Build reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills as learners focus on discerning fact from opinion. First, introduce the two terms as you test prior knowledge and explain their meanings (there is a scripted explanation here for...

Introduce beginning readers to cause and effect in a story by exploring it together. Learners make predictions about a book based on its cover, title, and a brief flip through the pages. They listen to an explanation of cause and...

Class discussions can really make concepts come to life. The class discusses the differences between compare and contrast, read a book, then talk about ways they can compare events or characters in the story. Good leading question are...

Fourth graders use two separate sources to learn about index, glossary, and table of contents usage. In this library lesson, 4th graders use two books, Learning About Weather with Graphic Organizers, and The World Almanac for Kids, to...

Introduce a study of the presidency of Andrew Jackson with a instructional activity that uses video clips, primary source documents, group activities, and debates to examine Jackson's early life and career. The instructional activity...

Use a puppet (in this case named Mico) to make onset and rime more fun. Mico presents 12 picture cards to kindergartners, all depicting single-syllable words. He pronounces them with segmenting onset and rime, encouraging kids to say the...

Engage your class in a game where they look for matching rhymes. They will flip over cards and look for rhyming words. If the words match they keep the cards. If they words do not match they turn the cards over. Additionally, they will...

An eye-catching hook makes a smart analogy between ingredients for a food recipe and ingredients for quality relationships. Scholars discuss and list qualities they feel contribute to positive interactions. Pupils create a recipe card...

Students review the units of the metric system, and practice estimating measures before actually converting between the two systems of measurement. They participate in activities to visualize a concentration of one part per million....

Seventh graders create and perform a skit that demonstrates their conflict resolution skills. They begin by examining the process of crafting a performance and review what they have learned about conflict resolution. Next, they...

What would Ben do? Jumping off from the pseudonymous letters Ben Franklin fooled his older brother into publishing when he was still a teenager, young literary lovers dive into acting, writing, and addressing a local issue with wit and...

Can any good come from acts of evil? The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the eventual outcomes of the tragedy, are the focus of a instructional activity that asks groups to examine primary...

Young scholars set up composting sites that allow food scraps and paper to be recycled by nature. They are introduced to one aspect of recycling; composting. Students see how God recycles as the worms change garbage into something that...

Third graders investigate "How To" books by watching a "How To" video and looking at books in the media center. They make a class "How To" book with a title page, table of contents, individual student pages, and graphics which they make...

The assassination of Medgar Evers. The integration of the University of Alabama. The March on Washington. The "I Have a Dream" speech. Created by the Alabama History Education Initiative, this resource examines how the events...

Explore the science behind Earth's amazing diversity of life with this instructional activity on genetics. Looking at specific traits in piebald deer, carnations, and roan cattle, young scientists use Punnett...

Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...

Making decisions can be stressful, even for sixth graders. And even students this young have developed coping skills, some positive and some negative, to help them deal with stress. Class members are asked to identify several of their...

"We, the People of the State of Alabama. . ." Did you know that the Alabama State Constitution has 357,157 words while the US Constitution has only 4,400? And that it has 798 amendments while the US Constitution has...

Class members will dig this activity that has them trying their hand at recovering artifacts. Groups are assigned a section of a sandbox, carefully uncover the artifacts in their section, and then develop theories about who might...

Students complete activities to build their word fluency. In this word study lesson, students complete various activities at the provided links to build their vocabulary and improve their reading comprehension.

Art and science come together in a lesson based on Flower Still Life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. Learners classify plants and insects in the painting by color, leaf shape, size, reproduction, and season of bloom.

Students, in groups, practice organization and editing skills as they research the history of Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). they create a PowerPoint presentation of their research.

What is the sharecropping system? What role did it play in the post-Civil War economy of the South? Who were the sharecroppers? Who employed them? How were they paid? To answer these questions, kids examine a series of sharecropper...