Pairs use onset and rime cards to make as many words as possible by blending the onsets with the rimes.

Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...

Touchdown! Try out this game to help your learners differentiate between fact and opinion. In pairs, pupils switch off reading cards to one another. Learners determine if the sentences on the cards are facts or opinions and continue...

How significant was the Cold War during the 20th century? After reading and analyzing speeches by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, learners consider the historical context of foreign policy decisions made during the Cold...

Shapes are so fun! Little ones explore, identify, and create shapes using tangrams or pattern blocks. The activity is intended to stimulate critical thinking while engaging learners through play and shape identification. Each child will...

Introduce your learners to the concept of a double-entry journal. Talk about how to connect with the text and model an example for them. Using whatever literature you are working with, have scholars choose a quote and make their own...

In pairs, pre-readers take turns holding up objects from a bag. As one child holds up an object, the other names it and says its initial letter sound. They work together to sort the objects into piles based on how they isolated and...

Here is a game intended for use at home that could easily be adapted to the school environment. The class reads an informational story about emperor penguins and then they watch a clip from the film, March of the Penguins. They focus on...

Give grammar instruction a boost with a basketball-themed game all about analogies! Working in pairs, learners quiz each other's analogy knowledge testing how many they can complete and earn the most points.

Examine the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. After reading an article from the New York Times and exploring the author's word choice, young readers find the central idea in the text and work on researching...

Students listen to a lecture covering the process of going from one cell to two cells. Using the textbook, students differentiate between meiosis I and Meiosis II. Students work in pairs to create one stage using pipe cleaners, sequins,...

Designed to be spread across multiple days, this mini-unit gives learners an opportunity to develop family related vocabulary. Start by reading selected pages from "Family Pictures-Cuadros de familia" by Carmen Lomas Garza, and then...

Jonathan Safran Foer's phrase, "heavy boots," becomes the focus of a class discussion of grief and sadness. During the reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, individuals place examples of their own experiences with these topics...

What determines whether a function has an inverse? Learners investigate that criteria when they examine values in a partially completed input-output table for two different functions. The task is to complete the table so that one of the...

At the beginning of the instructional activity, the class discusses the central idea of a poem. After that, the teacher reads a poem, embedded in the plan, to the class. In groups of two or three, learners create their own poem in...

Challenge the addition skills of young learners with this open-ended math problem. The task is simple, get from start to finish by connecting a series of three numbers. The trick is that the sum of the numbers must be less than...

How many syllables are in the word pronunciation? Assist your pupils with both syllables and pronunciation with a series of activities. Learners categorize words, practice saying them out loud, and then play a game.

From more empathetic individuals to greater tolerance in government, learners explore the benefits of a culturally diverse world through a series of collaborative, discussion-based activities. 

Especially tricky for language is understanding the line between inappropriate, confrontational, (in)effective, (un)reasonable and diplomatic English. The activities in the resource permit class members to practice...

Students use a hypothetical scenario to investigate inhalation of an airborne pollutant and ingestion of a waterborne pollutant. They work in pairs, investigating differences in overall exposure to contaminants by calculating inhalation...

After reading and discussing Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, pupils compare/contrast the concept/theme of love within several multiple pieces of literature. They must support their claims with textual evidence. In addition, they analyze...

Estimate and explore the length and weight of classroom items using standard measurement and scales. Students will work in groups to determine appropriate measuring tools, weigh or measure items, and record their results on a data chart....

Fifth graders explore historical fiction. In this genre study lesson, 5th graders go on a text feature scavenger hunt to identify the parts of a historical fiction text. Additionally, students read the book, My Secret War and discuss...

What is the difference between the active voice and the passive voice? Focus on the latter with your middle schoolers to help them strengthen their writing. First, they identify which sentences are written in the passive. Then, they...