Beacon Lesson Plan Library

   Lesson Plans - Learner Level 3

• 100 Years...100 Movies (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After students choose one of the top 100 movies to view, they research critical reviews and then write their own reviews.

• 101 Equals Five (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students enjoy this engaging activity (with a twist) on the binary system. The lesson begins with an intriguing roll playing to gain interest.

• 2004 Summer Olympics Internet Scavenger Hunt (Authored by Elana Collins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Have you ever been on a scavenger hunt? Have you ever been on one using the Internet? In this activity, students will participate in an Internet scavenger hunt as they search for the answers to questions about the 2004 Summer Olympics.

• 3rd Rock from the Sun’s Baby Rock (Authored by Nicole Micheau.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students have a chance to actively see each phase of the moon and make connections to what they see in the sky when you show how the moon goes through each of the phases.

• 50:50 Chances (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the fifth lesson in the unit, Where We Come From. Students reinforce the probability of gender by using a coin toss, as they continue to search for the answers to genetics questions by using mathematical expectations of probability.

• A Bubble Full of Math (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a fun way for students to compare estimated lengths with actual lengths.

• A Field Guide for Student Identification (Authored by Kathryn Clark.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Dr. M.N. Stair needs help identifying monsters he has collected in the field! Students have fun learning how to use and create a dichotomous guide by identifying cartoon monsters. Students then apply what they have learned to create a dichotomous guide to identify fellow students.

• A Geographic Study of Florida’s Diverse Community (Authored by Kathy Corder.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use an outline map of Florida and the Internet to identify major population centers and their demographic features.

• A Geopoem about Alaska (Authored by Joyce Honeychurch.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gather information on the physical and human characteristics of Alaska (geographic theme PLACE).They organize this information on a concept map to be transformed into a geopoem about Alaska.

• A Graphic Scene (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using collected information, students compare and contrast characters from various texts within a Venn Diagram.

• A Latin Square Deal (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use four squares of geometric design to create a pattern.

• A Moment in Time (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A moment in time before shooting a foul shot or the moment right before a runner steals a base can make for a fascinating poem. Students study poems to see how punctuation, line length, rhythm and word choice can be used to create a memorable moment.

• A Mysterious Roll-Back Can (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Amaze students with a can that rolls away a few feet, mysteriously stops, hesitates, and then rolls back to where it started. Then introduce Newton and his Second Law.

• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast characters from various texts and compile the collected information into several graphic organizers.

• A Short, Short Story (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students must write an original short story that cannot contain over 100 words.

• A Whole New World (Authored by Susan Klement.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students learn about significant people, events, vocabulary and ideas regarding the hardships settlers faced including how and why some new American colonies became successful.

• Acrostic Poetry (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using newspapers or magazines, students create an acrostic poem where words are divided into parts of speech.

• Actions Speak Louder than Words (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: No matter how good a written speech is, the delivery is what the audience remembers. Learning about and practicing volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation helps students to deliver an oral presentation effectively.

• Alaska the Elephant (Authored by Joyce Honeychurch.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The global location of Alaska is established when the shape of a map of Alaska is identified as a silhouette of an elephant that moves to reach for contiguous (or nearby) geographic neighbors--and, indeed, to overlay a part of Canada.

• Alike, Different, or Both? (Authored by Christy Simms.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast two characters from the play [The Diary of Anne Frank] on a Venn diagram and write a paragraph showing similarities and differences.

• All's Well That Ends Well (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Beginning and ending are two of the most important parts of a speech! The middle is rather important also. Students check out the importance of organizing a speech.

• An American Spy with Money To Spend (Authored by Joyce Honeychurch.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Teachers can teach across the curriculum as students use imagination, math, reading, computer, geography, and social studies skills in this unique, innovative, and fun lesson where students pretend to be international spies!

• Analogies (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about relationships between words and then are expected to figure out the missing word for a list of analogies. This lesson is a good lesson to use with ESOL students or students who are having difficulty with word relationships.

• And Your Point Is . . .? Part I (Authored by Lois Christensen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is Part I of a two-part series. Part I introduces students to point of view through a structured WebQuest. Part II (See Weblinks) extends understanding through student engagement in a variety of debate activities.

• And Your Point Is . . .? Part II (Authored by Lois Christensen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is Part II of a two-part series. Part I introduced students to point of view through a structured WebQuest. (See WebLinks.) Part II extends understanding through student engagement in a variety of debate activities.

• Angle Aerobics (Authored by Amy Gunn.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson introduces students to names of angles. It provides an action activity and then a follow up worksheet to assess.

• Animals in Research - Right or Wrong? (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research and discuss a sensitive or controversial issue and attempt to make a decision based on group findings.

• Are They the Same or Different? (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a graphic organizer, students synthesize and separate collected information.

• Are you a Sexual Harasser? (Authored by Sandra Sicbaldi.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain insight into forms of sexual harassment, and learn techniques to avoid threatening situations, unwanted effects, dating violence, myths and school and state laws governing sexual harassment.

• Are You Moody? (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Are you moody? Is a novel? Students continue their study of the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved] and their examination of literary techniques the author uses to grab their attention.

• Are You Ready for Personal Independence? (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through class discussion and self evaluation, students will discover what independence means to different individuals.

• Ask the Antlion (Authored by Jack Petersen.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about basic biological principles through using the scientific processes of observation and recording as they examine live insects (antlions).

• Atom and Eve (Authored by Rebecca Renfro.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will use a concept map to define and share their information about the Hydrogen atom. They will construct a model of a Hydrogen atom using simple, low-cost materials.

• Attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Authored by Rae Harrelson.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students hear a story about the atomic bombing of Japan and write an editorial about the event from the perspective of either a Japanese or an American.

• Attracting an Audience with Purpose (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Making sure that the purpose of an oral presentation or speech, and the intended audience are compatible will help students become good speakers.

• Attractive Adjectives (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This ESOL lesson, that is part 3 of a unit, reviews nouns and verbs, then introduces adjectives. Students learn to identify and use adjectives in sentences, identify them in listening activities, and review all three in a commercial.

• Bag It (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a paper bag or a gift bag, students create a book report providing information on the elements of the book.

• Balanced Students (Authored by Albert Baggott.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a hands-on activity to investigate the relationships between weights and the distance of the weights from the fulcrum in a balanced 1st class lever.

• Bargain Town, USA (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Designed to follow your instructions about converting number forms, this lesson is a real-world application of the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percents.

• Base It (Authored by Melanie Malone.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: To expose students to number systems other than the decimal system and explain why we need to know these systems (binary: electronics and computers; octal and hexadecimal: flight test, computers)

• Batty Facts (Authored by Carol Cline.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Go batty! Students use a KWL chart as a prereading strategy to organize and display their knowledge of bats, nocturnal animals.

• Be a “Source”erer’s Apprentice (Authored by Jan Curtis.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students sharpen research skills by studying primary and secondary sources. When students know what kind of sources are available, they can find exciting stories, facts, and photographs which can make history come alive.

• Become a Detective (Authored by Shannon Flynn.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Everyone loves a mystery and now your students can be the detectives! In this lesson, students read a mystery story while searching for clues to help predict the outcome. They record the outcome then finish the story to see how well they predicted.

• Benefits Are All Around (Authored by Brent Johns.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the potential fitness benefits of various activities and the places in the community that they can experience these benefits.

• Better to Tell the Truth (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is to teach students to distinguish between emotional and logical arguments in advertising.

• Big on Biography (Authored by Lorinda Luther.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select a person to research for biographical information. Utilizing resources in the Media Center, students record information on note cards; students then interpret and categorize information for appropriate placement on a graphic organizer.

• Bio-Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a biographical poem about themselves using an easy formula.

• Biographical Research Paper (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using resource materials, students write a biographical research paper.

• Book Jeopardy (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students participate in a fun, educational game of -Book Jeopardy- which can be used to review material before a comprehensive test on any novel.

• Book Selling Project (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create an oral presentation that uses a visual aid to sell their books to their classmates with the goal of trying to get their classmates interested in reading the book.

• Book Share (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students meet in small groups to reflect on and share their thoughts after reading a short story, poem, chapter in a novel, etc.

• Boom and Fizz (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Boom and Fizz is a thrilling discovery of physical and chemical changes. It combines an engaging teacher demonstration with a hands-on student lab experience.

• Brain Game (Authored by Katherine Leftwich.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a fun lesson that challenges the student’s ability to respond to stimuli that are mixed word/color messages. (Responses to changes in the environment/stimuli)

• Brainstorm This! (Authored by Jena Lewis.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about brainstorming, and how to effectively use this prewriting tool for four different writing tasks - persuasive writing, expository writing, character development, and the development of vivid and precise details for any subject.

• Break It Down (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This engaging game may be used as a group activity for the reinforcement of identifying word parts. It could be modified to be used as individual assessment of the same skill.

• Broadcasting World War II (Authored by Richard Johnson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and perform radio broadcasts relating to events and situations that affected American society in World War II. They test their listening skills during these broadcasts. They practice by responding to tasks like those found on the FCAT.

• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (Authored by Martha Simmons.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an introductory lesson on the Great Depression. Students discuss the Great Depression and the impact that it had on American Society and teens during that era.

• Bubbles Everywhere! (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The lesson is a fun way to practice measurement, and circle and sphere formulas. It can easily be adapted to fit any level of circle exploration.

• C is for Cookie-A MEAN-ingful Graphing Activity (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in groups to dissect a variety of brands of chocolate chip cookies and calculate the mean for each brand. Students create their own bar graphs, pictographs, and line graphs to represent information

• Calling All Cartographers (Authored by Jane Cunningham.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a map lesson. The class participates in a discussion and completes the class K-W-L chart. This allows for review of terminology, symbols, types of maps, etc. Students assist in instruction by drawing symbols they remember on the board. The students begin the culminating activity in class which is to draw a map which will contain their home and a 3-street radius (or its equivalent) of where they live. Next they gather in groups to make oral observations regarding the maps which they have viewed.

• Can We Live Without Government? (Authored by Clifford Snipe.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson helps students understand the role that government plays in the lives of its citizens and how the government protects individual rights.

• Can You Calculate the Speed of Your Pet? (Authored by Edward Williams.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is the fastest wind up toy pet? In this lesson students will explore how to calculate the speed of wind up toy pets, average the speeds and identify the correct units of measure of speed.

• Can You Figure Language? (Authored by Robin Ziel.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Everyone always compares themselves to someone else, however, can they understand figurative language or compare two dissimilar objects? This lesson teaches similes and metaphors and how to understand and create them.

• Can You Hear Me Now? (Authored by Miriam Buchanan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will explain steps to guide another student to reproduce a drawing. Students will also do peer evaluations critiquing articulation abilities.

• Cartesian Classroom (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The classroom is turned into a human Cartesian coordinate plane, thereby introducing students to the characteristics of the coordinate system.

• Cartoon Vocabulary (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A student’s comprehension of a vocabulary word is tested by having the student draw a picture to illustrate the meaning of the word.

• Cell Factory (Authored by Emily Durney.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way for the students to demonstrate their understanding of the basic structures of cells and the essential functions in cells. Students build a model of a factory where each factory part is compared to a cell part via the function.

• Cell Types (Authored by J.P. Hamilton.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create cartoon characters which compare and contrast two types of cells: nerve and muscle. Cartoon characters show how these two cells are similar, how they are different, and the relationship between the two cell types. Cartoons are presented in the form of a slide show presentation. (NETS for Students 3.2)

• Cellular Cellebrities (Authored by Susan Goodman.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in cooperative groups to learn the morphology and function of organelles within plant and animal cells.

• Cemetery of Famous Americans (Authored by Kathy Corder.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students conduct research on a famous American and create a tombstone for a class bulletin board.

• Central Tendency (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson provides students with activities to assist them in determining the mean, mode, and median of given data.

• Changes All Around Us (Authored by Sherri Barber.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After students observe various physical and chemical changes demonstrated in class, they work in groups to create a collage of pictures to illustrate how changes occur all around us.

• Changes in Matter (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is developed to enhance student understanding of physical and chemical changes. It will also review knowledge of the states of matter.

• Changes in the Copper Penny (Authored by Patricia Davison.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a unique and fun way to introduce the difference between a physical change in a substance and a chemical change. The student studies the volume, density, altering shape, and chemistry of a copper penny.

