Mansa Musa was so rich that his gifts of gold made the value of the metal drop throughout Africa. As he traveled from Mali to the Middle East to make hajj, his gifts were so extravagant, they devalued the gold already in circulation....

Collaborate with another class (or school) and have your learners share ideas about their reading through the use of email. Perhaps you'll create a specific question or a few questions for writers to choose from. Not only will they...

Tenth graders explore the concept of censorship through a reading of Fahrenheit 451. They discuss the issue and its relation to contemporary society. Students work in groups to debate the pros and cons of censorship in our society.

First graders listen closely as their teacher sounds out a variety of words, one phoneme at a time. They then practice blending sounds to create words on their own. Tip: While you sound out words have your class write down each phoneme...

A Middle school special ed class uses the acronym SPAM to learn the 4 parts of writing. They employ 4 different colors to help them visually distinguish each part of writing in a given prompt. This lesson is vague and uses a strong...

Readers select a character from Call of the Wild, record their responses to a series of prompts in a spiral notebook, and use details from the novel to support their thinking. The spirals are then used as source material to support...

To observe preservation techniques firsthand, learners dry a flower in sand and compare cucumber slices soaked in salt water for a week with slices left out to dry in the open air. Video resources (not attached) include one about mummies...

Analyze the poem "Casey at the Bat." Your team of analysts will read the poem and complete a variety of activities, including describing how Casey looks and acts, describing how he feels before and after he strikes out, and sharing...

Story elements such as conflict, character analysis, resolution, and moral are discussed and charted as elementary children read folktales involving animals. An element of science is also introduced as learners discover what a keystone...

Have learners choose activities to complete based on the books by Laura Joffe Numeroff. They are introduced to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and the other books in this series through prereading activities. They then construct a portfolio...

Readers make personal connections to Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman and answer comprehension questions while reading the book. Comparing and contrasting the different characters in a Venn diagram leads to a kinesthetic...

Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...

Explore water transport in plant stems using this fun experiment! Your scientists will start by reading Stems by Vijaya Bodach. Then, activate prior knowledge about plant stem functions and water transportation....

Sixth graders make connections between past experiences and perspective. They read Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith. Then, they analyze a character's history and state the past experiences that form their perspective. In...

After reading the book Jack of All Tails, learners complete vocabulary activities, play charades, consider a list of questions, and complete a list of verbs. There are also several suggestions for how to connect this language...

Trace the links between a variety of math concepts in this far-reaching unit. Ideas that seem very different on the outset (like the distance formula and rigid transformations) come together in very natural and logical ways. This...

In this literature circle worksheet, students form groups and choose a leader, summarize the book, discuss journal entries, make connections, and write reflections about the novel they are reading. Students provide short answers for...

What makes a place safe? What makes a setting effective? Explore the safe spaces and descriptive language with a prereading activity for Willa Cather's My Antonia. The teacher describes his or her own safe space and then prompts pupils...

If you are beginning Laurence Yep's Dragonwings, this will provide activities for the first five chapters. The objectives include making connections to oneself and the world, organizing information and events, vocabulary acquisition,...

This comprehension learning exercise provides readers with an article about basic matter and then asks them to use this information to respond to a series of comprehension questions.

This worksheet on metaphors is your ticket to better writing! As learners read ten sentences, they underline the metaphor and circle the two objects of comparison.

Readers of The Call of the Wild engage in a four- corners activity that fosters discussion and encourages readers to make connections between their lives and the text. Individuals respond to a series of discussion prompts and justify...

Bring the drama of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to class with a fun role-playing activity. Given a list of survival items, readers decide which items would be the most necessary for an adventure like...

Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern.