Do your students think that Ancient Egypt happened and then Ancient Greece happened and then Ancient Rome happened — and so on? We love teaching history and geography in units, but we don’t like the way students learn to think of civilizations and time periods as completely distinct from one… Continue reading
Rome was at first a village providing a central space for shepherds and farmers living in the hills of what is now Italy. By 753 BC, the city of Rome had come into being, named for its first king, Romulus. There were kings until about 509 BC, when the Roman… Continue reading
The Sea King’s Daughter is a lesser-known fairy tale from a Russian ballad. In the story, a young musician descends to the home of the Sea King and plays for a wild party — which, he learns, sets the seas raging and endangers the ships above. He marries the… Continue reading
Haunted houses are part of mythology and urban legends in many places and times. They make a good topic for lessons with art, social studies, and writing. Depending on your population, you can put them together with ghost stories for a great genre lesson, use them for Halloween or architecture… Continue reading
National Constitution Day is September 17th. It can be challenging to come up with something for Constitution Day. For one thing, it kind of sneaks up on you right at the beginning of the school year when you are still getting classroom routines under way. For another, lesson plans… Continue reading
Avast, me proud beauties! Are your classrooms seaworthy? Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and I know you won’t want to miss it. Our Pirate theme page has lots of links and resources. It’s too late for bulletin board suggestions, so let’s jump right into online resources: The… Continue reading
The story of Atlantis, the wonderful kingdom that sank beneath the ocean, captures student imaginations and provides terrific teachable moments for science, literature, and social studies. The only written record of Atlantis, and the origin of the story, is in the Dialogues of the Greek philosopher Plato, where he writes… Continue reading
“Retrofuture” refers to earlier ideas about what our current time would be like. Now that we’ve hit the 21st century, we have lots to choose from — people making predictions in the 1900s often chose the 21st century to write or draw or make movies about. Have your students explore… Continue reading
A Travel Classroom Theme can be exciting, and you can easily bring in geography, literature, and all kinds of social studies. Set the mood by decorating with around the world flair: Cut window or porthole frames for your bulletin board and fill them with travel posters showing different exotic… 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
