What does it mean to rebuild and recover after a major event? Your class will explore this theme while they discuss and discover the events surrounding September 11. They will also look at other examples and then create art pieces that...

Investigate the future of the presidency in the wake of the House of Representatives' vote to impeach President Clinton. The class brainstorms both sides of the argument, reads and discusses an article, then analyzes and writes a journal...

Invite your class to reflect on the responsibility of newspapers to act as vehicles for citizens to voice their opinions. Using an article to gain factual info. about gov't strategies in dealing with current events in Kosovo, students...

A substantive New York Times article about the U.S.A. Patriot Act, military tribunals, racial profiling, and the Bill of Rights forms the basis for a discussion of the complex interplay of fundamental American rights and the aftermath of...

Students read a New York Times article in order to examine the importance of cultural artifacts. They create essays from the point of view of one cultural artifact to demonstrate the knowledge they gained by doing research.

How does the particular point of view in a situation affect the way it is presented? Focusing on perspectives on slavery during the Civil War, middle schoolers use research to write narratives from the points of view of their historical...

What would you ask a presidential candidate if you had the chance? Bring politics to your language arts classroom with this lesson, in which young readers brainstorm questions they would have liked the presidential candidates to answer....

Artists of all ages construct a three-dimensional form and fill it with rice to make gentle, percussive sounds. They discover that Native South American tribesmen would harvest dead branches from cactus plants, fill them with small...

Read the story "Sunflower House,"  by Eve Bunting with your 2nd graders to investigate the relationships between plants and animals. They will discover how living things change during their lives by creating their own sprout houses....

Learners, in groups, receive a box of artifacts. They record their findings and discuss what the items would have been used for. They come together at the end of the lesson to share their findings.

Students create accurate, detailed map showing physical features, plants and trees, and other details of three school sites.

Are history textbooks plagiarized? The New York Times article, “Schoolbooks Are Given F’s in Originality,” looks at this question and forms the basis for a lesson on textbooks and plagiarism. The very detailed plan includes resource...

As a cross-curricular instructional activity, your class examines the issues of gender discrimination, careers, and gender roles. They read and discuss an article, prepare a proof of the Pythagorean theorem as a class, and develop a...

Students examine the characteristics of their own environment and compare them to another region. They prepare a box filled with items and stories about their own region, exchange the box with another class in another region, and...

Future chemists practice laboratory techniques by creating a monochloramine solution. The objectives are to use of dilution, 9concentration, and measurement skills and to prepare a solution that will be used in a water treatment...

Youngsters complete a unit of lessons based on the story "Little Miss Muffet." They predict what will happen in the story, and use context clues to look for meaning in the words. They research information about spiders using the Internet...

Eighth graders participate in a variety of activities to examine the meanings and roots of word derivatives and the meanings of words. Using context clues, they determine the meanings of words omitted from a passage and complete a prefix...

Get young learners involved in the development of classroom rules! Students and the teacher discuss the purpose of having rules, including how rules provide order, security and safety. Then learners design pictures to accompany the...

Send your class fishing...for the right answers! Small groups collaborate to create math word problems based on the fish in their classroom aquarium or on the aquarium itself. After all groups determine the answer for their ownproblem,...

Seventh graders explore the values that are used in order to describe data that is collected or given. They compare data using the statistical analysis provided by finding the mean, median, and range.

Is there a difference between examining an original work of art and viewing a reproduction? Class members are asked to reflect on this question after researching a piece, study a reproduction of it, and the examining the original in an...

While somewhat dated (students write letters to President George W. Bush about the Iraq War), this lesson could be a good way to reinforce rhetorical reading and critical thinking. Students examine information regarding Operation Iraqi...

Young scholars discover the strengths in their classmates through playing various activities. In the washer game, students pass washers around as they give genuine compliments. Young scholars discuss ways to make compliments meaningful...

Students get a first hand look at the benefit of a "blubber layer" in cold climates through a simulation using vegetable shortening and icy water. Through this simulation, students examine how adaptations help organisms survive.