A series of activities teach young musicians that they don't need a room full of instruments to make music. The second activity in the Amani Project has participants use their hands, feet, and voices to demonstrate the five elements of...

Improve syntax with this explanatory handout. It clarifies one way to make writing more precise: avoiding nominalization. This resource provides four ways to find and change nominalization problems and 10 sentences to correct. There are...

As your class reads Gary Paulsen's Canyons, challenge them to assume the perspective of a character to write a letter. The plan suggests learners pair off, one person assuming the voice of Coyote Runs, and the other assuming the voice of...

Looking to move children away from monotone reading? That's what they will practice here. In a guided learning lesson plan, the class reviews punctuation marks and practices what type of intonation should accompany each. They...

This engaging activity is a great change of pace for the classroom. The activity starts with a simple message on the board “The teacher is angry.”  The instructor is to stomp around, drop books and glare—anything to show anger. The...

Youngsters retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They write a sentence for speech bubbles for a character in the story, identify the phrases that can be used for retelling a story, and in small groups write a sentence for the...

Class members participate in a series of hands on, online, and multimedia activities to identify the difference between primary and secondary sources. They watch a related video and visit a variety of sites to locate primary and...

Create digital stories with your class, in order to help further understand math vocabulary. You can modify this activity idea to any vocabulary instructional activity, whether it be for math, science, or language arts!

The focus of the lesson is rhythmic speech and 4/4 time. The topic of the lesson is trades common in Old Salem during the colonial period. Learners will practice keeping time with their voices and body percussion. They will then research...

Young scholars demonstrate appreciation of contributions of Aboriginal peoples, the French, and the British to the development of Canada and explain how supply and demand are affected by population and the availability of resources. They...

Students record themselves saying basic biographical facts about themselves: : what their names are, where they live, how old they are, what languages they speak, and what activities they like to do. They practice their presentational...

Cover can, may, will, and shall with this lesson on using modals in the present tense. Starting off with a warm-up activity, the resource includes a text to analyze, examples of modals, and exercises with answers. The language in the...

Explore the elements needed to make up a sentence (the sentence itself, the period, the comma, the question mark, and the exclamation point), with this language arts lesson. A loco-motor activity is embedded in the teaching of the...

Kids almost always want to share the things that make them special. They create and deliver an autobiographical multimedia presentation using step-by-step outlines to plan their content. This is a great "All About Me" lesson, perfect for...

Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...

Students create a movie or slide show depicting a typical day at school through the eyes of a student. Students will use knowledge and experience to tell about events. Students will use multimedia to tell about events.

Studentsare introduced to the idea that people have rights. They voice opinions about whether children should have special rights and be treated differently then adults. The main purpose of the activity is to get students thinking and...

Students conduct research about the Civil War and the slavery movement. They examine primary and secondary resources. The use of the internet and web slides are resources made available for students to make cognitive connections.

Fourth graders use a digital camera to take pictures of other students demonstrating good FCAT test-taking tips. They compile the pictures into a movie and add text and voiceovers to describe the test-taking tips.

Use the power of the pen to persuade others to get involved in community issues! Individuals reflect on personal service learning activities and the writing process. They compose essays regarding service to others. While designed for...

Use text marking and highlighting to explore the structure of a poem. After listening to Allan Ahlberg read "Please Mrs. Butler," learners locate stanzas and patterns on their copy of the poem using the text marking technique. Class...

Stamp, slap, and clap! Emergent readers demonstrate their awareness of the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in spoken, short vowel, single-syllable words with a stamp/slap/clap activity. After identifying the letters and sounds of...

Fourth graders work in groups of 2 or 3 and choose a state to compare with Michigan. They use the Internet to locate information on other states allowing students time to research how Michigan compare to their state and incorporate their...

Learners recognize positive traits and build self-esteem. In this community building lesson, students use a special chair to voice positive traits about a classmate.