Fifth graders investigate the journey that Magellan took around the world. Small groups conduct research on a ship that went on Magellan's voyage, write the story of their ship, and create a class dance that demonstrates the route taken...

Students read Two Eyes, A Nose, and A Mouth by Roberta Grobel Intrater. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding faces and facial features. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and...

Though text heavy, these nine slides present clear instructions for each stage of the research method that students should use to organize information about Saguaro Cacti. A good introduction to organizing research for a writing...

Youngsters create science journals which are used to record observations from the school garden. The goal of this activity is to help kids tune into nature by making daily observations on the growth of the plants, and also to take note...

Students work across grade levels to research and design a community awareness campaign on the benefits of purchasing fair trade chocolate. They develop print advertisements, conduct research, write letters, make posters and prepare oral...

Second graders examine The Learning Page Fact Files about ocean life and categorize the data by weight and group. They distinguish between fish, mammals, and invertebrates and which weigh the most and the least. Students record their...

Students research and develop a Report of Information for a research paper. They select a topic, write 5-10 interesting questions, research and take notes, create an outline, and write paragraphs.

Research the history of the Boston Tea Party. Learners read the book The Boston Tea Party and write down important facts. They use the Internet to continue their research and construct an art project of a boat that contains a tea bag.

Students explore the topic of underage drinking. They find a focus and write a news feature/analysis that reports on what the community is doing to prevent underage drinking and some assessment of the extent of the problem.

Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. In this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...

A 15-page packet includes detailed plans for three activities related to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. To gather background information, class members research topics and create a newspaper page reporting their findings. After finishing...

Students explore the influence of the landscape of Ireland on shaping the poetry of William Butler Yeats. They work in groups researching the growth of the Irish Nationalist Movement, Celtic origins, invasions, and the impact on the...

Save that site! Budding historians go on a rescue mission to save important Civil War battle sites using a project-based lesson plan. After carefully researching the importance of critical engagements and evaluating current threats,...

Divide your geography class into groups and have each research an assigned region. The result of this project is a regional magazine that addresses the five themes of geography. Many valuable resource links are embedded into the...

Help young writers with the daunting prospect of a five-paragraph essay. Using William Golding's Lord of the Flies, learners work through a short process to shore up their brainstorming and prepare to write a longer essay.

Fifth graders research one of the 50 U.S. States that they were unfamiliar with.  In this U.S. Geography lesson, 5th graders utilize encyclopedias as well as the Internet to research a chosen U.S. State in order to write a report....

Convey how to determine appropriate and credible online sources with a series of three lessons. After completing the lessons, class members will know what kinds of sources to use, how to identify credible sources, and how tone and style...

Following a brief video, two teams play against each other to read clues from a card and guess which occupation it describes. The team that guesses the most correctly wins. A quick-write poses several questions about one's dream job.

Develop historical analysis and interpretation with your older students. They will study and analyze three given interpretations of Christopher Columbus' life, which includes significant events, his character, and the impact he made on...

Students research the American Revolution. In this Revolutionary War lesson, students research facts about the American Revolution, write an expository essay, and peer edit for good content. The paper is suggested to be written after...

To understand their time spent online, class members chart their use of technology during early morning hours, during school, after school, in the evenings, and on weekends. They then read several reports about how social media...

Water covers more than 70 percent of Earth's surface. Scholars learn about both freshwater and saltwater biomes in a simple presentation. They compare and contrast the differences in oxygen levels, food sources, and sunlight to better...

How do authors use rhetorical devices and word choice to emphasize their ideas? Pupils consider the question while reading paragraphs 16–19 from Julia Alvarez's essay "A Genetics of Justice." Readers engage in evidence-based discussion...

Middle school earth scientists describe the behavior of the Coriolis force. They compare and contrast conditions under which the Coriolis force has a significant impact with conditions under which it has very little. They model the...