Looking for an interactive back to school activity? Start by reading the book The Kissing Hand, and having your class discuss their feelings about the first day of school. They trace their hand onto paper, cut out the paper hand,...

Youngsters analyze a book discussing a child's fear on the first day of school. They discuss the characters in the book, The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Then they discuss their own fears and uncertainties about starting a class with...

Ease children's back-to-school jitters with this primary grade lesson based on the book The Kissing Hand by Ruth E. Harper. Starting off with a singing of the song "I Wish I Had a Little Red Box", children go on to discuss and...

Students participate in a first day of school survey. In this art lesson, students answer three questions about art class, such as one thing they don't like about art class and their goals for art this coming year.

Students participate in a first day icebreaker activity. In this icebreaker lesson, students are paired up and film their partner doing something unique. Students continue to film eachother while conducting a short interview.

Redesign your holiday celebrations with the aid of a lesson plan booklet packed with facts, images, maps, activities, and readings about the three-day feast that marked the English settlers' first successful harvest.

Students explore their school and the various types of people who work there (school nurse, custodian, and principal). They interview these people and complete an activity based on the information they have obtained.

Students sing a song during group time each day to learn the names of the days of the week. They learn the song lyrics and sing them often.

Introduce young thespians to all aspects of the theater. A syllabus for a one-semester drama course provides lessons that take learners from the history of drama to the many facets of play production.

Here's a very well organized lesson plan on learning the terminology of ballet. Learn the names of some basic positions, and how to perform them. Learn the names, which happen to be in French, of basic movements in ballet. Not only are...

Here's a collection of unit plans for middle school musicians. Topics include the mbira, opera, rhythm and culture, music in Africa, music in the movies, music theory and notation, blues and jazz, and the ocarina. Definitely worth a look.

One of the best parts about teaching the littlest learners is that you can create thematic lessons that use one topic to address every subject. Here is a nice set of thematic teaching ideas that uses turtles and tortoises to teach...

Students listen to a reading about fossils and go on a hunt for items with fossil characteristics.  In this cross curricular fossil lesson, students will examine their fossil finds and create a graphic organizer.  Students...

Students complete a variety of Earth Day activities. In this recycling and the environment lesson, students listen to Earth friendly music, create a car out of juice boxes, use soda cans and bottle caps to create a Halloween...

Students build a sense of community within the classroom. For this community lesson students create individual pieces of a puzzle that when put together represent the community within their classroom. The central piece is "community".

Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...

Elizabeth Peyton is an artist who creates images of people (often famous) that she doesn't personally know. These images become part of her imagined community. Learners analyze her work, her community of imagined friends, and then create...

Third graders create a puzzle piece to be included in a class puzzle. They are given one puzzle piece, and they decorate it using symbols/drawings which are personal to them such as hobbies, interests, or self-portrait. The pieces are...

Discuss the balance, color, emotion, and context of the painting Paris Street; Rainy Day by Caillebotte. After a deep discussion, let creativity run free in your class as learners create a dimensional piece that reflects a...

Students complete a craft project.  In this Mother's Day instructional activity, students learn about Mother's Day around the world, write an essay about their mother, create a Mother's Day card, create coupons for meaningful time...

"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...