Explore printmaking with a discussion and project. Pupils first view and talk about various examples of prints and cover positive and negative space. They then come up with fictional animals and make prints of their creature using...

Reading about history is nothing like experiencing it firsthand. Encourage your eighth graders to do the next best thing with a historical narrative prompt, in which they describe the experience of a first-time traveler on the...

The pop movie Moulin Rouge was based on the opera La Boheme. Learners watch the last 30 minutes of each musical to compare and contrast social opposites. They'll first discuss the social differences of the main characters and how those...

Have fun with shape poems! First and second graders write calligrams that add to the meaning of their poems. Great for your poetry unit or if you want to combine poetry and art lessons. 

Practice the strategy of summarizing to gain meaning and knowledge from an informational text. Young readers highlight supporting details and main ideas, and then they use this to summarize two articles: "The Great Quake" and "What...

To celebrate National Poetry Month, young writers focus on the role letter writing has played in the development of poets. They begin by journaling three to five associations to a writing prompt that requires them to identify their...

Build class community with an art project. Learners first examine and discuss works of art. They then contribute to a class mural by tracing their hands and decorating them in relation to their own cultures. The final mural...

Accompany the African folktale, Anansi the Spider, with a collection of five lessons, each equipped with supplemental activities. Lessons offer multidisciplinary reinforcement in English language arts, social studies, science,...

Young photographers explore the world of digital videography. Learners take videos with a digital camera, upload them to a computer, then utilize iMovie software to put together a presentation. This should be an exciting learning...

To demonstrate their skills with traditional and computer-assisted notation, young musicians notate and perform the first eight measures of Friedrich von Schiller's theme to "Ode to Joy."

Explore the text, Cold and Hot, with comprehension strategies for young readers. First, give them a purpose for reading: find out what the boy wore outside in the snow! Then have them use one-to-one matching and picture clues to...

What would it like to be the first person to achieve something? Read about Althea Gibson, the first black tennis player to win a Grand Slam title, to win at Wimbledon, and more. Class members respond to questions to demonstrate...

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a writing project for which participants write an entire novel in a single month. If you have decided to this in your class, this resource will be useful for you. This is an editing...

Examine social strife in art. Class members first observe some pieces, and then find an image to inspire their own art. They outline the picture, analyze the composition, make alterations, and color their work.

The proper use of the question mark, and how to correctly construct a sentence that is a question, are the two focuses in a wonderful language arts activity. There is a terrific interactive online game that your kids can utilize to help...

Here is a wonderful online language arts activity for your emerging readers. Learners play an interactive game where they look at two characters who are engaging with each other. They must choose the word from a word bank that best...

The first of a three-part series on bullying, this plan has class members present skits about bullying, write and sign an anti-bullying pledge, and complete a service project. For the skit, learners use information from previous lessons...

Recognize Black History Month with an examination of the African diaspora and a hands-on mask-making project. Learners first view and discuss images of artwork before creating their own plaster masks.

Do you like music? Have your youngsters read We Play Music, practicing select reading strategies, like using picture clues to determine new words. Then, after their first independent read, have them re-read the story to a...

What makes a poem difficult? Explore that topic and more with your class as you work through the instructional activity detailed here. Using materials from Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest, individuals or small groups...

Harold Washington forged a coalition of voters and won the Chicago mayoral election of 1983. In doing so he became the first black mayor of that racially and ethnically divided city. Excerpts from his speech are included in a worksheet...

The language of the Constitution can feel quite ominous to young learners, but there are a variety of strategies you can utilize to help your class grasp the important concepts and ideals in our nation's founding document. This lesson...

Learning to read is not a simple task, but there are methods for assisting pupils as they develop literacy skills. The first four pages of this resource include information about language development and reading development, as well as...

Experiment with light and shadow with a photography lesson. Learners first view several artistic photographs. They then play with different levels of light and various objects, eventually putting together compositions and taking pictures...