• Changing Twines: Exploring Area and Perimeter (Authored by Jessica McDonald.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this fun, hands-on activity, students actively engage to determine the relationships between area and perimeter measurements! Students are challenged to discover, prove, and write mathematical conjectures.

• Character and Choices: Dickens' A Christmas Carol (Authored by Jeff Gillard.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this three week lesson, the teacher provides instruction in the basic elements of literature. By reading Dickens' novel students are provided the opportunity to understand how their choices can change their attitudes and behavior.

• Character and Plot Development Through Comics (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to character, plot development, point of view, and tone through the use of comic strips. Students identify these four attributes in the comic strip and present their findings to the class.

• Character Traits and People in Black History (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a one-page biographical essay and write in paragraph form how an African American has demonstrated a certain character trait.

• Cherries are Positive, Lemons are Negative (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover the rules for adding integers. This lesson should be conducted after students have been introduced to the definition of an integer.

• Cherries are Positive, Lemons are Negative - Part 2 (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Designed to follow Cherries are Positive, Lemons are Negative, this lesson has students discover the rules for subtracting integers.

• Cherries Still Positive, Lemons Still Negative (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Designed to follow the lesson -Cherries are Positive, Lemons are Negative,- this is an introductory lesson on solving simple addition equations with positive and negative integers.

• Chips Ahoy A Thousand Chips In Every Bag (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Nabisco claims to sell 1000 chocolate chips in every 1 pound bag of Chips Ahoy! Students use their problem solving skills and data collection to determine if the claim is true.

• Choice Not Chance (Authored by Rosa Banks.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Fact or fiction: Do the foods we choose affect our health? The student researches diets in a country other than the USA, and compares it to the Food Guide Pyramid analyzing the affect it has on an individual’s health.

• Chris' Culture Club Cruise (Authored by Christine Broyles.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Ride the virtual highway on a field trip to museums, cultural centers, and exhibition spaces to discover exciting roles of public and private facilities. Follow various links on a cultural cruise of new knowledge and make local connections.

• Christmas Around the World (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Every country has its own customs for the celebration of Christmas. This is a look at the customs used in Czecholslovakia and Mexico. Students may have customs from other countries to share.

• Cinderella Around the World (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast two versions of the same fairy tale. Students use a Venn diagram to graphically illustrate the similarities and differences in the two stories.

• Civil War Battle Map (Authored by James Humphrey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way to report geographic information. The student illustrates a blank map to identify 5 Civil War battles.

• Class Act (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Theater (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students in small groups prepare a short videotaped presentation dramatizing a poem.

• Class-I-fy (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students classify pre-selected art class items to see how classification methods are created and used. This activity gives students a greater understanding of why and how classification methods are used in science. The scientific method of categorizing is revealed in this lesson.

• Classified Clues (Authored by Deborah Shaw.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using classified advertisements, students work in groups to draw conclusions and make inferences about the writer of the ad and to whom the ad may appeal.

• Clean Air (Authored by Mary LaLane.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a graphic organizer to clarify information for a presentation.

• Collaborative Compositions (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the final lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to develop, draft, and elucidate information for a research topic. Students work collaboratively to write a paper as practice for the final task of writing their own papers.

• Come Work Out (Authored by Becky West.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to correctly devise warm-up, conditioning and cool-down techniques. Then they are split into groups and work together to come up with correct techniques for an exercise of their choosing.

• Common Commas (Authored by April Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students identify where to place commas in a word series sentence and is appropriate for ESOL students.

• Common Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots (Authored by Deborah Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way for students to identify word parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words by cutting and pasting.

• Computing Costs (Authored by Robert Pauley.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are expected to calculate the out-of-pocket money needed to purchase a discounted item taxed at a certain percentage of sales tax.

• Conservation Critters Anonymous, Etcetera (Authored by Wilma Horton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students access one of the designated Everglades National Park Websites to understand the intricacies of conservation and relationship balance of flora to fauna.

• Constructing a Cell (Authored by Carl Rogers.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students construct a model of a plant or animal cell, using the materials provided to represent each of the different organelles within the cell.

• Construction and Use of an Accelerometer (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is acceleration? The students investigate the concept of acceleration by building and using an accelerometer.

• Contour Drawing (Authored by Becky Hill.)

Subject(s): Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will be introduced to Contour Drawing. They will view examples and non-examples of student contour drawings. After a demonstration of correct technique, the students will produce contour drawings of the top side of their hand.

• Converting Metric Measurements (Authored by Dale Peterson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Converting metric measurements is an essential skill for science students. This lesson offers a formula for helping students learn the process.

• Coping with Verbs (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This ESOL lesson that is week 2 of a unit, gives a review of nouns, introduces verbs, helps students understand how verbs function in sentences, explains verb tenses, and gives visual/verbal/written practice with verbs.

• Crazy Critters are Figuratively Fantastic (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The -Crazy Critters are Figuratively Fantastic- lesson uses creatures created from student’s imaginations to teach hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and alliteration in association with creative writing.

• Crazy Critters Creative Writing Assignment (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During the Crazy Critters creative writing assignment, students develop characters that take part in a narrative involving creatures that reside in a student’s imagination.

• Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech (Authored by Andrea Farage.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During -Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech,- students examine a paragraph they have written to determine the individual strengths and weaknesses of their writing. Included is a specific study of adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, nouns, and verbs.

• Create Your Island Paradise (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Create a descriptive essay and map describing your island paradise.

• Create Your Own Kaleidoscopes (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research Sir David Brewster and his ideas on light. They put into practice one of his ideas by creating an inexpensive kaleidoscope using film canisters, microscope slides and beads, that teaches properties of optics.

• Creating and Interpreting Graphs (Authored by Debra Davis.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use data collected at the beginning of the lesson, such as their favorite brand of sneakers or favorite soft drinks, to create graphs and to interpret the results shown by each graph. Note: This lesson assesses only the creation and interpretation of two types of graphs.

• Creating My Personal Animal ABC Book. (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create an Animal ABC book to present to a young child. Along the way they research specific information about animals.

• Creating Tessellations (Authored by Diane Bates.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Social Studies, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Explore the history of tessellations; then use art and geometry to create an original tessellation.

• Creatures From the Black Lagoon (Authored by Joe Brock.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are taken to an aquatic area such as a small beach zone, bayou, drainage ditch or wetland near the school in an open inquiry lesson to evoke questions from the students regarding their observations. They learn how to use scientific processes in designing experiements that answer the raised questions.

• Critic’s Choice (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read three to five genres and choose one as his or her favorite. Students write an essay persuading the class to read the genre.

• Cruising Cars (Authored by Stephanie Martinez.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Middle school students love cars. They will have the opportunity to analyze, compare and contrast tables/charts, based on given car data. While working in groups students will generate a list of desired car features and create their own table/charts.

• Cruising the Caribbean (Authored by Kevyn Brown.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create 4 postcards by illustrating an island in the Caribbean that they will visit. Each postcard will focus on a different feature (historic landmark, mountains, people). The postcards incorporate photos/pictures with concepts and vocabulary.

• Cultural Effects of The Great Wall of China for the Chinese (Authored by Kathy Easom.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon viewing a power point presentation or a video on China, and reading the lesson in the textbook, the students will show their understanding of how the Great Wall influenced Chinese culture by writing a 3 paragraph essay. Each paragraph will relate to the following aspects: trading, traveling and interaction with other countries and will show how these aspects of the Chinese culture were influenced by the Great Wall. Correct information is essential and if they fail to recall enough for their writing, they may work in groups and refer to the textbook and notes from discussion. A rubric will be discussed prior to instruction, so the student will know how to construct their writing and what they should include.

• Cut It Out (Authored by Tonja Fitzgerald.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a graphic model, students are asked to derive an original formula for calculating the area of an irregular figure. This lesson requires that students use critical thinking, visual perception, and mathematical computation.

• Cutting Up in Class, Fractal Style (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A simple to make, hands-on manipulative, three dimensional, model of fractions, mirror images, tiling, fractals, tessellations, multiplying fractions, dividing fractions, and exponents; created from a single sheet of paper.

• Cylinder Surface Discovery (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Help your students understand the surface area of a cylinder with this simple lesson where students create their own cylinders.

• Dare to be [Punnett] Square (Authored by Dale Peterson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson familiarizes the students with Punnett squares, specifically: purpose, application and interpretation. Key terms from previous lessons (included below) are reviewed/reinforced before data is applied to a Punnett square and interpreted.

• Data Daze (Authored by Ann Campbell.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a short introductory activity to teach students how to read and analyze data from bar graphs, pictographs, and stem-and-leaf plots.

• Dealing with Data (Authored by Ann Hanson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students collect, organize, and display data using a bar graph, line graph, pie graph, or picture graph.

• Debating Women's Rights (Authored by Melissa Aldridge.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students debate the issue of -Women's Rights- and compare women of the past to the women of the present.

• Decoding DNA (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the sixth and final lesson plan in the unit, Where We Come From and is an extension activity that reflects the standards for Marion County Schools in Florida for eighth grade. Students complete their KWL charts from the first lesson of the unit as a review for the summative. Then they decode a secret message using the four basic components of DNA, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.

• Defining Our Community (Authored by Christy Carpenter.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students begin the process of developing a service-learning project by defining their own community and the problems within it.

• Density Destiny (Authored by Julie Sear.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Which is more dense, a block of wood or a glass marble? Students will answer this question as they measure and investigate the densities of several objects.

• Density Discoveries (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Density Discoveries is a hands-on student learning opportunity for students to find the mass, volume, and density of solid matter.

• Density of a Gas (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Gas, like all matter, has mass and volume, therefore, it has a density. Students will investigate the mass, volume, and density of a gas by producing it in a chemical reaction.

• Design a Character (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, [The Witch of Blackbird Pond], students write a character sketch about one of the two main characters, Kit or Hannah Tupper.

• Designing Detectives (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the idea of formulating a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test the hypothesis. This is an introduction to the Unit Plan: Statistical Sleuths.

• Determining the President of 1860 (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The learner will determine who won the U.S. Presidential election of 1860. Students will find the information online, create a database, manipulate a spreadsheet and present findings.

• Diagonal Lengths (Authored by M Dennis.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students collect, organize, and analyze data while studying the Pythagorean Theorem. They measure the length and width of several rectangular objects and compare the measured results to the calculated results

• Diagramming Annabelle Lee (Authored by Susan Taylor.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a Story Diagram Chart and a K-W-L Chart, students examine the parts of the Edgar Allan Poe poem, “Annabelle Lee.”

• Dice Games - How to WIN! (Authored by Wesley Underwood.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way to teach Data Analysis and Numerical Occurrence. The student works with a partner to play a game. Each player gets twelve counters to be placed on the numbers on the game board. The players take turns rolling two dice. On each roll the sum of the two upturned numbers is determined. If the player has a counter on that number the student may remove the counter from the game board. Play continues until one of the players removes all twelve counters from the board.

• Digital Autobiographies (Authored by Lynn Riddle.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students apply technical skills to take photos and enhance their picture, which they include in an original word processing autobiography.

• Dirty Worms (Authored by April Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will learn the actions of earthworms and their effect on soil. The lesson will culminate with an earthworm dissection lab activity.

• Disect a Toon (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is an engaging way to introduce students to the literary elements of setting, plot, and character development.

• Divisibility Buzz (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the divisibility rule for three to compete in the game Divisibility Buzz. This lesson provides enjoyable reinforcement.

• Do-deca-he-dron-It’s Greek to Me! (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is great for reinforcing and demonstrating knowledge of the elements of a short story. Students create a “visual” report of the literary elements with a short story. The report is a 12-sided ball called a dodecahedron.

• Does Word Choice Affect the Quality of a Piece of Writing? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will work in groups to rank a list of words from one extreme to the other, such as cold-hot, love-hate, etc. Groups will share their results with the class. After discussion and upon reviewing model descriptive writing, students will apply their knowledge by making more specific word choices to complete a descriptive writing assignment.

• Dog Gone Good Note Cards (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research a dog breed and create at least three note cards detailing information obtained about the dog breed. This is the first of three lessons that are part of a unit called, "Dog Gone Paw-erful Writing and Presenting with PowerPoint."

• Domino Effect (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate a change from potential energy to kinetic energy and discuss the concept of waves carrying energy.

• Don't Eat Your Words (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using different shapes of macaroni dyed various colors, students work in pairs to apply knowledge of punctuation rules to sentences.

• Double This (Authored by Mary Myers.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Does doubled mean to multiply? Does quotient mean subtraction or division? This activity will provide students practice in changing verbal expression to algebraic equations.

