Classroom subject areas
The Blues are an important American musical form. Here’s a classroom lesson plan that works on poetry as well as listening skills. Listen to some blues: Blues Journey and Texas Blues at Artsedge; you can explore further with related lesson 12 Bar Blues . Even Kids Get The Blues by the… Continue reading
April is National Poetry Month. Most of us teach poetry at some time, for some reason. Whether it’s nursery rhymes for essential pre-reading skills for the littlest students or sonnets for the AP exam, rhymes to help remember math facts or opportunities to express emotion in acceptable forms, most… Continue reading
A KML (Google Earth) file of Civil War Battlefields to download: Battles of the U.S. Civil War. Each map point has a link to a description of the battle that took place there. Clarence Woodcock is the author. More resources on the Civil War in Google Earth: A Google Earth… Continue reading
We went to Pea Ridge National Military Park to learn more about the Civil War. We have a couple of battlefield parks here where we live, and we find it sobering to stand where so many lost their lives. It’s also very interesting. Pea Ridge has excellent interpretive exhibits examining… Continue reading
Novels are a wonderful way to get a deeper sense of a time period, and there are some excellent novels for kids and young adults set during the Civil War. Here are some of our favorites: Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco, is a very touching book, and very sad.… Continue reading
April 2018 marks the 157th anniversary of the American Civil War. The American Civil War took place from 1861 to 1865, and was for much of the nation a turning point in history. More than 600,000 American soldiers died, more than in any other war we’ve fought, and the total… Continue reading
One topic engineers often work with now is renewable energy. Look at some of the types of renewable energy available and how engineers work to harness that energy for people to use. Some online resources about different types of energy: A simple information and worksheet page about different forms of… Continue reading
What is an earthquake? An earthquake is movement of the earth that causes shaking and rolling of the earth. This is generally the result of movement of the tectonic plates of the earth, though some recent quakes where I live have, some say, been caused by unsafe methods of… Continue reading
All of the things we make are made from materials of one kind or another. Sometimes they’re made from raw materials, and sometimes we have to make the materials first before we can make objects from them. The science of materials at its simplest is suitable for preschool classes,… Continue reading
Engineering for k-12? It’s not that wild an idea, especially with math and engineering magnet schools springing up around the country. Engineers are problem solvers who use math, science, and creativity to make things work better. These are skills we’ll all find useful in the 21st century. As it happens,… Continue reading
