Students trace each other's shadows. In this shadow lesson, students use sidewalk chalk to draw each other's shadows on outdoor sidewalks. A game, a song, a craft, and a recipe are all included with the lesson.

Young scholars explore the outdoors. In this animal diversity lesson, students observe nature and identify various species of animals, both small and large. Young scholars discuss animal habitats and how humans influence their living...

Third graders investigate space science by performing physical activities.  In this solar system lesson, 3rd graders perform a relay activitiy with their class in which they race between different "planets".  Students define...

Learners discover gardening by documenting plants grown on school grounds.  In this botany lesson, students utilize digital cameras to capture images of plants on photo hikes which are turned into a slide show.  Learners plant...

Students enjoy going outside. In this performing arts lesson, students blow bubbles or fly a kite enjoying the outdoors.

Learners visit an outdoors area and mark out a square on the ground that they examine, looking for living and non-living things. They make a model or drawing of the findings from the actual square.

Students sequence what they saw in the book Maisy's Nature Walk. In this sequencing lesson plan, the teacher reads the book and the children listen and observe. Once the book is read, the students have to sequence what Maisy saw on her...

Learners use email to chart weather patterns and then graph their findings. In this weather patterns lesson, students chart their weather for a week at the school. Learners then use email to find temperatures at a variety of locations....

Students measure their shadows early in the morning, record direction of shadow, make marks in ground with chalk or tape, measure with ruler, and record results. Students repeat process at noon, and then later in afternoon. Students...

Get your learners up and moving, all while reviewing numbers on the number line! For this activity, learners are grouped in teams outdoors. The teacher will have already created number lines on the ground (with chalk, tape, etc.), and...

Turn your math lesson into a carnival game with this fun, outdoor activity. After reviewing the concept your class will be practicing briefly, split your class up into teams and head outdoors. These teams work to solve math questions and...

A fabulous lesson introduces the art of composting to your gardeners. In it, youngsters learn about the composting process and how it actually works. They discuss the environmental benefits of composting, and use the "lasagna" method...

Students prune a tree.  In this gardening lesson, students select a shrub or tree that has a lot of flower buds and use sharp pruners to cut sections of branches.  Students place the cuttings into cool water and move into a...

What do Jeep advertisements and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have in common? They both employ the art of the extended metaphor! Using the Six-Trait Writing model, learners begin to work on their own extended metaphors. Development...

Students make their own predictions about the amount of different types of birds at each site before they go there. In groups, they collect the bird data and compose letters to their pen pals sharing their information. To end the lesson,...

Using GPS units, small groups participate in a scavenger hunt to find an object that you have hidden. They use coordinates for stopping points along a pre-planned path to get to the final cache. This is a terrific activity to include in...

Does the angle of a solar panel change the output? Emerging engineers find out! Demonstrate for your class how they can angle a straw to match the angle of light rays coming from a source. Then turn them loose to experiment with the...

Included here are step-by-step instructions for conducting a close reading of The Voice That Challenged a Nation by Russell Freedman. After an individual and class reading, class members read carefully through the text excerpt,...

A fossil is worth a thousand words! Individuals craft their own amber fossil of an insect in addition to molds and casts of seashells. A third activity takes the lesson a notch higher: Learners measure stride lengths between tracks and...

Second graders investigate how to help a city building remain cooler on the inside. They create a rooftop garden in order to shield the building and lower the internal temperature. The garden is meant to replace the black tar paper that...

Geometers learn how to measure the area in square units. They use the floor in the classroom as a visual to measure a square foot area. They use classmates to fill the space and expand the measured area square foot by square foot until...

A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...

Sixth graders study organisms that exist in the world and what they are made up of. They participate in a nature walk, a presentation, a drawing of an animal and plant cell, draw a ecosystem, and fill out a Punnett square.