While Thirteen Days is a fantastic film to use in the classroom in reference to the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, it is important to take care to effectively and properly incorporate its contents into your curriculum. This...

Let the journey begin! Fifth graders take their first steps down the road of self-discovery during the first of five career and college readiness lesson plans. After taking an interests inventory, groups create a graphic representation...

Using the California CareerZone Interest Profiler results, scholars choose an occupation to research then write a summary about what they discovered.

After listening to From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons, learners take a walk around their school looking for plants. They use digital cameras to photograph the plants, then construct a class book which has the identities of the plants,...

Compare and contrast World War II to the modern Iraq war with this instructional activity. After watching a film, learners use supporting evidence to support their point of view of the conflicts. Using the internet, they create a...

Explore the exciting and diverse geography, people, history, governments, and economies of the Middle East. Curious minds develop a basic vocabulary of Arabic terms and work with various materials to create an aesthetically pleasing,...

Curator, artist, art handler, archivist, conservator-restorer, guide. Who would have thought there were so many different kinds of museum professionals? After a visit to an art museum, class members reflect on the role of the museum in...

Students practice identifying and pronouncing the short letter "u" sound. In this phonetic awareness lesson plan, students access the Starfall.com website and follow the directions on the screen to reinforce the short "u" sound. Students...

Bees get all the attention, but so many more creatures contribute to pollination. Scientists explore the role of pollinators as they learn about the parts of a flower and how it reproduces. They discover how plants rely on many different...

Human graphs, anyone? Did you eat fruit today? What is your favorite costume? Have your K – 6 learners graph the responses. Early elementary grades may count and compare while upper grades compare responses of different groups or make...

Learning that size and orientation don't affect the classification of shapes is a big step for young mathematicians. Support children with developing this key understanding by looking at the array of shapes included in this resource. For...

Have a fun time teaching children to read analog clocks with this whole-group math activity. Using large sets of the numerals 1-12 and 0, 5, 10...55, the teacher creates a large clock on either the carpet or the white board, explaining...

Children gain first-hand experience with Native American agriculture while investigating the life cycle of plants with this engaging experiment. Focusing on what the natives called the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash - young...

Winter weather offers a great opportunity to teach young scientists about the states of matter. This activity-based instructional activity includes a range of learning experiences, from experimenting with the rate at...

Not only is pattern recognition an essential skill for young children to develop, it's also a lot of fun to teach! Over the course of this instructional activity, class members participate in shared readings, perform small...

A gumball machine art project is a great way to learn about optical mixing in a study of pointillism and Georges Seurat. Kids create their own masterpieces and learn about primary and secondary colors in the process.

Who knew that learning about the states of matter could taste so sweet? This fun hands-on lesson plan captures the attention of learners as they use what they know about solids, liquids, and gases to create their very own batch of ice...

Apply, apply, apply! A measurement activity applies a number of concepts to help learn a new construction. Scholars learn to divide a segment into n equal parts using a method that uses the Side Splitter Theorem and a method...

Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is...

To gain an understanding of color mixing theory and the color wheel, young artists draw a picture, mix up a batch of secondary colors to which they add dish soap, and using straws, bubble up the paint....

Scholars learn how to crack secret codes as they continue reading from the Blown to Bits and try to crack the random substitution cipher. They also begin learning about the Vigenere cipher. 

It's time for a quote sandwich! Using the resource, pupils learn about the three parts of an effective quotation: introduction, quote, and analysis. Scholars use the model to peer critique each others' writing to show what they learned.

The Mexican-American War created social borders—not just physical ones. Scholars learn about the effects of the Mexican-American War on the people living in the borderlands using text excerpts, maps, and partnered activities. Academics...

Many dream of coming to America, but few may enter. The lesson explores the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 and how it changed immigration policies in the United States. Academics learn how immigration quotas impacted Western Europe...