Budding artists experiment with balance and movement as they learn about Alex Calder and his kinetic sculptures. They'll view several of Calder's pieces and review biographical information, then they'll work through the artistic process...

Kiln-glazed ceramics not an option? Kids can create their own art nouveau tiles using ceramic bisque tiles. The packet includes a video to prepare and inspire your artists, as well as detailed directions for various age groups, a...

Six powerful and eyeopening lessons provide scholars with activities designed to challenge stereotypes and discrimination. The unit provides reading material with which pupils read and discuss. Grand conversations lead to physically...

Open your imagination to make algebra-inspired creations. An interactive lesson has scholars graph images from a set of parameters. Users can practice minimum values, maximum values, and scale as well as key features.

Research guidelines for correct usage, then explore how creative writers employ punctuation as an essential tool in their craft. Secondary classes create board games to teach elementary school students how to properly punctuate. From the...

Drafting, revising, and editing is all apart of the publishing process. Using a series of documents as inspiration, young journalists compose a class Newspaper. They work independently and in groups to publish their own articles.

Read about, and then make culturally inspired masks. Learners watch the video, "Masks and Face Coverings," then design and make a mask with cultural significance out of papier mache. Tip: Have small groups research, write about, and make...

Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...

Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...

Students explore the drawings of Rube Goldberg to design and construct a simple machine. They discuss simple machines, and using various materials and toy parts, design and construct a "Rube Goldberg" style machine to ring a bell.

Inspire your class to look at their environments as if they were seeing them for the first time in order to gain a better understanding of the concept of perspective. After exploring their communities and keeping a journal of major...

Inspire critical thinking with this activity, which prompts young scholars to compare lesbian, gat, bisexual, and transgender rights with the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By collecting topical articles...

Native American music is fun to listen to and great to play. Third graders get multiculturally inspired as they discuss musical sounds from around the globe, then play a few traditional Native American instruments. 

Music and poetry are vehicles that can tell many stories. Learners read the poem "The Song of the Murdered Jewish People" by Itzhak Katzenelson, then listen to the requiem it inspired; composed by Zlata Razdolina. Excellent...

A happy discovery occurred in Arkansas in 2004: a woodpecker, believed to be extinct since the 1940s, reappeared! Or did it? Middle to high school ecologists examine scientific evidence and use critical-thinking skills to determine...

As a way to combine life and physical science, or simply as an investigation of plant transpiration, this lesson is sure to inspire! Middle schoolers capture the moisture given off by plants that are placed in different conditions. They...

Have your class create original modern art sculptures. Learners analyze and discuss "The Profile," a sculpture by Martin Puryear. They work in teams to develop a proposal for a large outdoor sculpture in the community. Presentations...

Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...

Kids make big artistic gestures, just like the abstract artist, Lisa Signal. They use her work as inspiration for making simplistic, abstract, statements in an artistic way. They analyze her work, then walk through an unfamiliar...

Students sort and compare apples before making apple prints. In this apple lesson, students use a painting to inspire art prints made with apple halves. Students compare and sort apples.

Analyze the process of printmaking and explore how prints reflect an artist's view of society. After viewing and analyzing the prints of Elizabeth Catlett, class members create an inner tube and a linoleum block print. They then research...

Pair dancing, music, and art into one elementary lesson. Using the work of Henri Matisse and Rudy Autio as inspiration, kids spend a few days listening to music that fits the moods of various pieces of art, then work on their own...

What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The activity...

Read the story Green Eggs and Ham to practice phonemic awareness, rhyming, and writing skills with emerging readers. They will match oral words to printed words, create a graphic organizer, and the use rhyming words in an...