Fourth graders write a "how to..." or an expository essay on building a snowman. They practice giving directions by explaining how to draw a person using shapes without mentioning that it's a person being drawn. They revise through the...

Young scholars study the concept of using a map as a tool with the usage of a balloon designed to mimic the features of the Earth with the major features marked and shown on the balloon.

This teaching packet is for grades five through eight, and it is organized around geographic themes: location, place, relationships, movement, and regions. There are four full lessons that are complete with posters, weblinks, and...

Measurement and map skills are the focus of this instructional activity, where young scholars crawl through a "cave" made out of boxes, desks and chairs, observing the dimensions.  Your young geographers measure various aspects of...

Mission Possible: Your task is to design a new highway route from Tunis, Tunisia to Cape Town, South Africa. If you accept the challenge, you must create a small map of the route that has already been rejected, a...

Get out the compass and a pencil its time to use a coordinate grid to practice mapping skills. Young cartographers use the prompts and provided grid to plot locations, draw parallel lines, and determine distances between points. 

Navigate the world of orienteering in an informative interactive. Earth science scholars learn practical direction skills, such as proper polar coordinates and pairing compasses with maps. The interactive map allows them to practice...

Your search for a year's worth of leadership lessons is over! A lesson in a character education series provides a full two semesters of inspiring leadership activities. The resource includes individual and group challenges to ensure a...

Let us be frank! Writers learn that crafting a thesis statement is not that difficult if one peals back the layers. After watching several videos about the elements of a thesis, class members read the article "Lettuce Club helps students...

After reading Pat Hutchins’ Rosie’s Walk, have your young cartographers create a map of Rosie’s walk. Then lead them on a walk around the school. When you return class members sequence the walk by making a list of how the class got from...

Find out the science of how clouds keep Earth cooler on hot days. Using guided discussions, investigators analyze and interpret maps of how much solar energy Earth receives at different times of the year. Participants draw conclusions...

Have you ever wanted to travel the world? Take a virtual trip with a geography lesson plan that uses longitude and latitude, the position of the sun, an astronomy app, and a classroom globe.

Discover how to find a midpoint with a conceptual exploration. Scholars manipulate a point to determine the location of a midpoint on a straight line distance between two locations. Later questions extend to determine the...

Food takes a trip to the table. Class members choose a meal from a menu and calculate the total cost of the meal including tax and tip. Using a food origin card, pupils determine how far each of the ingredients of a meal traveled to end...

Calling all junior detectives! Scholars use the tools of investigation to determine the causes and impacts of the American Civil War. Using viewing guides, videos, group research, and written resources, they discover what it takes to...

Middle schoolers draw a map to give directions to someone rather then give them too many relative locations.

Find five activities all about longitude and latitude! Use oranges to show the equator and prime meridian, plot birthdays on a map using coordinates, and plan a dream vacation.

Students create a map grid system. In this map lesson, students discuss how mapmakers use a grid system to make giving directions easier. Students learn how the grid system works and create a grid system on their landscape pictures.

Young scholars explore orienteering and how to use a compass. They explore the importance of forests and identify some of the trees in a local forest.

Plan an environmentally friendly field day for your young conservationists with this collection of activities and resources. Whether it's bowling with plastic bags full of crumpled up newspaper and empty plastic...

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Every culture has its own stories to tell. An interesting educator's guide shares a large collection of fairytales and folktales, some from different cultures and some re-creations of classics. A summary and brief teaching ideas...

Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...

Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.