• Dream House (Authored by Amy Gunn.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson should be used as a culmination to a unit on perimeter and area. . Students use scale drawings to solve real world problems problems involving perimeter and area.

• Dream Killers (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is a dream killer? A person? An idea? Students continue their exploration of figurative language and point of view in the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved].

• Dreams, Stars, and Beaches (Authored by Bobbi Shapiro.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students compare their own lives with that of a girl in a tenement building in New York City. Through reading -Tar Beach,- a story by Faith Ringgold, students better understand the hopes and dreams of the less fortunate.

• Dynamic Divisibility (Authored by Tina Davis.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn the rules of divisibility for the numbers 2,3,5,6,9 and 10. Students use these rules to check large numbers for their divisibility.

• Dynamics in Concept and in Action (Authored by Paul Dobson.)

Subject(s): Music (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students perform grade appropriate literature utilizing the specified dynamic indications and respond accurately to the cues of the director.

• Easy Essays Step 1 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the first lesson of a three-step Unit Plan: Easy Essays in Three Steps, designed to guide teachers through teaching the five-paragraph essay to students.

• Easy Essays Step 2 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is the second step in the UnitPlan: Easy Essays in Three Steps. Students participate in mini- lessons which will encourage better essay writing.

• Easy Essays Step 3 (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the third step in a three-step Unit Plan: Easy Essays in Three Steps, which has been designed to guide teachers through teaching the five-paragraph essay format to students.

• Eating More or Less? (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate by using the Internet to research the types of eating disorders and summarize their effects on the body by creating a PowerPoint presentation or poster presentation.

• Edible Cells (Authored by Lauren Farinas.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will construct edible models of a plant cell and an animal cell and be able to state the functions of the organelles.

• Efficiency Means Getting More for Less (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Here is a simple experiment. It costs little, the materials will last for 100 years, and it is safe. It is a study of efficiency in nature. Water is measured and predictions are made.

• EggCELLent Diffusion (Authored by Sherri Barber.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students observe the effects of diffusion on eggs by observing the change in the egg's size and the amount of liquid substance that remains.

• Electromagnetic Spectrum (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• Email Buddies (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Teachers set up an e-mail system whereby students in different classes or schools can communicate research-based questions and answers on a given topic. (NETS for Students: 4.1)

• Endangered Species (Authored by Teresa Lowery.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will be able to identify endangered species, identify physical & behavioral characteristics, work in a group for research and presentation, and create a PowerPoint presentation with their findings.

• Endothermic or Exothermic – That Is the Question. (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What happens to the heat energy during a chemical reaction? Students will become familiar with an endothermic reaction by testing a chemical reaction.

• Environmental Mathematics (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will explore what food sources are needed to survive in the wild. Then the students will plot on a graph the best food sources for their environments and the survivability rate for each member of their group.

• Environmentally Friendly (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The focus of this lesson is to practice researching a project and write a formal letter. Students research using computers to gather information on wildlife management and use the information to write a letter to an agency.

• Escape to Freedom (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read “They Called Her Moses,” create a “Wanted Poster” for Tubman, compose a journal entry imagining they are William Still, and work in groups to create a newspaper depicting the incident of the runaway slaves and events from the time period.

• Espresso Your Feelings in Poetry (Authored by Dee Camp-White.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover that using descriptive, figurative, and vivid language to write “free verse” can be a fun form of self-expression. Students create poems using online resources and share their creations in a “coffeehouse” setting.

• Euro English (Authored by Peggy Craig.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then the students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings.

• Evaporation Marathon (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Runners take your mark! This lesson involves a student experiment to see which container evaporates water the quickest. The lesson invites students to explore independent and dependent variables as part of the experimentation process.

• Everybody Else Has One! (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Commercials have an amazing impact on buyers of all ages. By creating a commercial, students become more aware of the propaganda techniques used to impact the buying power of the consumer.

• Expensive Choices (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in pairs to discover how to prioritize expenses in a budget.

• Exploring Ancient Greece (Authored by Rachel Farris.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use play dough to create a relief map of Greece and through personal investigation and class discussion, draw conclusions about the impact of the geography of Greece on daily life and culture in Ancient Greece.

• Exploring Personal Responsibility (Authored by Christy Carpenter.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students examine themselves to evaluate their own levels of personal and social responsibility.

• Exposing Expository Text Structure in a Rainforest Setting (Authored by Laura Hobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson represents the first two days lessons of an expository text structure unit. In this unit students explore expository text structure through the creation of a thematic booklet containing examples of different types of expository text structures. Students use graphic organizers that correspond to a particular text structure and aid in clarifying meaning. Students locate, record, and apply their knowledge of signal words in both teacher-selected expository text and their own writing of expository text. This project culminates in the student’s reflection of their knowledge of the different types of expository text structure.

• Fable Writing (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using fables, students determine the moral or -central theme- of a piece of writing. Students create their own personal fables, editing for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

• Fabulously Famous ABC’S (Authored by Christine Broyles.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Surf the Internet, library or even a textbook to find famous individual for a talk show at your school. Write script for an imaginary two-minute radio interview with this famous (past/present) individual.

• Fact or Fiction - What Is Expository Writing? (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the first lesson in a unit on expository writing called Info Expo. Students take a pre-test, compare and contrast various forms of writing with a Venn diagram, and explore the various formats for expository writing.

• Fantastic Fraction Fudge (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students sequence a recipe and convert the ingredients into various fractional portions

• Fantasy Visualization (Authored by Mary Tomczak.)

Subject(s): Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity provides a unique way of brainstorming to get an idea. A group of artists known as the Surrealists used this game to give them ideas for their artworks.

• Farming the Southern Colonies (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The student discovers the basis for farming choices in the early colonies using group research and discussion.

• Fascinating Factors (Authored by Kathy Rigling.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun and engaging way to introduce biotic and abiotic factors by the use of nature observation , peer discussion and the production of a collage.

• Feel the Beat! (Authored by Wes Landen.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will explore the benefits and work towards maintaing a target heart rate by using an aerobic activity. Students will construct a bar graph of their own heart rates after four, three-minute runs. The construction of their graphs will provide them the opportunity to calculate, record, and analyze their own ability to maintain a target heart rate during aerobic exercise. A study guide and example rubric are given for the lesson.

• Figuring Solutions (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Sometimes students express their resistance to learning academic concepts. This lesson avails students opportunities to discuss their attitudes and feelings so they discover possible ways to constructively respond to them.

• Filling in the [Holes] (Authored by Donald Hines.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers and note taking to help gain understanding and clarify meaning from the novel [Holes] and write daily inferences and generalizations about what they have read in that day’s assignment.

• Filling Up Florida (Authored by Shari Rodgers.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students study factors controlling Florida's population growth and related environmental impacts. Students research natural community types and construct maps (including a large-sized map of Florida) to be used for role play/simulation activity.

• Film Historian (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students determine main concept, details, stereotypes, and bias through movies. After viewing the movie, students write an essay explaining the film's influence on issues presented in the film.

• First Class Mail (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND students write a Friendly Letter to Elizabeth George Speare, the author, discussing their points of interest in the novel with her.

• Florida: A Paradise for the Written Word (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the pamphlet, FLORIDA LITERARY HISTORY, students read the article -Paradise for the Written Word: 400 Years of Literary History in Florida- by Kevin McCarthy and then answer FCAT-like questions to assess comprehension of the reading material.

• Florida’s Prize-Winning Authors (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After students study a gazetteer of Florida’s prize-winning authors in a pamphlet entitled Florida Literary Map, they select one of the mentioned authors, research his or her life, take notes, and prepare a brief biographical report.

• Flying With Mathematics! (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students fly miniature airplanes to discover characteristics related to velocity and average speed. After measuring the time and distance, the students calculate the speed and average velocity.

• Follow the Pattern (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students recognize patterns & relationships and use them predict outcomes in real-world situations. (This lesson should be conducted after students have been introduced to patterns.)

• For Sale-Ageless Water (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a two-part lesson in which students research bottled water advertisements on the Internet and printed ads and then create their own magazine advertisement (second lesson) for the spring water in the novel [Tuck Everlasting] by Natalie Babbitt.

• Forces and Balloons (Authored by Paul Scime.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use balloons to investigate and discuss the forces of compression, tension and torque on common birthday balloons.

• Forget Us Not (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are reminded of the Holocaust and its terrible cost by examining literary selections that deal with the conflict of the Holocaust. They respond in writing using a word processing program.

• Formal or Informal? (Authored by Tresha Layne.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: With this entertaining activity students practice formal and informal English by using teacher-created scenarios. Peers evaluate each other based on a questionnaire and discussion.

• Formation of Fossil Fuels (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Science, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate the process of fossil fuel formation.

• Fraction Food Frenzy (Middle School) (Authored by Amy Gunn.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is an introductory lesson for adding fractions with like denominators. It allows for illustrations and simple problem solving.

• Fragments Wanted (Not) (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a newspaper employment ad, students work together in pairs or groups of three to rewrite the ad using complete sentences. Then, each student will choose an ad to rewrite.

• Free Reading Chart (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will read library book daily for ten to fifteen minutes and then log in information on a Free Reading Chart, giving a brief summary of what they just read and then writing a brief reactionary response to the reading.

• From Different Angles (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will participate in a Socratic seminar discussing a person's right to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

• From Pirates to Pilots to Spies (Authored by Mark Peugh.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students enjoy this introduction to the world of map projections, globes, aerial photographs, and satellite images. This lesson instructs the students on the advantages and disadvantages of each earthly representation.

• Geometry Geopardy (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A fun way to practice and review geometry material.

• Geometry in Nature (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will explore how the circumference, diameter, and the relationship of Pi of a circle are related. The students will also determine the age of a tree by counting the summer growth rings.

• Get the Joke! (Authored by Carole Bennett.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Middle schoolers love jokes! Capitalize on this by using jokes to help them understand how word context and inference are used in everyday language to create humor.

• Get the Picture? (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students design a simple coordinate graph picture. Then reflect, translate and rotate the picture according to specific directions.

• Getting to Know You Through Peer Editing (Authored by Linda Sheffield.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to formulate effective questioning techniques and understand the characteristics of the interviewing process.

• Getting to Know You Through Questioning (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students have opportunities to get to know their classmates through 'personalized' sentences that feature one student each day, and offer practice in proofreading and peer-editing related to capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and/or grammar rules.

• Getting Your Students Started (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: On alternating days, students will begin class by either doing sentences for editing OR a gratitude journal. This is designed so students have a quiet activity which starts immediately at the beginning of class. The teacher is now free to take roll, etc.

• Girl Power (Authored by Melissa Aldridge.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During a unit on the Renaissance, the class uses notes obtained through previous research to create a mobile that illustrates the contributions of a Renaissance woman and explains how these accomplishments influenced her society.

• Give Me the Seven Digits (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the telephone directory, city directory, and business directory, students practice locating specific information.

• Give Me Your Vital Statistics (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a great -first week of school- activity that allows students to get to know one another while giving them the opportunity to practice their logical thinking skills.

• Go Jump In The Lake! (Authored by Marla Blair.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this real-life science activity, students test local lake waters to determine overall health of the lakes. Students then hypothesize possible human impact on the indicators they are testing in the waters and share these inferences in a scientific report.

• Going Whole Hog (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: To reinforce skills in comparing fractions, students play a game in which they compare fractions and represent the fractions on a graph.

• Good and Bad Grammar (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students collect bad grammar examples from business signs, magazines, and other printed material and then individually teach a mini-grammar lesson on at least one bad example.

• Good Grief! (Authored by Pam Lord.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: GOOD GRIEF! What better way to explain, demonstrate, and explore strategies related to a difficult topics? Through student role playing within family groups, the use of communicating strategies for managing grief will be explored.

• Group Research and Reports on STDs (Authored by Jeanne Pitts.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work together in groups to research and gather information on a specific Sexually Transmitted Disease. Working as a team, they write a report and present the information orally to the class.

• Growing Old (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a simulation activity whereby students experience problems the elderly face daily in their lives, such as loss of sight, hearing, taste, smell, mobility/dexterity and touch.

• Gummy vs. Gum (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover a number pattern and write an equation that describes it. This lesson should be conducted after students have worked with patterns and one- and two-step equations.

• Hands On Essays (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students relate the concept of individuality of geometric shapes to the individuality of topic sentences. Students write and revise a persuasive argument essay using the Florida Writes Rubric.

• Happy Birthday to Them! (Authored by Gwen Hafford.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the Internet to "pop-in" on popular singers. (NETS for Students: 5.1)

• Happy Holidays (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After using Chris Van Allsburg's POLAR EXPRESS as a writing prompt, students create a holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups.

• Hatshepsut's Temples and Obelisks (Authored by Melissa Aldridge.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson focuses on one of the great achievements of the first woman ruler known to history. Students create Hatshepsut's Temples and Obelisks using a variety of materials.

• Hectic Hurricanes! (Authored by Peggy Cook.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a great way to introduce hurricanes into your curriculum. Students will understand the anatomy of a hurricane, the change in energy that occurs during a hurricane and how to track a hurricane.

• Hello... I'd Like You to Meet..... (Authored by Dixie Wheelock.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students interview and introduce each other to the class as an opening activity at the beginning of a new class, semester, or school year. This can be adapted to any group meeting for the first time.

• Help Mary Find Her Way Home (Authored by Carol Harris.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to the coordinate plane by using the coordinates of points to direct a lost girl home. In their directions, students will identify the x and y axes in the coordinate plane and the coordinates of a given point in the first quadrant.

• Help Me Learn About the Holocaust (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in groups using presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint to create a slide presentation highlighting the elements of literature contained in Holocaust novels. The slide presentation follows preset criteria.

• Help! I Am Lost at Fox Chapel (Authored by Kathleen Buchnowski.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a map to locate places on campus and share the map with another student. The other students use the map to locate certain places and validate for accuracy via a checklist. The parents use the completed map at open house.

• Help! Help! Someone Is Hurt! (Authored by Rebecca Weston.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is designed to teach students a programmed response to any emergency situation that they may encounter during physical education classes without pandemonium breaking out.

• Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (Authored by Sallie Everett.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is to help students learn the differences between chemical and physical weathering and learn the effects of climate on the weathering process.

• Hero Spontaneous Lecture (Authored by Christine Schuyler.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select and research a real-life hero. They then prepare short lectures for their classmates based upon the research they gain from a variety of primary and secondary sources.

• Hey Mom, Are We There Yet? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students locate, organize and interpret information from a variety of sources to create a travel brochure for a selected destination of their choice.

• Hey You! Want to Become a Scientist? (Authored by Cheryl Duty.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students prepare and give oral presentations about assigned scientists and the accomplishments of the scientists after completing research and written reports on their subjects. To make this interesting and fun for the students and teacher, each student can be instructed to create and wear a costume to "become" their designated scientist.

• Hey, Cuz! (Authored by Tisa Craig.)

Subject(s): Music (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn the relationships between rhythm and math, tone color and science, form and geography, melody and art, and harmony and social studies. Why, they are like cousins!

• Hey, I Don't Have Enough Stuff! (Authored by Nina Treadway.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover through this simulated activity that resources are unequally distributed throughout the world and that regions use resources differently.

• Hide and Seek Vocabulary! (Authored by Linda Gobran.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity uses a unique strategy to build student word recognition. Student partners practice new words using their verbal, visual, and kinesthetic intelligences.

• Historical Timelines (Authored by Deborah Brannon.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to read timelines and make timelines of their own lives by putting special dates of their choice in chronological order.

• Holey Story (Authored by Michelle Gordon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Holey Story!! Student groups create story sheets with missing vocabulary words. Students locate context clues, justify their work, and evaluate their responses.

• Home Sweet Home (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and implement a schedule of activities designed to help their parents improve their physical conditions.

• Honest Abe's Economy of Words (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write expository essays using the FCAT writing prompt format and the FCAT scoring method and rubric after reading ACROSS FIVE APRILS and a study of the Gettysburg Address

• Honk If You Love Writing (... and Bumper Stickers!) (Authored by Jeannie Overby.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, students collect and create bumper stickers and examine how they influence people.

• Household Products - Past to Future (Authored by Judy Marburger.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will research and explore the development of household inventions.

• How Big Is Your House? (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will explore geometric formulas involving area by measuring and developing a scale drawing of their own homes. The students will find the area of each room as well as the total area of the house.

• How Can We Organize Study of a Given Place? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Five Themes of Geography is an organized way to study any area of the world. It is the adopted method of the National Geographic Society. This is a beginning of the year cooperative group activity where students embark in discovery of basic facts about an assigned continent and are asked to organize their information into categories. The Five Themes model is taught and students reshuffle their information appropriately and make a display and class presentation of their findings.

• How Cool Is It ? (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will check the outside temperature at 5 different times of the day. The students will use both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scale. The students will then compare their temperatures using a bar graph.

• How Cool Is Your Environment? (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students calculate heat energy and convert from one temperature scale to another. The students will be able to manipulate formulas need for conversions.

• How Dense Are You? (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How did Archimedes find the gold crown? Students relate how density is a value that describes the material of which the object is made and is not influenced by the object's shape or size in any way.

• How Do I Get There From Here? (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a school map to create a charted course and a corresponding written description of the directions for travel from class to class, beginning with an arrival location in the morning and ending with a departure location in the afternoon.

• How Do You Do? (Authored by Annemarie Hayes.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research organisms living in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and identify their relationships.

• How Do You Know Where You Are? (Authored by Catherine Dixon.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity introduces students to geographic thinking, setting the stage for the creation of a map showing distance, direction, location and symbols from their residences to school.

• How Do Your Students Measure Up? (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Have you ever been frustrated trying to show students how to measure accurately and what the little lines on a ruler represent? I was until I found this simple activity to show students how to properly measure with a standard ruler to 1/16th of an inch.

• How Fast Is that Rocket? (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson will allow the students to calculate the speed of a falling object using measurements from a falling rocket.

• How Fast Is Your Car? (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students discover the relationship between speed, distance, and time. They calculate speed and represent their data graphically.

• How Logical Is Garfield? (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students analyze the comics found in the newspaper for samples of logical, emotional, and ethical appeal. They write a paragraph for each selected comic strip explaining how the comic strip represents the use of logic, emotions, or ethics.

• How Long Is Forever? (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers to predict events that may take place in the novel, [Tuck Everlasting] and make inferences about what is read.

• How Many Bears in the Forest? (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students model the tag and recapture of bears and use proportions to estimate the population of the bears in their forest. This is a statistical sampling method used by scientists and naturalist to determine population numbers.

• How Much Do You Really Weigh? (Authored by Margaret Bogan PhD.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a computer to analyze how their weights are affected if the students are placed on various planetary bodies. The students will record their findings on a data sheet.

• How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation (Authored by Sheila Sexton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is designed to help students become familiar with creating a PowerPoint presentation. After being given a demonstration of how PowerPoint works, students create a PowerPoint slide presention that can be used in another subject area. (NETS for Students: 3.1 and 3.2)

• How Unique Are You? (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this second lesson of the unit, Where We Come From, the students use traits that they each possess to gain further understanding of dominant and recessive traits. In groups, they survey the class for various dominant and recessive physical trait characteristics. Groups create bar/circle graphs, compile class data into a table, calculate percentages, and recognize characteristics of dominant and recessive traits.

• Human Impact on the Everglades Environment (Authored by Cheryl Darbyshire.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research changes the Army Corps made in Everglades, focus on the human impact on the environment, design graphic organizers, summary statements, develop a Florida map of the Everglades region and give a presentation about what they learned.

• Human Rights (Authored by Melissa Aldridge.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During a study of Eleanor Roosevelt, the class examines -The United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights- in order to gain an understanding of the document and to create a list of rights for the classroom.

• Human Sentences (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson allows students a hands-on opportunity to learn grammar. The students will work in groups to create human sentences to demonstrate for the class how to correctly use commas when punctuating dates in sentences.

• Hurricanes … Are They Coming to Your Neighborhood? (Authored by Dale Peterson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Hurricane season (June-October) may result in large storms on the Gulf Coast. Students learn how weather systems influence hurricanes and tropical storms. This lesson enables students to predict landfall of hurricanes and tropical storms.

• I Am a Book (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are encouraged to take advantage of their right to read books.

• I Hate My Sibling? (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Can you truly hate your sibling? Students explore this controversial question and examine literary techniques used by the author as they begin to read the book [Jacob Have I Loved].

• I Highly Recommend It (Authored by Carmel Monaghan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis, students submit critical reviews via the Internet as a way to publish their personal responses to the novel.

• I Just Want to Say (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: I just want to say- I love you, I hate you, things haven’t been easy for me, and much more. Through the use of poetry, people can relay a powerful message. Students study poetic devices included in conversation poems and explore their eloquent messages.

• I Love Navarre (Authored by Regan Lee.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Navarre Beach area (or your area) is growing rapidly. The Chamber of Commerce wants help in creating a brochure for families with middle-school students who may be moving to our area. Students engage in a project-based lesson to provide the needed information. Note: This lesson addresses only the part of LA.B.2.3.3 dealing with using appropriate formats, presenting the brochure as one type of persuasive format. This lesson only addresses the part of LA.B.1.3.3 that deals with producing final documents that have been edited for correct spelling and punctuation. Students should have had prior experience and instruction in editing.

• I Need Room to Breathe (Authored by Joe Brock.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a ph indicator in a structured inquiry lesson to learn how exercise affects carbon dioxide levels in exhaled air.

• I Think Mom Loves You Best (Authored by Margaret Graham.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an introductory lesson for teaching the literary element, point of view. Students apply understanding of information from a picture book story to write their own family position paragraphs.

• I'll Just Charge It (Authored by Beth Santini.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the advantages and disadvantages of credit card use before they fall into the credit trap!

• I'm A Poet and Now I Know It (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the final phase of the poetry unit, I’m a Poet and Didn’t Know It! Using ideas generated from other poems and their own inspiration, students create original poetry. A celebration is included as students bind and submit poems for publication.

• I’m a Little Crab Pot (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students delve more deeply into figurative language and conflict/resolution as they complete the novel, Jacob Have I Loved.

• I’m Convinced! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After learning about the various kinds of persuasive techniques used to sell products, students create and write an advertisement for peanut butter.

• Illustrated Quotes of Julius Caesar (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students make a booklet of twenty illustrated quotations from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.

• Improving the Quality of Life (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson focuses on contributions made by individuals of diverse backgrounds in medicine, science and technology.

• In the Presence of Oxygen (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Working in groups, students design a poster depicting aerobic and anaerobic exercises or activities. Posters are set up at stations for students to examine and determine which activities are aerobic and which are anaerobic.

• In Your Prime (Authored by Melanie Malone.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity allows students to find prime numbers on their own. They use a method developed a few thousand years ago to discover the primes that are less than 100.

• Income and Outcomes (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use peer support to reflect on their spending and how it reflects their income and their values.

• Incredible Inventions That Make A Difference (Authored by Beverly Simpkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use reading and research skills to effectively retrieve and synthesize information about inventions that have made an impact in their lives. This is an introductory lesson on developing timelines.

• Information Sensation! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the second lesson in a unit on expository writing. Students are brought up to speed on narrowing the topic, conducting research, and creating source cards. Students practice recording bibliographic information in a research scavenger hunt.

• Information Shuffle (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the fifth lesson in an expository writing unit. Students are set loose to explore, examine, and evaluate information for a research topic. Ultimately, students shuffle and physically sort their note cards into an organizational pattern for writing.

• Inquiring Minds Want to Know (Middle School Science) (Authored by Melinda Dukes.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Inquiring minds participate in an inquiry-based lesson plan which has them construct an experiment in a scientifically valid way that will shed light on the controversy of nature vs nurture. This is lesson three of the unit, Twin Traits.

• Insulators, Conductors, and Energy Transfer (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students conduct experiments to determine what types of material make good insulators.

• Interior Designer for a Day (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will organize a 20 x 17 room with a given set of furniture pieces. Arrangement is to be based on maximum comfort and practicality.

• Introducing World War II (Authored by Richard Johnson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students practice listening skills while getting an overview of the events of WWII. Emphasis is placed on events mentioned in the novel, [Jacob Have I Loved]. Writing an FCAT style short response on one of the focal events assesses writing skills.

• Invertebrates, No Backbone, No Problem (Authored by Cheryl Darbyshire.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students study characteristics of invertebrates, observe a micro-habitat for two weeks, research an invertebrate, create a profile poster, and present a report.

• Investigating Langston Hughes (Authored by Joan Phillips.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will read and appreciate the writing of great American Authors. For example, Langston Hughes was the first African American author to be published and widely acclaimed in the literature world. An investigation into his life and times will give students an insight to his genius. Long term goal: The students will use technology to garner information about famous American authors. The students will have selected sites to explore. The students will learn to save that information from the internet to a disk. The disk will store the data and pictures that will be used later for a PowerPoint presentation. (See PowerPoint attachment.)

• Is It Kinetic or Potential ? (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is an introduction to energy. It allows students to explore real life activities that demonstrate kinetic and potential energy.

• Is It Slimy? Does It Have Fur? Is It Really a Bird? (Authored by Linda Weber.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students identify the different types of vertebrate animals based upon their major characteristics, as they create collages in cooperative learning groups. Collages show pictures of vertebrate animals labeled with the appropriate structural characteristics. Students individually complete the lesson by writing in their journals.

• Is Over Of (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson discusses an often used, but rarely seen in books, method of teaching percents. Former students report this is one of the most useful algorithms learned in class.

• Is the Probability Probable? (Authored by Rita Williams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students compare experimental results with mathematical expectations of probabilities. This lesson should be used after students have been introduced to probability and taught how to calculate the mathematical probability of an event's occurrence.

• It Is a Job (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a non-fiction book about a career and write a six-paragraph expository composition about the book.

• It Is All in the Call (Authored by Brent Johns.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students have an opportunity to show mastery of square dance skills by calling a square dance of their own in a non-threatening environment.

• It Is the Little Things that Count (Authored by Brent Johns.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students participate in warm-up, cool-down, and hydration activities while learning the reasons these techniques are important for physical health, especially in Florida's humid climate.

• It Takes Two (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through research and experimentation, students examine various exercises in order to analyze and distinguish between exercises designed to increase muscular strength and those designed to improve muscular endurance.

• It Won't Budge: Balloon (Authored by summer zephyr.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through use of a "silent teacher" demonstration, students use the scientific method to discover the principle behind the balloon not being inflated.

• It's a Ball, It’s a Sphere…No, It’s a Dodecahedron (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students construct a dodecahedron that displays facts about two and three- dimensional figures.

• It's Raining Idioms! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through illustrations and paraphrasing, students will analyze idioms in order to comprehend their literal meanings.

• It's Time to Put Our Money Where Our Mouths Are (Authored by Jay Lowe.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: If we believe in the ideal that “All men are created equal”, why is our currency used to honor only old, white men? The students select a person they think should be honored on our currency and write a letter outlining the reasons for their choice.

• Jamestown on the Internet (Authored by Christine Sermons.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is for students to understand the conflicts and problems associated with the founding of colonies and the clash of technologically and culturally different civilizations which occurred in this colonization process.

• Jeopardy Changes It! (Authored by Debra Anderson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is a culminating activity after teaching fraction, decimal, and percent conversions. Students enjoy playing Jeopardy as a review for expressing these conversions. The students will be able to express percents as fractions and decimals, fractions as decimals and percents and decimals as percents and fractions. This will show that students understand the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percents.

• Just an Old Fashioned Love Song (Authored by Nora Perez.)

Subject(s): Music (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students sing a song with three-part harmony.

• Just the Facts, Jack (Authored by B Adams et al.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are presented with musical selections that set the tone for investigating the mystery behind fact and opinion.

• Keeping An Inverse Relationship (Authored by Joanne Johnson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to identify the inverse relationship of positive and negative numbers using real-world examples.

• Langston Hughes (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Come and enjoy Langston Hughes' poetry and lyrics via the Internet. No books needed!

• Language for Sale (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students rewrite a catalogue description of an item for sale. The new ad reflects a change in the voice of the writing, and the writing is edited for conventions.

• Lead Me On - Writing Lively Leads for Book Reviews (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the concepts found in a PowerPoint presentation, students learn to write leads for book reviews that attract readers and stimulate book interest.

• Leading into Good Writing (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students identify and create “leads” for art work and essays.

• Legends Old and New (Authored by Martha Grant.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, student teams read Native American legends from books and Web sites, write an original legend with enriched word choice and elaboration, and practice volume, pacing, stress, and pronunciation through a suede/flannel board presentation.

• Lender or Borrower Be? (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare the costs and benefits of interest involved with borrowing and depositing at banks.

• Let the Light Shine Through! (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students design a geometric stained glass window pattern which includes at least one line of symmetry.

• Let's Call It Automatic (Authored by Mary Tomczak.)

Subject(s): Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity exhibits the art room's version of “Pop-Up” video. The students create two products that are done automatically. In each activity, the students draw or write whatever “pops up” in their minds in a timed session.

• Let's Get Moving (Authored by Rebecca Weston.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is an interdisciplinary unit with technology, physical education, and science activities relating to motion,velocity, and momentum and sports related activities.

• Let's Go Shopping (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Excite your students! Give them $500 to spend. Little will they know how much they are learning about fractions, decimals, and percents.

• Let's Measure the Speed of Sound (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an outside the classroom experiment. The students experience in concrete terms an investigation of the speed of sound by measuring it. It blends scientific research with math skills and teaches sound scientific investigative techniques.

• Let's Weigh Air (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is a class experiment to measure the weight of air by measuring the weight of the mass it displaces. It incorporates simple equipment and procedures into a highly convincing demonstration of the weight and mass of air.

• Life Box (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will decorate the outside of a small box, using words and pictures to depict how they see themselves, and they will decorate the inside to show how others see them. Students will present an oral presentation, explaining the box’s decorations.

• Life Is Like (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Is life really like a box of chocolates? Is it more like a bowl full of cherries? Students explore how to create their own metaphors for life.

• Little Mysteries Solved in a Poem (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is designed to help students think abstractly and randomly about solving life's little problems and then taking that knowledge to create a life is... metaphor or simile poem.

• Living Biographies (Multimedia Project) (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a multimedia slide presentation containing facts, graphics, and sounds relating to a biographical figure based on their reading of a biography or an autobiography. Students present their slide presentations before the class. (NETS for Students: 3.1 and 3.2)

• Look It Up! (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students improve their writing skills by finding, defining, and correctly using new and interesting vocabulary words.

• Look Who's Talking to Me (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are able to make a determination of effective speeches based on good speaking habits and then use the information to aid in improving their own presentations.

• Looking at Data (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use two days to create, collect, display and analyse data. Classroom activities and practice will build greater understanding to a variety of forms used to display data. Central tendencies become a major focus in the prompt questions during the project.

• Looking Back at Pre-Civil War Slavery (Authored by Marcellus Alexander.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students understand the nature of slavery, the impact of slavery on African-Americans, and how slavery intensified the conflict between the North and South that eventually led to a major cause of the Civil War.

• M & M Candy: I Want Green (Authored by Susan Cornwell.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is a fun way to compare mathematical expectations and experimental probability, and then explain any difference in the two numbers. Students use colored candy pieces (such as M & M’s) for their data collection, comparisons, and explanations.

• M & M Math (Authored by Rochel Abrams.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Use M and M Math to entice your students into working on math. Rarely will students not be motivated by getting chocolate to eat. This lesson is designed to help teach students how to find the relationships among fractions, decimals, and percent.

• Mad About Parts of Speech (Authored by Stefanie Bozeman.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students review and use the different parts of speech using Mad Libs or Web Libs. They also utilize creative writing skills by providing the most interesting word(s) for the story line.

• Magnetism in Action (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students recognize that magnetic force can act through a distance.

• Map the Mystery! (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Upon completion of the novel, THE HOUSE OF DIES DREAR students analyze the plot and recall events chronologically to create a story map.

• Marshmallow Babies (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this third lesson of the unit, Where We Come From, students pair up “chromosomes” and interpret the genotypes and phenotypes. Then, they use those genetic traits to create their own "Marshmallow Babies!" This is a modified version of an activity published by Patti Sorderberg in [The Science Teacher], November 1992, pp 28-31.

• Mass Manipulation (Authored by Heather Burnett.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson encourages students to discover, become aware of, think about, and record methods the media (news journalists and programs they produce) used to persuade the audience to think the way they want them to think.

• Mass, Volume and Density (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast mass, volume, and density of various objects.

• Mathematical Contributions by Women (Authored by Diane Bates.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the contributions of women to mathematics by writing a research paper, presenting a summary to their peers, and sharing an activity with their peers.

• Mathematicians Through Time (Authored by Kim Douberley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson offers students the opportunity to conduct research on the Internet about mathematicians and to synthesize that information into a timeline.

• Measure This! (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students estimate in centimeters the measurement of ten items that are in a paper bag and record the results. Sudents then measure the items using a centimeter ruler and record the results next to the estimates.

• Measurement Scavenger Hunt (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Start your year with this scavenger hunt! Familiarize students with your classroom while reviewing and assessing basic understanding of estimation, measurement, and units in fraction and decimal form.

• Measures and Weights! (Authored by Kevin Daly.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson only deals with the length and weight in centimeters and grams portion of the standard. Students increase their estimation and measurement skills in regard to the metric system (centimeters and grams). Students order their results in a table for an assessment. Students should have a prior knowledge of how to use both a ruler and a balance.

• Measures of Central Tendency (Middle School) (Authored by Diane Bates.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compute the measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and range and determine how outliers affect the measures.

• Measuring Up (Authored by Tabitha Kosmas.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students measure various amounts of liquid while exploring the different capacities of a cup, a pint, a quart and a gallon. Students measure the correct quantities of punch ingredients and make the punch.

• Measuring with Mathematics (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover how the change in the dimensions of a shape will cause a change in the overall area of the shape, but the perimeter will stay the same.

• Mechanically Inclined (Authored by Albert Baggott.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use hands-on or demonstration activity to investigate the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane.

• Mechanics Aren’t Just for Cars (Authored by Brent Johns.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson allows students to understand why throwing the proper way is important. The principles of levers and rotation are taught. Students also learn to check other students as they throw.

• Media Violence - The Good, the Bad and the Future (Authored by Judith Bachay.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson asks students to define, identify, measure and assess the level and impact of violence in media. The media forms that they will evaluate include music, sitcoms, news and other programs that may be identified by the students.

• Meet Me at My House (Authored by Cheryl Weaver.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students improve their writing skills by writing directions from school to their houses to give to a friend. The directions must be sequential and include direction words (north, south, east, west), landmarks and specific street names.

• Memory of a Kiss (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read, discuss, and memorize the poem -Jenny Kissed Me- by Leigh Hunt. The students then write a letter to Jenny imagining that they are an elderly person reliving the memory of her kiss.

• Metalling in Around the World (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn the important leaders in different cultures by researching coinage. Through this process, they also recognize the cultural universality on coinage and currency.

• Metric M & M Fun (Authored by Laurel Withee.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a fun activity that explores the relative sizes of common metric prefixes as they compare to the base unit.

• Millennium Santa! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a paragraph using descriptive language to create a vivid image of their idea of a more modern, updated version of Santa Claus--the Millennium Santa!

• Millennium Scrapbook (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a millennium scrapbook, collecting stories about the past millennium and including photos of local, national, international events. They may also include information about personal lives.

• Million Dollar Gift (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A homework project in which students use problem-solving skills and their knowledge of volume to create a box large enough to hold a million dollars. The project is fun to do near the winter holidays with inexpensive gifts included in the boxes.

• Mind Games (Authored by Geri Gautney.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The teacher receives a letter from the CEO of Nasbro, Inc. Nasbro is conducting a nation-wide search for new game ideas. Teams of students will develop and produce a game prototype that could be mass produced and sold to every adolescent in the world.

• Mix and Match Poetry (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and use mixed up one-word poetry cards to write short, vivid poems.

• Mobius Strips (Authored by Darlene Wolfe.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Mobius strip often upsets the students’ expectation of the normal order of things. To practice the critical thinking and higher order thinking skills necessary to science inquiry, students construct and cut a Mobius strip in half, lengthwise twice. Logically, a piece of paper is two sided, however, the Mobius strip is defined as one-sided, “proven” by the line on only one side and the results of the first lengthwise cut.

• Money Sings (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Music (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students listen to and perform songs to learn the perceptions of people in regard to their financial holdings.

• Monster Graph Activity (Authored by Princesse Jenkins.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Monsters are considered scary creatures, but this lesson will take the fear out of graphing. Student creates and draws conclusions from data found in a Monster graph.

• More or Less (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a workout program that concentrates on aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercises. They demonstrate exercises to their peers and participate in their individualized fitness program for six weeks, tracking their progress in their journals.

• Mountain Tops (Authored by Thomas Martin.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an outdoor activity. Students work together to practice communication skills, leadership, trust, respect, and creativity. Students will be doing an excercise that requires them to help and trust each other in order to accomplish the task.

• Mouthwatering Adjectives! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use adjectives to write descriptions of food items in order to create a restaurant menu.

• Mr./Ms.Scientist, This Is Your Life (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a timeline of ten events in chronological order about a scientist to include his/her accomplishments. Students practice by completing a personal timeline in which they follow verbal instructions.

• Multimedia Scavenger Hunt (Authored by Diane Bates.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a multimedia encyclopedia to answer teacher-generated questions and then in pairs design their own scavenger hunt questions.

• Multiplication & Division Word Problems Made Easy (Authored by Joe Crawley.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson helps students determine when to multiply or divide when solving real-world problems. The student will explore why they multiply or divide.

• My Reading Words in My Social Studies Book? (Authored by Michelle Gordon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Student groups, using subject area textbooks, locate words with specific word parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes) in order to better comprehend the word meaning.

• My World Is Upside Down (Authored by John Lien.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students make a pinhole viewer to demonstrate that even though light travels in oscillating waves through space, the wave lengths are so small that light behaves as traveling in a straight line.

• Mythology and Ancient Civilizations (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about ancient world civilizations and the mythologies they created to explain natural phenomena, as well as the writers and poets who wrote about the mythologies.

• Nature vs. Nurture (Authored by Melinda Dukes.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Is nature or nurture more important? Students begin the exploration of this concept in this first lesson of the unit, Twin Traits.

• Nature Walk Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write and share a poem after taking a -nature walk- for inspiration.

• Navigating a Map (Authored by Andrew Brouwer.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to use map scale, read physical maps, analyze landforms and determine land use.

• Neat Nouns (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This week long lesson is part 1 of a unit that teaches ESOL students about grammar. Students construct sentences using nouns, recognize nouns in listening activities, identify nouns, and present nouns from a song to the class.

• Neb -u- la (Authored by Carson Ealy, Jr..)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson will allow students to conduct research on the life cycle of stars using the Internet.

• Needs and Wants (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The learner distiguishes between psychological needs and wants to control spending.

• News Anchor (Authored by Mary LaLane.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students understand the effect of volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation on the deliverance of a mock newscast.

• News Poetry (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students choose a newspaper article and dramatize it in a well-constructed poem.

• Newspaper Knowledge (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is to acquaint students with a local newspaper and to teach them to interpret the written information for their own use.

• Newsworthy Fairy Tales (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reviewing several familiar fairy tales, students work in small groups to rewrite the familiar story as it might read as a news article in today’s newspaper.

• Newton in Motion! (Authored by Angelic Chappell.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is an exciting way to introduce Newton's First Law of Motion. The student will be able to verbally explain and physically demonstrate examples of Newton's First Law. The students will explore real life consequences of Newton's First Law.

• No Plagiarism, Please! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the third lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction provides boundaries for taking notes by differentiating between paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing. Students practice writing note cards.

• Novel Tee (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students illustrate a fiction novel by painting a depiction of the book on a tee shirt and then share with the class.

• Number Chameleon (Authored by Amy Gunn.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson teaches students to express a quantity in a variety of ways; to understand whether relationships among fractions, decimals, and percents are equal; and to convert a number expressed in one form to another.

• Observing Sensory Details (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In small groups, students choose two experiences or images from a given list and experience or directly observe each detail before they write about it, describing each one in several sentences.

• Off to a Great Start (Authored by Cecilia Harbin.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to the school handbook which includes rules for student conduct. Class rules and expectations are also discussed.

• Offensive and Defensive Strategies (Authored by Rebecca West.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will understand what offensive and defensive strategies are and will develop their own offensive and defensive strategies in soccer.

• Oh Man, History in Language Arts (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As an introduction to a video-literature unit on [Jane Eyre], students research aspects of the Victorian Era.

• Oh My Darling (Authored by Rebecca Hobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What happened to Clementine? Students make generalizations/summations of each verse of ("Oh, My Darling") "Clementine" and infer what kind of person the narrator is.

• Oh Where, Oh Where, Can My Industry Be? (Authored by Sue Hutchins.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Youth scientists conduct observational studies of three ecosystems. Using the Web World Wonders site cameras, they gather data to justify the establishment of an industrialized park at one site over the others.

• Oh, Say Can You Said? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students revise a document replacing the overused verb -said- with more elevated word choice.

• On Becoming a Grammar Guru (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students review and practice the basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, and possessives) by creating and entering their own stories on a Website or by sharing their stories with a friend. (NETS for Students: 3.1)

• On the Trail with Lewis and Clark (Authored by Kathy Corder.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the Internet to conduct research on the Lewis and Clark journals and work cooperatively in planning and delivering a presentation.

• On Top of the World (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After the teacher reads excerpts from an autobiography and a magazine article about a blind’s man journey to climb farther than the eye can see, students write a bio-poem about him.

• On with the Show! (Authored by Jennifer Kirchhoff.)

Subject(s): Music (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students perform in musical ensembles using the district adjudication sheet to assess their performance.

• One Pager (Authored by Shelly Clark.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel FREAK THE MIGHTY students will be able to describe and illustrate the setting of the novel, explain character development through production of a graphic organizer, and identify the elements of the plot.

• Oops, I Did Not Say It Right (Authored by Brenda Lewis-Williams.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will understand how the behavior of family members and peers affects interpersonal communication. The story “Chicken Little” will demonstrate and differentiate between truth or gossip.

• Opposites Attract (Middle School) (Authored by Jana Lantz.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate the properties of magnets and static electricity through a series of lab activities, demonstrating the behaviors of charged particles as they relate to the atom.

• Out of the Dust 1 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After being introduced to the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, students create an autobiographical poem using figurative language.

• Out of the Dust 2 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel OUT OF THE DUST students explore language from the past.

• Out of the Dust 3 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: While students are reading the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, they create charts, answer questions, and ultimately take an FCAT type assessment to demonstrate understanding of what they read.

• Out of the Dust 4 (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel, OUT OF THE DUST, students create a free-verse poem about a treasure.

• Outline and Shine (Authored by Candace Culberson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Use the note taking strategy of outlining to reinforce an understanding of setting, character, plot, and theme.

• Painless Poetry (Authored by summer zephyr.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Children learn how to write poetry in a painless way. They learn that it can be fun and that our language can be flexible. By putting together various forms of easy-to-write poems they will learn to write them independently.

• Pair 'Em Up! (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In the fourth lesson plan of the unit, Where We Come From, students learn how to use and verify the validity of Punnett squares by using a Weblink for instruction. They will also simulate a real-world situation by drawing “chromosomes” from a paper bag. Data will be tracked, students will calculate percentages, and cross check their predictions and results by using a Punnett square.

• Palindromes to WOW Student Minds (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create “Palindromes,” simple sentences and phrases which read exactly the same backwards as forwards, and identify each as a sentence or fragment.

• Parts Are Parts - The English Measurement System (Authored by Dale Peterson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: All scientific studies require accurate data collection. Knowledge of the English measurement system’s origins helps students understand the importance of standardization.

• Paw-er up for PowerPoint (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to display research material in PowerPoint slide format. This is the second lesson in a unit called, "Dog gone Paw-erful Writing and Presenting with PowerPoint."

• Peanut Mining (Authored by Terrie Lyons.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this hands-on activity, students come to understand the implications of using a nonrenewable resource, as well as some of the problems associated with mining an ore.

• Pendulum Power (Authored by Tracy Smith.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a pendulum to discuss the Law of Conservation of Energy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

• People Experts (Authored by Laurel Withee.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will respond to pictures, providing observations and drawing conclusions about the people they see. Afterwards, they will revisit their judgments, identify a specific source for each one, and examine common influences on perceptions.

• Perky Prefixes (Authored by Eva Kilpatrick.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson focuses on prefixes. The students create games of their choice to be played with the class to reinforce their knowledge of prefixes.

• Personality Plus (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a -Personality Box- and present to classmates using specific speaking skills.

• Personally Speaking (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students reflect on the choices they have in society today and compare them to Kit's choices in the novel, THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by writing expository essays in which they discuss these choices.

• Personify This (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Can a tree’s fingers really stretch towards the setting sun? They can if the author is using personification! Students study personification in published works of poetry then create their own through the use of diamante or cinquain poetry.

• Pétanque: A Lawn Game (Authored by Susan Johansen.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a fun way for students to incorporate technology and outdoor activities to learn about an age-appropriate cultural activity. Students locate information about the origins and rules of play of the game "Pétanque" on the Internet. They then apply this information about a popular French game so that they can participate, for enjoyment, in a French leisure time activity.

• Physical Difference and Classification (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students compare and contrast several physical properties and develop a classification system using observation skills and a microscope.

• Physical or Chemical? That is the Question (Authored by Ann Kennedy.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the five Web World Wonders camera sites to locate and identify examples of physical and chemical changes.

• Physical/Chemical Properties of a Burning Candle (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What happens to the physical and chemical properties of a candle before and after it is lit? Students investigate these properties by conducting the Burning Candle activity.

• Picture Me with Words (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will produce an art and writing project that introduces them to the concept that words define who we are.

• Playing Detective (Authored by Bethany Cookman.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady,” students play detective to learn about foreshadowing and how it contributes to plot development in a text.

• Please Tell Me a Story (Authored by Sabrina Allen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: To a sixth grader, what is a day to remember? During this activity the students write narrative essays, which demonstrate an organizational pattern having a beginning, middle, end and transitional devices.

• Plot That Decimal (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in groups to plot a set of number cards containing whole numbers and decimals on a number line.

• Plot the Oysters’ Peril! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the narrative poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll, students use a comic strip format to study the organization and presentation of ideas and supporting details in the plot sequence of the poem.

• Poetry Book (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work in cooperative groups to find poems that exemplify the characteristics of word choice, dialect, invented words, concrete terms, abstract terms, sensory language, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, and rhythm.

• Poetry in Motion (Authored by Darnita McDaniel.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is an excellent way to reinforce students’ knowledge of poetry and allow students the opportunity for self-expression through creative writing.

• Poetry Pot (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Student delivers oral, informative presentation on a favorite poem that the student has artistically illustrated with images, title, author's name, and words of poem on a clay flowerpot, effectively communicating ideas and feelings about the poem.

• Point of You (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about point of view by rewriting an existing narrative paragraph (using a different point-of-view). Students expand this knowledge by writing an expository paragraph, then rewriting it to reflect a different point-of-view.

• Ponyboy, What’s a Theme? (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students seek supporting proof of major conflicts and themes in the novel, [The Outsiders] by S.E. Hinton.

• Popping Up Percents! (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Popcorn provides a tasty way to practice finding percents and unit price.

• Port Hole (Authored by Thomas Martin.)

Subject(s): Health, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this outdoor activity, students work together to practice communication skills, leadership, trust, respect and creativity. The students also display physical and mental strengths.

• Portfolio Autobiographies (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students create autobiographies. The final projects are published using word-processing and computer graphics. (NETS for Students 1.1, 3.1 and 3.2)

• Post-It Poetry (Authored by Kathryn Bonelli.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Are you tired of reading students' bland language? This lesson teaches students how to spice up their work using vivid words and images.

• Practice Makes it Better (Authored by Cheryl Weaver.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students produce a final document that becomes published on the World Wide Web.

• Predictions, Predictions, and More Predictions (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students pose questions about the subject of a short story based on the title and cover illustration; then read the story and determine if their questions actually pertained to the story line, and, if so, how the story answered the questions.

• Preposition Pizazz (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a poem made up of prepositional phrases.

• Presentations Come Alive! (Authored by Monica McManus.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students deliver oral presentations about a book or short story using audiovisual aids.

• Prewriting Strategies (Authored by Evelyn Rivera.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Tired of listening to students saying they don’t know how to start writing? This lesson guides students in selecting appropriate prewriting activities to make writing a painless and fun experience.

• Prime Factorization Mobile (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During this review lesson, students demonstrate their knowledge of prime numbers, composite numbers, and prime factorization using exponents to create a factor tree mobile.

• Prime Real Estate (Authored by Christine Austin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a hands-on procedure that utilizes the “Sieve of Eratosthenes” to identify prime numbers from 1-100. Eliminating all the multiples of the first four prime numbers identifies primes. The 25 numbers that remain are all primes!

