Elephants lend themselves to lots of classroom themes: circus, jungle, zoo,the letter E… Enjoy some elephantine fun in your classroom. Make elephant handprints by having kids dip their hands into gray paint and then, with fingers spread, press their hands onto paper. Turn the handprint over when it dries and… Continue reading
Think of a lesson that combines careful observation, patience, art, technology, storytelling, and investigation. Photography! We’re excited to have some advice from Annie Griffiths, author of National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs and A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel: My Journey in Photographs. Griffiths was one of the first female… Continue reading
A dragonfly was flying along through a jungle in the Philippines, and stopped to rest on the branch of a tree. The monkeys who lived in the tree ran over, chattering, and told her to leave. “This is our tree!” they jeered. “You can’t sit here!” “I am so… 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… Continue reading
The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Aesop’s fables, also done by Jean de La Fontaine. You can read it, and admire one of Rackham’s illustrations for it, here. A shorter and easier version is online here. Jerry Pinkney has done a beautiful picture book version. Janet Stevens created a… 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
We’ve looked at the absolute basics for creating a teacher website that will make a positive impression and be useful to students and parents. We’ve given you some ideas for using your website for more than just a page with your name on it. And we’ve provided some resources… Continue reading
