The African plains come alive as scholars learn vocabulary in context through Verna Aardema's story Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (tip: this strategy can be applied to any book). Precede reading by...

Lorinda Cauley's book Clap Your Hands is a fun way to expand budding readers' vocabulary in context (although you could use any book for this strategy). To prepare kids, introduce the following terms before...

Dandelion the lion is dapper and elegant; young readers learn these and more vocabulary words as they read Don Freeman's story Dandelion (hint: this strategy can be applied to any book). Familiarize pupils with the new words...

William Steig's story of a witty mouse couple will have scholars intrigued as they listen for new vocabulary words and context clues. Doctor DeSoto can be found on YouTube in case you don't have it. Emerging readers expand...

Can you wish the moon a happy birthday? Beginning readers contemplate this as they listen to Frank Asch's book Happy Birthday, Moon, the context for a vocabulary study. There are three words outlined here: chat,...

Are your scholars interested in bugs? Get future entomologists excited about vocabulary through Joanne Oppenheim's colorful book Have You Seen Bugs? They use the informational text (although this strategy is useful for any book) to...

If you're reading the classic story Over in the Meadow, consider this strategy to cover vocabulary in context with budding readers. After a brief introduction, listeners raise a hand when they hear each word (bask,...

It's the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood retold by James Marshall; scholars listen for six new words as you read: bouquet, charming, escort, horrid, tarry, and wicked. Introduce the words before reading so they can...

Just how much influence did television have on the results of the 1960 presidential election? Media critics contend that the results were all about how the two candidates appeared on the screen. Give your young historians a chance to...

Young hydrologists observe a waterwheel which helps them investigate the transformations of energy that occur when the blades of a hydro-turbine are turning. They work together in pairs and pretend to be engineers who are building a new...

How many of us can say they've seen a Pacific walrus? Not many and one of the reasons is the impact of climate change on their aquatic environment. Children get to think about the food web of the Bering Sea by creating an actual web with...

Are you looking to put the fun back in the fundamentals of chemistry? Why not have groups create their own periodic tables of something (animals, food, music groups, etc.) practicing the organizational strategies used in the periodic...

When comparing groups of objects, it's easy for children to identify which has more, but it's not so easy for them to explain their reasoning. This simple whole-group activity provides multiple opportunities for learners to compare...

Step into history and step out with a new understanding of events. These strategies bring a new level of understanding of key events by asking viewers to engage in and respond to projected images. Complete directions for the activity, a...

Evaluate young mathematicians' understanding of area and perimeter with this series of three assessment tasks. Challenging students to not only calculate the area and perimeter of irregular shapes, but to explain in writing their...

As an introduction to using a network to determine the fewest number of nodes that meet a given condition, small groups work together to determine the fewest number of ice cream vans, and their locations, to be able to serve the people...

Does your conflict management style keep you cool and persuasive, even under pressure? Young behaviorists practice analyzing conflicts and using conflict management skills during instructional activity five in a 15-part series. The...

 The section of a larger General Certificate of Secondary Education math review requires pupils to summarize numerical data presented in a frequency table. Scholars determine the number of data points, the range, the mean, and the...

Collect a set of collections. Professional development material provides teachers with information about collections that are in AP Computer Science. Materials include teaching strategies, sample labs, and worksheets. Educators use the...

We're not talking about the kitchen sink. Learners explore what types of objects sink and float in water in an inquiry-based lesson. With experimentation, they find similarities between materials that float and those that sink.

Scholars complete their study of the collective fear in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by conducting a mock trial to determine how many witches are in the class. Groups then analyze sections of the play for the literary devices used and...

The second lesson on finding inverse matrices asks class members to look for a pattern in the inverse matrix and test it to see if it works for all matrices. The teacher leads a discussion to refine the process in finding inverses,...

Students discuss the term prediction. In this language arts lesson plan, students predict what will happen next by using the turn & talk strategy. Students chart the predictions each one makes.

Twelfth graders examine the process of predicting. They observe a fine art transparency, discuss their predictions about the artwork, identify the types of predictions made during a weather broadcast, and evaluate headlines from...