• Prime Time (Authored by Lisa Richardson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way to practice determining the prime factorization of composite numbers. The students create Christmas factor trees for prime numbers greater than 100.

• Primed and Ready! (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Primed and Ready is a project designed to use the Sieve of Eratosthenes to determine and display the prime and composite numbers from 1 to 100.

• Probing Our Solar System (Authored by Susan Sherrow.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson uses structured, small group activities and individual work incorporating student research on space satellites and probes and international connections. Student groups construct information disks, timelines, and written reports.

• Projectile Motion (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students observe projectile motion and calculate the speed of a projectile.

• Properties of Waves (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students observe and investigate wave properties.

• Pulley Power (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is a manipulative experiment in the mechanical advantage of simple machines and graphically demonstrates the change in magnitude of applied force when using simple machines. Great for ESL to discover the ratio formula for pulleys.

• Pushy Kids in Physics (Authored by Gencie White.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an interesting way to introduce balanced forces, unbalanced forces, and resulting net forces. Students actively demonstrate these concepts and then study and complete the activity with actual calculations of these forces.

• Puzzling Percents (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use twenty equivalent fraction, decimal, and percent facts to create a puzzle.

• Puzzling Perimeters (Authored by Debra Mastro.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use estimation, fractions and decimals to determine the perimeter of objects in the classroom.

• Range and Measures of Central Tendency (Authored by Wanda Martin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are introduced to range and measures of central tendency with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. After practice in calculating and analyzing data, students will create a table in Microsoft Excel.

• Rate Your Plate (Authored by Kathy Crane.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way to teach students to analyze what they eat for one day. The student analyzes the nutrients, calories, and food groups using the USDA CNPP website Interactive Healthy Eating Index.

• Reaction Time (Authored by M Dennis.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson helps the student collect, organize and analyze data while studying reaction time. Students calculate measures of central tendency using a calculator and show data on graph.

• Read All About It (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a variety of magazines, students work cooperatively to determine the main idea of a text and how details help support the main idea.

• Reader's Review (Authored by Patricia Wachholz.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create their own booklets to provide information on the elements of a novel, including plot, setting, character, major and minor conflicts and theme.

• Reading for Righties and Lefties. (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a year-long project which appeals to students who are concrete-based learners as well as those who lean toward the abstract. This reading workshop program is an open reading forum in which students choose their own novels they would like to read.

• Reading Restaurant (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Transform your classroom into a Reading Restaurant where students enjoy a variety of book titles through oral reading.

• Record 'THE' Results (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students predict, then discover the number of times the word -the- appears on an average newspaper page. Results are posted on a back-to-back stem and leaf plot.

• Red, Green, and Blue Mystery Liquids! Hypothesis or an Inference? (Authored by ELIZABETH BAILEY.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are actively involved in the scientific method and inquiry as they form quick hypotheses based upon a teacher set of mystery liquids. Students will determine they need to make additional observations of the liquids to test their initial hypotheses and form inferences. Students may extend the lesson and inquiry processes as they design their own density experiment using liquids they decide upon and bring from home.

• Reflexives Rock (Authored by Joanna Lowe.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students describe and demonstrate their daily activities from a.m. to p.m. using gestures, actions and props in this TPR lesson. They sing the reflexive verb song, “Me acuesto a las diez,” incorporating their daily activities.

• Regional Renaissances (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover the differences between the Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance through group interaction and discussion.

• Resolution or Revolution? (Authored by Anne Reeves.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn appropriate strategies to resolve conflicts and potentially dangerous and/or threatening situations by role playing situations

• Rest in Peace, Maniac Magee (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel, MANIAC MAGEE, students use precise words to create an epitaph for each of the major characters reflecting the individual character¹s personality and nature.

• Riddles and Words (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What color is a jaundiced pig? Hamber, of course! Using an exciting vocabulary game in which students create riddles and answers, this lesson explores word choice, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

• Riding the Wave (Authored by Sean Kavanaugh.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will be introduced to waves through hands-on demonstrations and a concept map scavenger hunt. Students will then perform fun activities to help identify the properties of waves (crest, trough, amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and wave speed).

• Rights in the Holocaust: Imagine and Remember (Authored by Christine Sermons.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This poetry writing activity is designed to introduce students to the Holocaust as a violation of personal, political, and economic rights. It is a component of a larger unit on American constitutional government.

• Ring, Ring . . . Please Get That Phone (Authored by Athena Gill.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a multimedia PowerPoint presentation using proper telephone procedures. Using the Internet, students produce a presentation containing proper telephone procedures. (NETS for Students: 3.2)

• Rip, You're Sleepin' Your Life Away (Authored by Cheree Brown.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A Venn diagram is used to show how two things are alike and different. Think about Rip's life before and after he fell asleep for 20 years. Fill in the Venn diagram by writing how Rip's old life and his new life are alike and how they are different.

• Rock Concert (Authored by Kathy Lewis.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a product (song, skit, poem, etc.) that describes the three major types of rocks and how they are formed. Then, they present their product during a class "rock concert".

• Rockin' and Rollin' (Authored by Kathy Lewis.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a product (song, skit, poem, etc.) that describes the three major types of rocks and how they are formed. They present their products during a class -rock concert.-

• Roll a Decimal (Authored by Cindy Beckham.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: By the roll of a die, students place digits in the place value chart to create a number having the greatest or least value possible.

• Roll With The Punches: Crossroads to Where? (Authored by Martha Simmons.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students visualize and create a map to outline scenes from the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The student understands the importance of organizing information when making maps and giving directions.

• Roll With the Punches: Can't We All Get Along? (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After participating in a segregation experiment, students reflect and explore their feelings and reactions to the experiment through poetry.

• Roll With The Punches: Depression Era Machinery (Authored by Paula Weaver.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Groups construct models of simple and complicated machines with Legos. Then they design an experiment using the scientific method. ESE modifications included.

• Roll With the Punches: It's Not in Black and White (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students evaluate the responsibilities of history textbooks in reporting events related to minorities.

• Roll With the Punches: Oprah's On! (Authored by Shirley Baker.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading the novel [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry] by Mildred D. Taylor, students participate in an Oprah Winfrey Show to review events in the novel and gain a more in depth understanding of them.

• Roll With the Punches: What Do You Know? (Authored by Martha Simmons.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through a cooperative group activity, students activate prior knowledge about life in the South during the Great Depression in preparation for reading the novel, [Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry].

• Rolling Through Space (Authored by Terrie Lyons.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson uses a common roll of toilet paper to give students a practical means of visualizing the vast distances that separate the sun and the planets of our solar system.

• Rube Rube (Authored by Kathy Lewis.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students design a Rube Goldberg Device using the six basic, simple machines. The students will make posters that illustrate the designs of their devices and that identify the simple machines involved. In addition, the students will write paragraphs to explain how machines work, mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of simple machines.

• Sail on the Vocabulary Ship (Authored by Patricia McAdams.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: ESOL students make paper ships on which to identify and write root words, prefixes and suffixes.

• Salt and Water Divorce by a Physical Change (Authored by Rosemary Wilson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students vaporize water from a solution of salt and water leaving the NaCl behind and showing the separation by physical means (change of state of the water).

• Sampling Snoops (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students practice formulating a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test the hypothesis. Then they identify several sampling techniques they can use to test their hypotheses.

• Saving Money Through Mathematics (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students compare the cost of energy use for a variety of sources of light. A variety of graphs will be used to make the comparison.

• Say What You Mean (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are challenged to create what their partners are viewing, with only verbal communication. The reporter is not allowed to see what the receiver is drawing, which forces students to understand the importance of detailed instruction, clear communication, and following directions.

• Scavenger Search (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using library resource materials, reference books, electronic media, and the Internet, students search for answers to questions.

• School Daze--Remembering First, Best, Worst (Authored by Glenda Fillingim.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gather and record information in interviews with adults discovering their first, best, and worst school memories. Students transfer this interview information to a memory page containing the interview information. Students orally present one part of their memory page.

• Scientific Who's Who (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The student will choose a scientist from a specific culture or time period to research.The student will address the scientist's scientific, mathematical, or technological contribution and the effect of the contribution on human culture in a report.

• Scrambled Stories (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students brainstorm several examples of plots, settings, and characters and randomly select these elements to create their own short stories.

• Scrambled Stories II (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use different parts of other students' story outlines to write very unique short stories. This activity allows the students to use their imaginations as they try to put together a story using only the information they are given.

• Search for the Missing Pi (Authored by Brenda York.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students actively investigate measuring circular objects, recording data accurately to derive the formula for the relationship known as [pi].

• See How They Run (Authored by Ramona Guth.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students view non-print campaign advertisements and analyze for factual and persuasive information. They determine which advertisement is the most persuasive and share reasons to support their decisions with a peer.

• See What You Can Find (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students must locate and record examples of acute, right, obtuse and straight angles found within a classroom.

• Seeking Super Cities (Authored by Louise Jones.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Did you ever want to move to another city in the United States? If so, come travel with us on a Super City Search. Researchers, start your engines!

• Self-Portrait Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a self-portrait poem, giving the reader an indication what he or she is like on the inside, instead of picturing how he or she looks on the outside.

• Selling, Spending, or Saving (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use commercials to discover emotional benefits and challenges associated with communications about finances.

• Separation of Powers (Authored by Joyce Honeychurch.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The learners will research the three branches of government and look at the effect that the separation of powers has on the presidency.

• Shopping for Skills (Authored by Leslie Phillips.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers and decimals using a grocery flyer from the newspaper. The students will select the appropriate operation to solve specific problems.

• Shuffle About (Authored by Thomas Martin.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students must work together and practice communication skills, leadership, trust, respect and creativity in order to complete this outdoor activity successfully.

• Sidewalks to Success in Middle School (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a brochure that will be placed in the receiving area of the school to educate incoming students on how to succeed in middle school.

• Skittles™ Count (Authored by Carole Mason.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will count Skittles™ then use the numbers to find the relationships among fractions, decimals, and percent.

• Slang Ain't the Thang! (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: By creating a visual image with words, the listeners are invited into the scene created by the speaker. Students look at a speaker's tools to learn how to use words and images to express a message.

• Slithering into Revision (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using Aesop’s short fable, “The Dove and the Snake,” students will learn the importance of sensory language and sentence structure in creative writing while practicing the steps and procedures to good writing.

• Smallest to Tallest - Where is the Middle? (Authored by T. Sundeen.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Learners find the mean, median, and mode for the height of the students in their class. Students use the data to determine the most appropriate measure of central tendency for the class.

• Smoking: The Real Cost (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a great lesson to use anytime but especially during Red Ribbon Week or on National Smoke Out Day. Students calculate the cost of smoking over a period of time and construct graphs to display the data.

• Sneetches by Dr. Seuss (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity provides the students with the opportunity to use persuasive writing to influence others regarding prejudicial issues.

• So You Want to Be a TV Reporter! (Authored by Sue Orth.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain information from an interview with each other in order to write a script for a video segment.

• Sold! Ageless Water (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: With the popularity of bottled water today, students create a magazine advertisement for the spring water, which causes a person to live forever, in the novel [Tuck Everlasting] by Natalie Babbitt.

• Solve Simple One-Step Linear Equation (Authored by Yunling Zhang.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to solve one unknown number by using hands-on manipulatives after being introduced to the history of abstract mathematics through literature.

• Solving Science Mysteries (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using resource materials, small groups investigate a science-related mystery, then write and deliver a persuasive speech that supports the theory of the mystery.

• Song Analysis (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students pretend that they have just landed a job with a local music magazine, and their first assignment is to write a short article in which they interpret the lyrics of a popular song.

• Sources of Energy (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research various methods for preparing food and analyze energy sources.

• South America Layered (Authored by Sammie Nicholls.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students produce an overlay map of South America to show the relationships between cities (population), landforms and economies.

• Southern Fried Sentences (Authored by Traci Damron.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: You can’t deep-fry your students, but you can immerse them in the process of creating properly written sentences! Take a fun stab at extreme Southern dialects by having students read aloud and correct improper sentences. Get ready to laugh!

• Space: The Final Frontier (Authored by Cynthia Lott.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use electronic technology to find information on the solar system and then construct a graph to explain the information. They also demonstrate a solar or lunar eclipse by providing a written explanation with an illustration of the planet chosen.

• Speeches to Introduce (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create multimedia speeches of introduction which focus on women and Hispanics.

