Learners study how shapes can be divided into equal parts, that each part be equal to its counterpart, and combining parts equals one whole. They make the shapes out of modeling clay and take digital pictures of its parts to create an...

Unlock the keys to fluent multiplication with this upper-elementary math instructional activity. After an introduction to the five properties of multiplication, students match cards with different math problems to posters...

Take a moment in your Harry Potter unit to assess comprehension. Readers use knowledge gained for the text and from their own experience to answer seven questions based on events in chapters four and five of Harry Potter and...

Why was Sir Newton so important to the field of science? Pupils discuss his contributions, specifically his Third Law, as they learn about gravity and the center of mass. They work multiple problems to ensure their understanding and...

One must obey the sine laws. A instructional activity introduces and derives the Law of Sines for non-right triangles. With examples that use the Law of Sines to determine unknown measures in triangles, the instructional...

Let's see how complicated we can make this simple task. The last activity associated with a 10-part series has groups design and build a Rube Goldberg machine. Teams determine a simple task to accomplish and use the engineering design...

Harper Lee's classic tale of Scout Finch's experience with prejudice and racism, To Kill a Mockingbird, provides the text for a 23-clue crossword puzzle.

Europe was changing in the early nineteenth century, and the Congress of Vienna largely sought to slow and contain those sweeping changes. A slideshow presentation illustrates the details of the Congress of Vienna, including its three...

It's a piece of pizza! Pupils learn about a sector of a circle as a slice of the circle and determine how to find its area. Scholars continue to find out how to calculate the segment of a circle based on the sector's area. At the end,...

Fifth graders conduct Internet research about the governmental balance of power. They create Kidspiration projects demonstrating the workings of the three branches of government. They compare U.S. democracy with other forms of government.

To better understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression, pupils analyze two primary resources: photographs by Dorothea Lange and a U.S. Map that shows the Dust Bowl. They compare and contrast Lange's images to Steinbeck's...

Save the Lofty Trees, by Leslie Mills, provides the text for a study of the roles of animals and humans in the forest. Richly detailed, the plan offers two approaches to the play: as a scenario for children to imagine what actions would...

Let the learners take the driving wheel! The class solves systems of linear equations and applies the concepts of systems to solve a real-world situation about parking cars and buses. They then use calculators to create a visual of their...

J.K. Rowling's world of wizards and magic focuses on some topics that relate to our own society, especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Have kids complete a KWHL chart (what they know, what they want to know, how...

Before beginning The Grapes of Wrath, readers create a KWHL chart recording what they already know about the Dust Bowl, the author, and the book, what they want to know, and where they might find answers to these questions. After reading...

Create colorful cool or warm butterflies with simple materials. Class members draw their designs, spray the marker to diffuse the colors, and attach pipe cleaners to form the shape of a butterfly with antennae. Individuals must be able...

Whodunnit? Find out who killed Mr. Brooks through a logical examination of evidence. Class members fill out a couple of data tables to help them pin down the suspect. After they've figured out just who the culprit is, pupils compose...

What is your dream for a better world? After reading a short article about Dr Martin Luther King, kids identify something they would like to see changed, the steps that could be followed to make the dream a reality, and the effects these...

How can the circulatory system compare to a city map? Pupils distinguish the "roadways" and "vehicles" of the cardiovascular system, compare the anatomy and function of veins and arteries, and review different types of blood cells with...

Sometimes the most important details of an informational text aren't within the text at all. Teach your class how to read timeline with a set of activities that prompts them to find specific dates and events on the timelines, as well as...

Lead your class in exploring their local communities as well as the general environment. As they determine continental distributions by investigating minerals, rocks, and fossils located in their local region, pupils construct...

Show young chemists what a chemical reaction looks like with two parts of a hands-on experiment. First, learners conduct a wet lab where they observe the reactants (baking soda and calcium chloride, with phenolsulfonphthalein)...

Enhance your states of matter lessons with a hands-on science investigation that compares six different balls' color, texture, size, weight, ability to bounce, and buoyancy. 

Teaching linear function relationships using contextual information is beneficial to pupils' understanding. The lesson uses problem solving to build linear functions given different information for each problem. This is the second...