We’re curious about the Chromebook. Check out specs for a few: Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook Acer AC700 Chromebook Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook Chromebooks are less expensive than many comparable devices, they have a full-day battery life, they’re easier to navigate, and they’re tops for the combination of… Continue reading
It’s a game, it’s a craft, it’s a keen way to practice following directions! 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
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
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
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
