This nonfiction article, written for students in grades 4-5, explores blue whales, their food chain, and their home in the Southern Ocean. Modified versions are available for students in younger grades.

This lesson explores some ideas in the Preamble to the Constitution. Students learn that the power to govern belongs to the people who have created the government to protect their rights and promote their welfare.

This formative assessment item is used to uncover student ideas about solar radiation. Students will decide what they believe the sun provides to Earth. It is aligned to National Science Education Standards. Resources are provided to give additional information, as well as instructional suggestions.

This lesson offers students the opportunity to play the role of voters with special interests. Students draw up initiatives for new classroom or school rules. Students listen to other students’ interests, provide justifications for new rules, and prioritize initiatives for ballot consideration.

In this lesson from the We the People: The Citizen & Democracy textbook, students will learn a very simple definition of democracy from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The lesson introduces the essential elements of a democracy, which is a country where the people have the right to make all the rules and laws either directly or by means of elected representatives. The teacher's goal for the lesson is to help students understand what it means for a democracy to be a government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people.

In this activity, students make a poster illustrating their “best freedom.” They discuss individual freedoms they have at school and as Americans and then focus on the freedom they enjoy most. Access to this resource requires a free educator login.

A lesson where students explore the effects of gravity (Better Lesson). This is part of unit on motion. Lessons 6 and 7 deal with gravity.

In this activity, students discuss the notion of time and how time can be measured. They build an hourglass to measure time and test it. This activity will allow students to have a better understanding of time and the instruments that can be used to measure it.

Students investigate three-dimensional objects. They compare what constellations look like when seen from different angles. They make a model of a constellation and look at it from different sides to discover that the relative position of the stars changes depending on our perspective. They understand that stars are not located on the same plane and or the same distance.

This article provides links to interactive web sites and lesson plans for teaching about paleontology, dinosaurs, and archaeology in the elementary classroom.

This formative assessment item uncovers student understanding of weather and seasons. It uncovers student ideas about differences in seasons depending on whether a person lives in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, or along the Equator. The probe follows along with National Science Education Standards. Resources are available to assist teachers in background information as well as lesson ideas dealing with the seasons of the world.

This formative assessment item uncovers students' prior knowledge about the distribution of penguin species throughout the world. Teacher resources are given, including information about the content, instructional strategies as well as alignment to The National Science Education Standards. Additional resources include information, pictures, and lesson ideas involving penguin facts.

This article provides a lesson plan that teaches elementary students to write poems about home using sensory language and imagery. Examples of student work are provided.

This formative assessment item discusses common misconceptions about volcano location around the world. Resources include background and content information as well as alignment to the National Science Education Standards. The probe could easily be modified to be used with a study of earthquakes instead of volcanoes. Teachers can access other resources including facts about volcanoes and lesson ideas.

This nonfiction article, written for students in grades 4-5, explores the life of the arctic wolf. Modified versions are available for students in younger grades.

This article provides ideas for integrating art into a science unit on mammals and discusses how such integration can enhance student engagement and understanding.

Listen and respond to a Paiute story.
Explore art making, using chalk or crayons.
Create a project depicting one of the scenes in the book.
This lesson was written in partnership with Dorena Martineau, the Paiute Cultural Resource Director, and was approved by the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah’s Tribal Council. Before teaching this lesson, please explain to your students that there are many indigenous tribes in the United States and that this lesson Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Seal focuses on the five bands of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and does not represent other Native American groups. It is the hope of the Paiutes that other native tribes will respect their choice to share this aspect of their culture.

Using this lesson plan as a guide, students will use simple materials to build their own windmills and learn how wind can be used to help get work done.

This hyperdoc collects some great ways to engage our students in the Winter Olympic Games.