Using a Maori legend, How Maui Tamed the Sun, youngsters are introduced to the importance of sunlight to civilization. Teach them about nuclear fusion that occurs to produce the solar energy we later receive on Earth as...

Show young readers how to use evidence from the text in an activity about making predictions. After reading five short passages, kids note what they think will happen next based on what they have read, and include the evidence that...

Students engage in three short, hands-on, in-class demos which expand students' understand of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body burns food to make energy. Then, they create paper snake mobiles to...

Learners explore U.S. history by reading a Native American tale in class. In this cultural storytelling lesson, students read the story How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun and discuss the characters and themes of the Native American...

Learners access prior knowledge of solar energy and understand that solar energy produces heat. In this solar cooker lesson, students complete grade appropriate experiments using the heat of the sun. Learners complete a worksheet on...

Young scholars study the sun. In this heat energy lesson, students use the sun's warmth to make tea. They place a few jars with tea bags and water in the sun and discuss what the sun is doing to the water while they wait for the tea to...

Students build a solar oven. In this Science lesson, students construct a functional solar oven. Students design the oven and explain the energy concepts involved.

Students discover the relationship between the sun and Earth.  In this weather lesson, students examine the effect of the sun on the Earth's seasons.  Students complete a weather activity using props to simulate the sun and...

In this energy crossword worksheet, students read 36 clues pertaining to energy conservation. Students fit their answers in a crossword puzzle. There is no word bank.

Students explore space science by conducting a sun experiment in class. In this time telling lesson, students discuss how the sun sits in our sky at exact times each day and how astronomy is based on our perspective of the solar system....

How do you make raisins? Do a simple experiment with your class that prompts them to set a bunch of grapes in the sun for a few days, and see what they find!

Students explore Earth science by creating a scale model in class. For this shadow lesson, students research the impact the sun has on Earth shadows and complete a space science worksheet. Students create models of the Sun and Earth and...

Students describe and compare the layers of the atmosphere. They explain how to measure the temperature of the atmosphere and discover what causes the atmosphere to heat up in some places more than in others.

Students pretend they are water droplets traveling through the water cycle. Using their text, they discover the steps in the cycle and the different paths water can take. They write a report about their journey through the water cycle...

Students read an article about alternative energy and complete the associated worksheets. In this ESL/ELL alternative energy instructional activity, students read or listen an article about research at MIT in which scientists designed a...

In these critical reading worksheets, students read the short story about the sun. Students then answer 3 critical reading questions about the passage.

Students see that energy is everywhere in nature - in the light of the sun, in wind, in falling water and erupting volcanoes. Without energy, there is no life. This lesson provides many good ideas across the curriculum to study energy.

In this recognizing the water cycle cloze activity worksheet, students use the words in the word box to fill in the blanks about evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. Students write 23 answers.

Students identify how to study renewable energy from the standpoint of a news reporter or a concerned citizen. Then they approach art in a fun way through a journalism project that includes create a brochure for display. Students also...

Rainforests are the topic of this brief reading passage. Learners can find out all about the different layers of the rainforest as well as the types of creatures that live there. After reading, they respond to five questions about the text.

The interpretation of a poem often lies in the mind of its reader, especially when reading the tone. Focus on author's word choice, middle schoolers read four different poems and briefly state a perceived tone for each, along with the...

Wind is a natural resource available around the world. Help your pupils appreciate the power and importance of wind by researching wind farms, making pinwheels, and designing windmills. 

Learners investigate solar energy by making sun tea.  In this ecology and solar energy lesson, students prepare traditional tea and "sun" tea, then record and graph data comparing color, clarity, smell and taste.

Six short answer questions challenge scholars to show what they know after reading an informational text that examines waves—what they are, what causes them, and how different Earth factors affect their size and strength.