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
Yesterday we talked about linking to resources, but sometimes you may want to put classroom resources directly into the page. Here is one of the pages for my faculty website with a PowerPoint presentation embedded into it. My students are old enough to access it on their own, and I… Continue reading
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in your classroom! Hold the margaritas, obviously, but otherwise it’s fiesta time! The first thing is to be sure not to call May 5 “Mexican Independence Day.” Mexico has an Independence Day in September. Cinco de Mayo is a day to celebrate the victory of a… Continue reading
Most of the classroom and faculty webpages we saw as we randomly wandered school websites really didn’t have any layout at all. With some excellent exceptions, faculty pages tend to have a box or two randomly placed on the page: In these examples, the school provides a frame that keeps… Continue reading
Music makes information more memorable, trains the brain, and makes everything more fun, so you’ll find music in lots of our lesson plans on all kinds of subjects. Music is also worth studying for itself. Here are some of our music lesson plans: Pitch Rhythm Dynamics Blues Rock Ballads… Continue reading
Dynamics in music are one of the hardest things to get across, yet they are one of the easiest ways to improve the sound of your musical performances. If you want your next in-class kazoo concert or your next serious performance for the parents to sound much more polished and… Continue reading
In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf to introduce the instruments of the orchestra to children. There is probably still no better way to do it. The story is simple yet exciting: Peter disobeys his grandfather and goes into the woods, where he sees some animals, all of whom… 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
Recognizing and practicing with rhythms is an important pre-reading skill, and it can be both calming and energizing — something you’ll appreciate at this point in the year! How can you teach about rhythm if you’re not a musician? Here are some easy ideas using books, recorded music (your… Continue reading
FreshPlans was launched on April 18th, 2010, so it’s our first birthday today. In our first year, we’ve had more than 136,000 visitors from 174 countries and territories. Thank you so much for helping to make our first year great! Continue reading
