If a 150 lb. person can comfortably eat and digest a 1 lb. burger, then how large would the person be who can comfortably eat and digest a 350 lb. burger? For a burger that size, it would take either a large person or a class of really...

Earth or environmental science pupils are assigned to be carbon sources or sinks. They ask yes-or-no questions to try to figure out which one they are. Then they discuss ways people can have positive effects on the changing climate by...

This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...

Interrogatives—who, what, where, when, why, and how—are the focus of a grammar activity that reinforces writing questions and using auxiliary verbs. 

How does propaganda influence our vote? Through grand conversation, scholars gain information about what is and how to identify the different ways propaganda is used in a presidential election. Using their new-found knowledge, citizens...

What a fun way to explore new vocabulary words! Marjorie Priceman's book Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride offers plenty of new words for scholars to learn in context: amateur, assembled,...

Commas can be complicated. Help learners achieve a greater understanding of comma usage with this handout, which includes two different comma activities. Following given directions, young writers punctuate provided sentences and combine...

Focus on a passage about the new year with your English language learners. You can start with reading the passage aloud to your class, and then launch into the related activities. Pupils match phrases, complete cloze-style activities,...

Always be prepared for a substitute teacher with a daily plan equipped with an assortment of activities that cover third grade math, reading, word work, and writing. 

Fifth graders explore electrical concepts and host a guest speaker. This lesson sets up guidelines for students to follow when they have a guest speaker. Students are primed to become actively involved in a lecture or discussion, while...

This activity uses a question and answer format to scaffold students comprehension of a short dialogue about the Chesapeake Bay and its tradition of log canoes. After reading the short passage, students are prompted to find three facts...

A useful study tool, learners create decks or download pre-made decks to review. The app tracks your progress and allows you to customize your experience with each deck. Why not try it out and test yourself and your pupils on thousands...

A series of well-written activities, these lessons prompt middle schoolers reading below grade level (at a second, third, or fourth grade level) to use poetry to practice basic reading skills. They rhyme, build words, make inferences,...

This vocabulary-in-context strategy can be applied to any book that learners read with you; however the activity here is designed around Byron Byrton's fiction book, Airplane. First, introduce the new words you will learn: attendant,...

Be prepared the next time you're in need of a substitute with a daily plan equipped with an assortment of activities covering subjects math, reading, word work, writing, and science. 

These activities center around acting out a play to help create fluent readers who use expression and emotion. As readers work through the play the first time, they also practice decoding strategies. In small groups of four, they then...

Help your learners understand the parts of speech with this color-coding activity. While reading a short passage, readers circle the nouns with blue, the verbs with red, and the adjectives with green. When they are done, scholars list...

To begin the second year of a health and wellness course, class members review the aspects of social, physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual health investigated the previous year. After completing the...

Act and act, address and address...there are so many words in our dictionary that can function as nouns or verbs. Start this lesson by having your class list as many as they possibly can. When an adequate list presents itself, have your...

Time to get started, and finish up! Budding business scholars get wise to the ways of beginning and ending e-mails. The fourth lesson in a series of nine career education and skills activities examines formal versus informal ways of...

Students consider difficulties involved in students testifying in criminal trials. Through first-hand experience in the position of either a witness to a crime or an investigator, students explain how various factors shape a person's...

Students write a first-person narrative from the perspective of a runaway slave, or a historical character of the period, and present their story orally.

Students define and explore the term "survivor" through the study of real-life stories of survival. They interview a person whom he/she considers to be a survivor, and share their interviews with the class.

Third graders complete a classroom game used to build understanding of two and three-dimensional shapes. Diagonals, sides, regularity, congruency, angle measurements, parallels, perpendicular, faces, and edges are a few of the vocabulary...