Begin class with a short comprehension quiz and review and then move into a new genre: two-voice poems. The activity provides information about this type of poetry as well as a video example made by eighth graders that you can show your...

Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it in...

Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...

Students cooperate in small groups to create an audio tour of a zoo exhibit during a field trip. They record personal reactions, zoo sounds and information learned about the exhibit. They then edit the audio recording and add music to...

Your class can take turns describing a well know location or setting without giving its name, and the rest of the class can try to identify the location, based on the details given.  They chart the elements that helped in the...

Poetry is a wonderful way to explore language, express topical understanding, and incite creative thinking. After a trip to the local natural history museum (or zoo), learners write an acrostic or a cinquain poem describing one of their...

Use science to solve the mystery of the Poplar murder. Pupils use forensic botany to determine if a suspect could be the killer. By analyzing images from a Transmission Electron Microscope, learners determine if the material found on the...

Students, through observation and discussion about the Coffin of Djed Mut, make connections between hieroglyphs and the English writing system. They create their own visual story using symbols that represent words.

Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in...

Upper elementary children still are intrigued by dinosaurs. Here is a dinosaur lesson that is geared toward their age group! The learners consider a list of prefixes and suffixes. Using the list, they can analyze the names of their...

Get the ball rolling and challenge your class to figure out how to make a ball move. The instruction segment is between two STEM activities devoted to doing just that. The first is simple and involves making a ball move from some...

How would you use census data from 1880-1900? Here are a set of ways you can incorporate the book Little House on the Prairie and US census data from that time period. Learners will research the validity or the book based on factual...

Delve into the fascinating relationship between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera using this resource. Learners discuss the lives of these famous artists, and talk about the ways Frida Kahlo incorporated elements of this tumultuous...

"Love it or leave it." "You're either for us or against us." Rhetoric and it's polarizing effects are the focus of a lesson plan that uses John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry as an exemplar. Groups examine primary source documents,...

Students view artwork in manuscript pages depicting insects, animals, plants, flowers, and ornate writing, such as those found in the Mira calligraphiae monumenta in the Getty Museum.

Students explore similes and metaphors. They discuss and define similes and metaphors, identify the similes and metaphors in two poems, and create three original examples of each.

Eighth graders use a PowerPoint presentation to explore the history of idioms, how they are used in our language today, and practice using idioms themselves. After the presentation, each student is given an idiom to research.

Third graders explore signs and vocabulary linked to the work of Keith Haring.

High schoolers complete a worksheet on a historical figure of their choice. Using this information, they write an appropriate obituary of the person in German or other foreign language. They present the obituary to the class to end the...

Students are introduced to the topic of idioms in figurative speech. Using the definition of idioms, they use literature to view examples. They identify idioms in different forms of writing and practice using them in speech. ESL...

Learners explore, analyze and study Abstraction through an ancient Greek sculpture and then create a self-portrait utilizing geometric shapes. They actively seek how to connect the past to the present through the medium of sculpture via...

Young scholars write and send postcards to and from famous historical figures.

Students discover the cultural history of Egypt by illustrating Egyptian figures.  In this art history lesson, students analyze the Egyptian styles of figure drawings and emulate that by creating their own illustrations using an...

Young scholars examine artworks, research literature, and create study drawings and a 3-D model for a monument to a literary figure. They discuss and analyze the sculpture Model for a Monument to Alexandre Dumas p??re by Albert-Ernest...