Cooperative Conjectures

Young scientists explore the animal kingdom from the safety of the classroom with this short research project. After first choosing an animal, children use the Internet to discover where it lives, what it eats, and how it...

Super scientists visit ten stations to predict, observe, and draw conclusions about the physical and chemical changes that occur when different states of matter—liquid, solid, and gas—are placed under a variety of conditions. To...

Here is a fabulous set of activities for your young scientists. Each lesson contains map, hands-on, and game activities that will help the class understand why and how animals migrate from one place to another. First they'll examine the...

It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...

Read about the ways that different cultures set up homes with a set of reading activities. Learners read short paragraphs that cover one or more different ideas, and answer four questions about what they have read, including whether or...

Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...

Boost observational skills with an inquiry-based lesson that takes scholars on a virtual field trip. With help from webcams, learners observe animals in a zoo or aquarium. Observations go into a journal and a discussion is held to review...

Introduce your class to fairy tales with this lesson. After reading the fractured fairy tale, "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig," third, fourth, and fifth graders write a personal narrative as a response to the fairy tale....

Dive into animation creation using Dreamworks® animated films. Compare and contrast characters, wonder and ponder why the plot is so important, and think of background and themes as your creativity unrolls onto paper.

Class discussions can really make concepts come to life. The class discusses the differences between compare and contrast, read a book, then talk about ways they can compare events or characters in the story. Good leading question are...