Discusses children's fantasies about running away and describes children's books and films that address those feelings. Includes suggestions for creative activities for younger children and middle grade students, including puppets, plays, illustrated maps, and role playing. (LRW)

Describes a Canadian kindergarten class project on birds undertaken as part of the teacher's efforts to support their critical thinking skills through lengthy projects. Presents class discussion excerpts, children's art pieces, and their work in bird-themed booklets to illustrate the construction of horizontal relevance, the nurturance of problem…

Discusses how daily routines in early childhood and primary grade settings can assist young children's developing understanding of time. Notes adaptable activities, including tracking weather, keeping records, talking about activities, creating time lines, celebrating personal milestones, and recording events and changes. Lists ways to integrate…

Describes the practical application of interdisciplinary activities in a fifth-grade classroom. Twenty-eight students participated in a two-month unit which integrated database activities with mathematics, art, English, U.S. history, and public speaking. Illustrates that student leaders were able to understand and construct search strategies,…

Argues that the mass media deprivation experience is a potent means with which to sensitize students to the seductive, yet iron-fisted, grip of the mass media. Offers advice with respect to guiding the experience; describing typical before and after reactions; and identifying theoretical discussion issues. (SR)

Advocates hand making games to save money, and tailoring them to meet individual children's needs, introduce new concepts, develop children's interests, and reinforce curriculum concepts. Provides guidelines for identifying goals and creating self-directing games. Includes specific game ideas and supply lists for a variety of matching, board,…

Discusses the use of IMAX (Image-Maximum) movies for elementary school education. Curriculum support issues are considered; educational resource guides available from the theater as support materials are explained; and field trip experiences are described. A sidebar provides facts about IMAX technology. (LRW)

Impromptu storytelling techniques are creative and interesting ways to introduce children to the adventure and allure of storytelling, which in turn aids their cognitive and social development. Presents several activities designed to elicit impromptu storytelling, including sentence stories, name tales, "every day is special" stories,…

Presents a variety of reading, writing, art, and discussion activities to keep students interested in studying "Romeo and Juliet." Describes using the film version of the play as a companion piece to unify the oral reading. (RS)

Describes using television commercials of opposing products or political positions in a mock courtroom debate to address advertising as a mode of discourse that must be recognized and analyzed. (RS)

Presents four brief essays by teachers addressing "the cost of plagiarism,""involving students the first day,""grammar," and "learning without being taught." (SG)

Considers how the concept of Traveling Literacy Trunk was designed to reach all corners of the state of Oregon with compelling, student-centered, developmentally appropriate writing activities that could be shared with teaching professionals. Outlines 12 steps for developing a Traveling Literacy Trunk. Describes many benefits of the Literacy…

Uses a simple classroom experiment to develop the economic model of monopoly. Introduces students to the nature of the monopoly problem and motivates them to think of the associated effects. Highlights the role of information and fairness ideals in determining economic outcomes. (RLH)

Discusses how linguistic comparisons can be incorporate into foreign language classroom activities. draws on Slobin's (1996) experimental study, which demonstrated the existence of "the thinking for speaking" form of thought and argues that teaching foreign language entails teaching novel "thinking for speaking operations. (Author/VWL)

Describes the author's experiences with a new teaching assignment with a diverse group of students whose problems ranged from gang related arrests to previous school failure. Presents a "reading the postcard" activity. Concludes that the understandings students gain, the cognitive connections they make, and the processes they experience give them…