Mesopotamia, meaning “between the rivers,” was the cradle of civilization. Explore the people who lived here thousands of years ago with a couple of our favorite Mesopotamia lesson plans. These two lessons are designed to give a sense of time and place for ancient Mesopotamia, while integrating critical thinking, math,… Continue reading
Paris is one of the great cities of the world. We visited the City of Lights and enjoyed long walks, fine art, and amazing food. The older parts of Paris are filled with stunning architecture and many places to explore. There are wonderful new parts… Continue reading
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf is a classic of children’s literature. Ferdinand Lesson Plan 1: Be Yourself Ferdinand the Bull is different from all the other bulls. They prefer to romp around and fight, while Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell flowers. His mother,… Continue reading
With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, it’s a great time to learn the geography of Ireland. Any time of year is a great time to improve geography skills, actually, and you can use these ideas with other places, too, but I’ve got some great links for your Ireland study.… Continue reading
Are you bringing Christmas into the classroom, perhaps along with other winter holiday celebrations? Check out our Christmas Around the World and Christmas literature lesson plans. Continue reading
Gazpacho for Nacho by Tracey Kyle with illustrations by Carolina Farias is a charming book filled with teachable moments. The name of this tiny muchacho was Nacho and all he would eat was a soup called gazpacho. This pretty well sums up the story: Nacho won’t eat anything else.… Continue reading
Christmas in Spain begins on December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and continues through Epiphany, of Three Kings Day, in January. A few days before Christmas the national lottery drawing takes place, and 75% of Spaniards participate in it — including schoolchildren, who sing the winning numbers as… Continue reading
In the Netherlands, Saint Nicolas comes bearing gifts on December 5th, Sinterklaasavond, or Saint Nicolas’s Eve. December 6th is the feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Saint Nicolas arrives by steamboat from Spain with his helper Zwarte Piet. Saint Nicolas rides a white horse and there is a… Continue reading
Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith who was also known as George Gist (or perhaps Guist or Guess), developed the Cherokee syllabary and has become a hero not only to the Cherokee, but for all Americans. His image is on one of the doors of the Library of Congress, in the… Continue reading
Cherokee is one of the few Native American languages with its own writing system. Perhaps in part because of this, Cherokee is also one of the few Native American languages which has a growing — not a shrinking — number of speakers. Studying about the Cherokee writing system can not… Continue reading
