Students read and discuss several Pourquoi tales--legends that explain why certain natural events occur. They complete a variety of activities surrounding each tale and then write their own Pourquoi tale.

Middle schoolers use a graphic organizer to brainstorm information about their lives. They utilize brainstorming techniques in a writing exercise, and create a graphic organizer describing their lives. They set personal goals for the...

Young learners listen to the book Rooster's Off to See the World, and complete simple math activities using the book. In this simple math lesson, students read and list the animals in the book. They arrange animal picture squares using...

What does your fortune say? Engage class members in writing complete sentences by first handing out fortune cookies and reading the messages. Pupils will practice writing complete sentences by composing fortunes to put in die cut fortune...

Have your class look for a pot of gold. Learners create a St. Patrick's Day mini-book. They use the worksheet pages included to cut out and color St. Patrick's Day symbols. They staple the pages together to create a booklet.

Students create an art project and write a process paper  as a response to literature.  In this literature response lesson, students listen to Lynn Ehlert's, Snowballs before decorating a construction paper snowman. They write...

Have your class build their vocabulary bank by studying life science terms. Basic terms like organism, cell, unicellular, and vertebrate are included on the definition sheet provided. Demonstrate how to identify different life science...

This life science vocabulary list and definitions will be useful when teaching a parent and offspring unit. Some nice ideas are included in the plan about the word origins, word structure and definition testing methods. There is also a...

Students investigate bats. In this animal science lesson, students use several websites and suggested bat books to write an informative paragraph. Students should be able to write with 90% accuracy.

Investigate biographies with your class. Compare autobiographies and biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example. Learners explore the factual components that make up a biography and locate several biographies of notable...

While the preparation for this lesson is extensive, the results are well worth the effort. Prior to the lesson, Xerox the pictures from Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin, collect the ingredients for Cranberry Bread, and...

Are you reading Lois Lowry's The Giver in your language arts class? Have your young readers create a PowerPoint presentation about their life, and how they connect to the lives of the characters from the novel. They present information...

Practice defining words that have to do with plant life cycles.  The list included here is mainly for structural units, but could be used to review their relevance and the process of the life cycle.

Bring writing to life with this lesson in which elementary and middle schoolers create a display of the imagery they identify in a series of Gary Paulsen books. They read the suggested materials, identify imagery and descriptive...

Need a first day ice breaker? Try this getting to know you exercise. Pupils stand in a circle and introduce themselves. The trick is they add an adjective that describes them and starts with the same letter as their first name. Add a...

Students practice using the letter u in order to understand letter-sound correspondence. In this letter-sound correspondence lesson plan, students write, read, and say different words with the letter u in them.

Watch selected scenes from the mini-series, The Path to 9/11, and then have your class download and explore the 9/11 Commission Report. How are these two sources similar and different? Have your learners summarize each source and compare...

Students build rock sculptures, In this hands-on art lesson, students pile rocks into unique formations to create rock sculptures.

Students design pictures of ocean environments. In this art lesson, students use mixed media art materials to develop a picture that depicts the ocean environment. They use paint, sand paper and various basic art materials.

Students, in groups, define qualities of friends and leaders. The groups define how far a friend or leader should go to protect their friendship or country. They research Julius Caesar, Marc Anotony and Shakespeare and read Julius Caesar.

Students study and write about the fire station and fire safety. They take photographs to create a page for a class book after visiting a fire station.

Young scholars research Samurai using the Internet. They compare and contrast the research information with each other.

Students explore and evaluate poetry. In small groups, they read and summarize poems, complete a handout, create and perform a dramatization of a poem, and write a journal entry in response to their performance.

Pupils organize a newspaper article using a worksheet that helps them study the vocabulary of news articles. They write newspaper articles about mythical creatures invading contemporary Los Angeles.