Various ways of making Christmas trees, wreaths, cards, gifts, and ornaments. Suitable for elementary students. (AP)

Presents over 30 activities designed to introduce elementary school children to opera. Also provides a synopsis of and student activities for three specific operas ("Hansel and Gretel,""The Mikado,""Aida") and a short article about opera star Luciano Pavarotti. (SJL)

Presents ideas for classroom activities for use with kindergarten children. Several of the activities have a Halloween-related theme. (JMB)

Suggestions are made for activities that combine the teaching of math and science. Math concepts include: graphing, estimating, measurement, statistics, geometry, and logic. Science topics include: plant reproduction, solar system, forces, longitude and latitude, Earth's magnetic field, nutrition, and heat. (IAH)

Offers a strategic activity to help teachers learn to use portfolios for evaluating students' work. Step-by-step information is provided in diagram form. Steps include beginning the portfolios, defining the purpose, selecting contents, discussing self-reflection, reviewing portfolios, evaluation by peers, and portfolio send-home. (SM)

Suggestions to help elementary educators teach students to use adjectives sparingly yet effectively include presenting and discussing definitions of adjectives from grammar books, incorporating models of adjective use from literature, explaining redundant adjective use, avoiding grammar exercises that require rewriting to add adjectives, and…

This article presents several punctuation activities that help students practice dialogue-writing skills. Teachers can help their students become intrepid reporters by providing them with story ideas or by inviting them to develop their own "scoops." In addition, comic strips can also be used for dialogue-writing practice.

It is easy for intermediate students to get the wrong ideas about the purpose of reading. Educators pay so much attention to decoding and fluency in the early years that children sometimes come to believe that flawless and rapid word recognition is the point. As texts get more demanding or unfamiliar, some of the "good readers" in classes begin to…

Article described a way to help young students develop their vocabulary and word recognition skills. (RK)

Article described how a piece of appropriate music can change a group's mood thereby creating a better environment for learning. (Author/RK)

Article described how a chart story could make a tedious, run-of-the-mill daily chore into an actual, valuable, daily, learning experience. (Author/RK)

Articles suggested how students can learn pinhole photography, developing their compositional styles, developing films without darkrooms, and utilizing existing educational resources for film developing. (RK)

Suggests that metrics need to be taught at an emotional level and lists examples which personalize metric measures for students (e.g., how much can I carry, at what temperature am I cold, how far is it to the grocery store?). (JMB)