As the weather warms up, it gets harder to pay attention in class and easier to stare out the window and think about recess. This isn’t the only effect of heat, though. Explore the amazing power of heat with a simple classroom experiment. You’ll need sugar, water, a hot… Continue reading
We can divide the world into biomes, areas that are geographically distinct and have characteristic plants and animals. The desert is different from the rainforest, and the tundra is different from the ocean. Incorporate art, social studies, and science into your classroom with lesson plans focused on the biomes.… Continue reading
Let your classroom be a learning biosphere with a biomes classroom theme. One way to approach this idea is to separate your classroom into five, six, seven, or eight sections, giving each the label of one of the biomes you’re studying. You can create a cave with a refrigerator… Continue reading
Hot air balloons make a great classroom theme. Lighter than air flight seemed a lot more plausible than heavier-than-air flight and was more popular for a long time. Even now, balloon travel is in many ways more exciting than airplane travel. Enjoy a hot air balloon theme as a symbol… Continue reading
Arkansas 4-H Foundation has a wonderful opportunity for students 5-19 in Arkansas. Schoolchildren can submit any 2-dimensional art, including photographs, for consideration in the Art of Farming contest. The contest benefits Arkansas 4-H, which serves thousands of kids in urban and rural Arkansas each year, but participants do not… Continue reading
Insects are extremely different from us, and that’s a hard thing for kids to grasp. When you divide your class into groups during an insect unit, use this almost bug-like method to help kids get how different insects are from humans. An interesting extra tidbit: crickets recognize other members of… Continue reading
One particular day stands out in my mind when I think of junior high teaching. I was presenting a lesson on prehistoric tools. Force and motion, mostly, but a good dose of archaeology and anthropology, too. It’s a fun lesson, and I had a lot of hands-on elements. I was… Continue reading
Sharks are fascinating creatures, very different from us and from fish, and they offer just enough scariness to make an exciting classroom study. Here are two of our favorite approaches to the topic. Basic background: National Geographic has several lesson plans about sharks, including Are Sharks as Dangerous as We… Continue reading
Sounds are caused when an object vibrates, causing vibrations in the medium through which it travels (generally air), which in turn cause vibrations in the ear drum of a listener. Faster vibrations create higher pitched sounds than slower vibrations. To learn about pitch, you can approach the question from… Continue reading
Pluto used to be the ninth planet in the solar system. For a while it was the eighth planet. Now Pluto has been demoted and is no longer a planet at all.You can read the official announcement made in 2006 and see that there are three criteria for planethood,… Continue reading
