Discuss South African apartheid, the anti-apartheid movement, and the literature and music it inspired. Slides contain images and facts about life in South Africa during apartheid, social uprisings such as Soweto, and the various...

What animals are best suited for moving around a rainforest, or a desert? Design your own animal species based on a particular habitat, focusing on the characteristics it will need for optimal movement. Great as a group lesson or...

The earth only revolves around one thing — and it's not any of your pupils. The instructional activity includes two activities dealing with the distance to the sun and the moon. First, scholars create a pin hole camera and use the rules...

Ignore the full moon, it's just a phase. Young scholars observe and record the moon during a full cycle before learning to predict future phases. Then the instructor leads a discussion on the other solar system objects that...

Busy buses bustling back and forth. In this middle school assessment task, learners use information given in a graph to answer questions about bus schedules. They then determine how many times a bus passes by other buses going in the...

Have you ever seen a Mexican yarn painting? They're beautiful! Create a Mexican yarn painting with your class using this lesson. Start by discussing Mexico's culture and viewing different yarn paintings. After reading about important...

Putting together an interesting story can be hard, but this set of worksheets will guide your writers into the depths of their own creativity as they characterize both their main character and villain. Using humor to keep learners...

Math and science come together in this cross-curricular astronomy lesson plan on planetary motion. Starting off with a hands-on activity that engages the class in exploring the geometry of circles and ellipses, this lesson...

Designed for Hard Gold, a novel in Avi's I Witness series, this teaching guide includes a summary of the story and information about the writer as well as chapter-by-chapter vocabulary lists, text-based reading questions,...

What would the world be like if each person acted with greater cultural awareness and understanding? Learners consider the impact of cultural diffusion, as well as how global leaders can address some of today's pressing...

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...

Parallelograms are pairs of triangles all the way around. Pupils measure to determine the area and perimeter of a parallelogram. They then find the area of the tirangles formed by drawing a diagonal of the parallelogram and compare their...

Scholars show what they know about a reading passage, The Merchant's Caravan, by way of four short answer questions designed to reinforce reading comprehension skills.  

Make your classroom a supportive and communicative place to be before beginning a unit on the Holocaust. Working together as a class, learners reflect on their previous experiences of classroom discussions before establishing a...

 The Native American symbol, The Circle of Life, represents life's spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional well being. By way of deep discussion, and two games, the lesson uses the Circle of Life to explore the stages of...

Pack just enough to fit. Crews determine what personal items to take with them on a trip to Mars. Each team must decide what to take with them on a two-and-a-half year trip to Mars and whether their items will fit within the allotted...

Students measure the actual size and distance of the solar system using scale and ratio. They watch and discuss a video, create a distance-scale solar system model, and compare the scale sizes of planets to their actual sizes.

Students investigate who the Mongols were and where their empire was located. They research Kublai Khan and the region he ruled. They study the major products of 13th Century China.

Learners study the route from Hormuz to Constantinople that was traveled by the Polos. They explain the importance of Constantinople in medieval time and discuss its location, and outer wall structure.

Students examine what it was like to travel west on the Oregon Trail. They develop a list of questions about the trip, explore various websites, and create a story about the experiences of a 19th century family travelling on the Oregon...

Students access the Oregon Trial website to find information on what it was like to experience traveling the Oregon Trial. Then, in groups, they create dioramas depicting events that could have happened along the Oregon Trail.

What is your idea of paradise? Middle and high schoolers share their visions of paradise on earth in this lesson, in which they view a video segment about Shangri-La. Your high schoolers can discuss and then write about their ideas in a...

Students experience another culture through a unit that explores instruments, spoken language, and calligraphy. Students experience the Asian culture first hand through a Taiko Drum Concert, as well as lunch at an Asian Buffet &...