We went to visit the Arkansas Air & Military Museum, a specialized museum in Fayetteville, Arkansas. There’s a hangar full of planes and buildings containing military vehicles, engines, and historical displays. Just looking at the planes was the best part for most of us. There were planes and helicopters from… Continue reading
Brazil is the home of the Amazon rainforest, perhaps the most biodiverse land habitat in the world. Learn about Brazil. Begin by creating a mind map about Brazil. Start with what students already know and add to it as you study. Online resources Explore the Amazon with Google… Continue reading
Wilma Rudolph was an exceptional athlete in track and field, a teacher, and an effective worker for civil rights. She is an impressive example of persistence in the face of adversity. Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940, in St. Bethlehem, near Clarksville, Tennessee. She was the 20th of 22 children,… Continue reading
Learning to read analog clocks is harder for modern kids than it was a generation or two ago when kids actually saw analog clocks around. This means that we can sometimes get so focused on this one skill that we don’t get into the concept of time itself. And yet… Continue reading
Our students admire athletes, from their teammates in school sports to professional sports figures. Athlete heroes are a varied group, so every student can find someone he or she can admire. Use our lesson plans to work on research skills and to learn about health. Create an ad. Instead of… Continue reading
In 1856, the steamboat Arabia was heading up the Missouri River to St. Joseph and other pioneer towns with merchandise for the stores that sold provisions to people heading west to the gold fields of California, as well as the people living there in Missouri and Kansas. She hit… Continue reading
Just as you can make a classroom map and add all the places you learn about, you can also make a classroom timeline and add all the events you learn about. One option is to use Timeglider, which describes itself as “like Google Maps, but for time.” We started a… Continue reading
Kites make a terrific classroom theme to wind up the year, or for summer school. Kites were used before written history in many places in the Pacific, from the Solomon Islands to New Zealand. Archaeological evidence and oral history suggest that kites were used for fishing and for ceremonial purposes… Continue reading
Developed in China and brought back to Italy by Marco Polo, fireworks are a sign of celebration all over the world. There is limited agreement about the origins of fireworks. Gunpowder, it is generally agreed, was discovered in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1280 AD) and was used as a… Continue reading
When you study the United States and its three branches of government, you’ll find that the judicial branch includes lots of courts. But one of those courts is particularly important: the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court currently has 9 members. Online resources StreetLaw has an interesting collection of resources for… Continue reading
