses syncopation and will give a persuasive speech to the...

A great unit! There is a lot of content that is personal so make sure you have created a safe zone in your classroom before doing this lesson. It will have much more meaning if your learners share their life with others in the class....

Here is an interesting lesson on the manatee for your upper graders or middle schoolers. A game is played where learners work together to complete a successful manatee migration. It's a board game, and all of the game components are...

Play a vocabulary game with words from an article about Savion Glover's contribution to the film "Happy Feet." Then, small groups of students design and create original movie advertisements using vivid vocabulary to give Glover the...

Have your class explore the representation of water in Canadian art. This instructional activity has learners investigate the representation of water in a variety of art forms. They focus on their personal feelings about art and the...

Kids get artistic as they explore the impact of art materials, sculpture, and performance. They discuss the work of Janine Antoni and then create a performance piece that reflects social or global issues they feel strongly about. The end...

Here is a great way to get the brain going. Children look at an image of the sculpture, Jar and then imagine what an animal would look like as it moved inside the sculpture. They then use clay and cookie cutters to create a...

Art acts as inspiration for a conversation about human impact on the environment and creative writing. The class examines three pieces, looking for evidence of human impact on the landscape. They then write a first-person narrative, from...

Here, Autumn Poplars is the painting upper graders will analyze. They look at techniques, time period, and the use of impressionism to convey a natural theme. They go outside to make observations of nature and use what they see to write...

Sixth graders access their prior knowledge of the job of Parliament and its relationship to the monarchy. For this Gunpowder Plot lesson, 6th graders research the Gunpowder Plot, summarize key story ideas, and role play the plot. They...

Get a little batty with life science! This fun simulation game replicates how bats use echolocation to hunt moths in their native Hawaiian habitat. After creating blind folds and discussing some basic principles of echolocation, students...

If you are just starting out as a teacher for children with visual impairments and want a fun way to teach braille and phonemic awareness, look no further. You'll fill 21 boxes with objects that start with specific letter sounds. You'll...