Describes using book character cards (in trading card format) as a way to share books. (SR)

Presents ideas for starting the school year in a creative way, including: playing a guess-who detective game to acquaint students with each other, involving students in creating a set of resolutions for the year, greeting students with party hats and a warmup craft activity, and creating individual time capsules with students' personal goals. (SM)

Presents five suggestions for using sunflowers to teach elementary students. The ideas include: setting up an exploration table and keeping journals about the plant; taking sunflower measurements and making predictions; reading "Camille and the Sunflowers"; creating sunflower still-lifes; and doing sunflower seed math. A list of…

The present study evaluated the effects of a lag differential reinforcement contingency on 2 students' activity selections using reversal designs. Results showed that the lag contingency was responsible for promoting increased novel selections, engagement in diverse activities, and greater progress with respect to programmed academic activities.

Some children delight in pursuing information about a particular subject. They are excited about facts and theories, and want to know about the "how" as well as the "what" and the "who." They love the challenge of making connections and seeing the ways the pieces of any puzzle or mystery are linked together. On research projects, these young…

This column provides an updated list of thirty online lesson plan sites. Some are general, some specific, and some are geared toward one age level or another. The sites described cover topics ranging from American History to Physics to Astronomy.

The larval stage of a northern casemaker caddisfly provides a creative hands-on activity for students while also introducing them to aquatic insect development and adaptations to stream life. This project is an opportunity to study the role of this invertebrate in the food web of a stream. Using cardboard tubes to fashion a case for a generic…

We created a classroom activity to illustrate factors that may predict suicide. In the activity, students rank 4 fictional individuals in terms of their relative risk for attempting or committing suicide. Students described the activity as "eye-opening," and students who participated in the activity learned more about the warning signs of an…

An expert on vocabulary instruction, Allen reviews what we know as a profession to be of value to students and offers three types of practices that demonstrate meaningful vocabulary instruction. She also describes how vocabulary words can be used as a rich source of assessment. (Contains 1 figure.)

The changing figures of the waxing and waning moon are among the most conspicuous of celestial phenomena and were some of the first to be understood. This paper describes a classroom activity designed to teach children about the phases of the moon.

This article is a description of the artist Claude Monet. The article describes the life and art of Claude Monet, focusing in on his work, Rocks at Bell-Isle, Port-Domois. A brief discussion of the significant elements of the painting is provided. The article also includes a list of discussion questions and suggested classroom activities.

The exercise that this author calls "TRAFFIC" encourages student-centered classroom discussions that aid students in better understanding the reflective, affective, and effective components of oral communication practice. Entering a dialogue is akin to being in traffic, and traffic is a powerful metaphor to use when talking with students about…

This paper explores ways in which Western literature can be taught to Non-western students. This paper demonstrates that non-western values do not have to be overcome but rather Western values can be highlighted and reinforced to deal with literary complexity. Values and ideals such as freedom, self-identity, religion, feminism, and equality are…

Glaciers are an excellent subject for elementary social studies classes. Their effects are easy for students to model with inexpensive teaching supplies, such as sand and ice. Students can conduct research nationally with virtual field trips or locally with real field trips. The models and research can be used as starting point for a discussion of…

This article draws from a larger study based in South Texas that examines the professional and personal narratives of 63 Latina/o preservice educators preparing to teach in bilingual classrooms. Using qualitative methods, we collected data where participants' voices and opinions regarding U.S. immigration issues were documented during classroom…