• Speed & Velocity with Straw Rockets (Authored by Lisa Nall.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is speed? What is velocity? It what ways are they the same? In what ways are they different? How do you calculate them? In this lesson, students explore speed and velocity with Straw Rockets.

• Sports for All (Authored by Brent Johns.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students experience what it is like for students with special needs to participate in sports. They learn to make modifications for students with special needs.

• Square by Square (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select a simple picture to enlarge, and transform.

• Square Circles (Authored by Carol Spice.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Show your students how a circle can be measured in square units and how diameter, radius, and circumference are related.

• State of Matter (Authored by Carol Houck.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students examine how atoms change from solid to liquid to gas.

• Statistical Specimens (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore sampling techniques that are used to collect data. Students also practice finding mean, median, and mode of a set of data. Finally, students determine appropriate measures of central tendency for a situation.

• Story Mapping: The Hundred Dresses (Authored by Mary Coyle.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Note: This lesson is a follow up to lessons on story mapping and the book [The Hundred Dresses] by Eleanor Estes. Story Mapping is a creative tool for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a story. Within this assignment, students illustrate and paraphrase each chapter of [The Hundred Dresses], creating a graphic organizer through the use of story mapping.

• Studying Anchor Papers (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How can students best learn something? By doing it! By scoring Florida Writes/F-CAT essay anchor papers, students are provided an opportunity to better their own essays.

• Subject and Verb Agreement: Using Literature (Authored by david gingold.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Given two excerpts from a classic literary novel, language arts students will identify and correct the discrepancies in subject and verb agreement.

• Substance Use and Its Effect on Behavior (Authored by James Buchannon.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a lesson to cause students to think about substance use and afford them an opportunity to use their resistence skills for avoiding potentially harmful situations.

• Subtraction and Addition Word Problems Made Easy (Authored by Joe Crawley.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson helps to lay a foundation for solving addition and subtraction word problems. It will be the basis for future lessons on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The students will explore the reasons for adding or subtracting.

• Survey Says (Multi-day Activity) (Authored by Elinor Mount-Simmons.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is a fun conclusion to unit on graphs. Learners brainstorm and create surveys to disseminate to all homerooms. From this input, learners work cooperatively to create line, bar and picture graphs.

• Survival of the Fittest (Authored by April Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Do all creatures in the sea swim? Do all of them have sharp teeth? No! Students use information learned about animal habitats and how they survive to develop their own “never before seen” marine creatures.

• Symbolic Poem (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write and share a symbolic poem about simple things that stand for deeper subjects.

• Symmetry in Nature (Authored by Kenneth Blackman.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students use a variety of observation and measurement techniques to identify lines of symmetry and also use graphing techniques to determine plots of ordered pairs.

• Take A Meal Worm To Lunch (Authored by Robert Brock.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use mealworms in a guided inquiry lesson to stimulate questions from observations and learn how to use scientific processes in designing experiments to answer those questions.

• Take My Word for It (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students take a summative assessment, then begin researching and organizing information for an oral presentation on significant leaders in history.

• Take the Challenge (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create a program that will improve their overall fitness levels. They keep daily records in personal journals of all exercise and physical activities, as well as their personal thoughts and reflections on their progress toward their goals.

• Teacher of the Year (Authored by Kenny McCay.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Each student selects a teacher who he or she feels should be named as Teacher of the Year. The student plans and drafts a paragraph to convince the class of his or her choice. After revising and editing, the student presents a clean copy of this paragraph to the selected teacher.

• Tell Me That You Love Me 5-7-5 (Authored by Dixie Wheelock.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students compose Haiku poetry and visually enhance it with writing ink .

• Telling Tales (Authored by Lucille Andreu.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students share personal versions of fairy tales from their memories with each other. They listen, analyze and paraphrase the tales’ differences and similarities in a Venn diagram while asking questions for clarification.

• Tension Over Slavery (Authored by Ariel Viera.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What caused the Civil War? The students will explore the events that caused tension between the North and South leading to the Civil War.

• Testing Termites to Discover (Authored by Wendi Henderson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students utilize open inquiry and the scientific method to discover how termites respond to their environment.

• That Was Alpha Smart of You (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students utilize the Alpha Smart mini word processor units during a writing workshop to draft and edit a piece of writing.

• The 21st Century Lewis and Clark Trail (Authored by Terry Provancha.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students enjoy learning about the Lewis and Clark Trail as they trace the path from the beginning to the end using modern technology. After studying the path, students create a better route through the Rocky Mountains using a topographical CD Rom.

• The 3 R's of Common Denominators (Language) (Authored by Michael Newton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After solving various word problems that deal with common denominators, students practice writing the mathematical explanation they used to obtain the solution.

• The 3 R's of Common Denominators (Math) (Authored by Mitch Maddox.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students are shown an alternative method of determining the lowest common denominator of two or more unequal denominators.

• The 3 R's of Common Denominators (Reading) (Authored by Kathleen Long.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The purpose of this lesson is for the teacher to introduce common math terms that are relevant to determining the common denominator for two or more fractions. This is a lead in to Math Part 2 of this lesson.

• The Accident That Did Not Happen (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How safe are your science students' skills? In this lesson, students become familiar with the basic rules of laboratory safety and some of the laboratory equipment used in scientific discovery.

• The Assassin’s Hand (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, students research the assassination of another historical figure.

• The Average Atom - Isotopes (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: When looking at a periodic table, students notice that atomic masses are decimal numbers. These masses are an average of all the isotopes of that element. Students investigate a model of isotopes by completing the Isotopes Model activity.

• The Christmas Tree, Just Where Did it Come From? (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The Christmas tree is popular in most homes in the United States. We decorate our living and family rooms and outside in the yard, with trees. Just how did they become part of the American Christmas?

• The Colors on My TV Screen (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Visible light contains all the colors of the rainbow. However, electronic screens (TV, computer) use only three of these colors to produce the colors that we see on them. Students investigate these colors by making and testing a color wheel.

• The Cost of Life (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: An adult needs to budget expenses. At some point, one must choose a career and determine the expenses one can manage. This lesson affords students an opportunity to discuss and discover the conditions and characteristics of different career choices.

• The Days of Jane Eyre's Life (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students watch the video [Jane Eyre] by Charlotte Bronte and visually discover the elements of the novel.

• The Energy Grab Game (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Demonstrates the scarcity of energy resources. It allows the students to experience competition for natural resources and demonstrates the result of inadequate distribution of natural wealth among the Earth’s nations.

• The Grass is Always Greener (Authored by Judy Marburger.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will use common grass to observe and experiment with cellular division.

• The Guise of a Graph Gumshoe (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students practice constructing bar, circle, and box-and-whisker graphs. Students also practice reading and interpreting data displays and explore how different displays of data can lead to different interpretations.

• The House that Dies Drear Built (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Virginia Hamilton is a master of descriptive language. Create a descriptive paragraph describing the landscape around your house.

• The Indian Way of Life (Authored by Harold Towne.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Why did the Sioux Indians live in tents covered with animal skins, the Cherokee live in wooden homes, and the Navajo live in mud houses? This activity is a way for students to investigate why several Indian tribes developed different ways of life based on geography. (This lesson must be done after the students have had instruction in the physical regions of the U.S.)

• The Inside Story (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: When is a door not a door? When it’s symbolic of something else! Students study the usage of symbolism in poetry and examine how symbolism can be used to explain their own lives and emotions.

• The Land and the Water (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students compare and contrast the tragic event that occurs in a work of fiction to a real-life tragic experience that occurs in a work of non-fiction.

• The Language of Shakespeare (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In small groups, students write and dramatize a scene using Elizabethan language.

• The Luxor Hotel Contract (Authored by Wanda Martin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Given square feet of the base, volume, and the volume formula, students will determine slant height the Luxor Hotel so that they can find surface area. Then they will create a model to scale, including the mirrored glass, which is on each triangular face of the hotel. Your (students’) company has just been asked to submit a bid, accompanied with a scale model, for the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. You have been asked to cover the exterior of the building with mirrored glass tile. In your excitement at being offered such a prestigious opportunity, you failed to gather all necessary information. Because you cannot reach the architect and you have a deadline to meet, you have to determine what you need to know from the information you have so you can complete your task.

• The Mathematical Fingerprint of Our Solar System (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Mathematics, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: An integration of science and math in the study of the locations of all planets in our solar system. Students learn the beautiful mathematical model unique to our solar system. A minimal knowledge of mathmatics is necessary.

• The Mind Map (Authored by Debra Rogers.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is designed to introduce students to geographic thinking by creating mental maps from their residences to school and then recreating their maps on paper showing, direction, symbols, location and distance.

• The Multimedia Heart (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Health, Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Working in groups, students research the different aspects of the human heart. Groups work through steps to create a multimedia slide presentation. The presentation must follow preset criteria.

• The Mysteries of Twins (Authored by Melinda Dukes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How can twins help us uncover important information about hereditary? Students are taught how to read science content through the modeling of proper summarization techniques using the article, "Mysteries of Twins." Then, they practice the same reading techniques using another section of the same article.

• The Mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Authored by Kathy Corder.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to evaluate a primary source and use it to interpret John White's diary entry regarding the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

• The Net Force and Rube Goldberg (Authored by Julie Brown.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Roll, drop, slide, twist, and turn your middle school students' attention by exploring net force while creatively building Rube Goldberg contraptions.

• The Politics of Big Business (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Simulating a congressional debate, students discover the issues involving monopolies and big business during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

• The Portable Niche (Authored by Louise Kent.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students capture an ecosystem in empty film cans placed inside the bottoms of a two-liter bottles. Each created niche is then used to observe distinctive biotic samples.

• The Price Is Right (Language Arts) (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the unit price to compare which local grocery store has the best prices.

• The Problem with Prejudice (Authored by Zerelda Hammer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will read/discuss -The Hangman- by Maurice Ogden and answer questions about the poem. Students will list things they can do to combat prejudice using each of the letters in the word and create a small poster with a slogan against prejudice.

• The Rest of the Story (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a short story as a writing prompt, students use background knowledge to predict ideas, give rationale for predictions, and confirm predictions as the story progresses. Students also complete a cooperative group writing assignment.

• The Story of My Life (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students respond to daily autobiographical assignments that will be published into a book.

• The Tale of Scale (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students produce three bar graphs using a range of data for various scales along the y-axis.

• The Timeline of a Lifetime (Authored by Haley Caraway.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The student will know what a timeline is, create a timeline with 4 important events of their life, to include 2 national events and 2 world events. The student will then write an essay about their life including the four events.

• The True Story (Authored by Deloris Morris.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students rewrite their favorite fairy tale from another character’s perspective other than the one in which it is written. This lesson helps students become familiar with the the literary term -point of view.-

• The Wedding of a Mountain (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The wedding of a mountain takes place every day! That is right, W for weathering, E for erosion, and D for deposition. In this lesson, students learn the distinctions of the three processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.

• The West in Brochures (Authored by Jillian Eriksson.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students compare and contrast the daily life of Native Americans to The American Cowboy in the 1800's.

• The Whole World Celebrated Christmas! Right? (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is for use during the weeks before the Christmas break. This will be great for middle school students. It is a comparison of the other religious holidays that are celebrated around this same time of year.

• There's a Writer Waiting Inside Me (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Psst....Did you know there’s a writer waiting inside each of your students? In this introductory lesson, students are introduced to the concept, What Makes Good Poetry? and are asked to explore the writer within!

• Thinking about Shopping and Spending (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: By discussing the effects of advertisements, students learn to improve shopping and spending habits.

• This is Straight From The Horse's Mouth (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use a PowerPoint presentation to learn about the history of some idioms, how they are used in our language today and practice using idioms themselves.

• This Lesson is Totally Trippy Man (Authored by Debbie Hartley.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A fun way to link the past to the present is through the identification of slang terms. Small group work, interviewing of parents, relatives or neighbors helps students discover slang is not unique to their generation but has existed for a long time.

• Those Baffling Bibliographies! (Authored by Carol Rine.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is the fourth lesson in a unit on expository writing. Instruction guides students in using source cards to create a Works Cited list for a report.

• Those Vexing Variables (Authored by Terrie Lyons.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to recognize the dependent and independent variables in an experiment by practicing manipulation of variables. They also practice designing experiments that contain the two types of variables.

• Time Is of the Essence (Authored by Chryste Carroll.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: ESE students identify the evolution of the civil rights movement from slavery to present day and then use information about major events to create a timeline.

• Time Is on the Line (Authored by Lawrencio Rodriguez.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The lesson entails the introduction on how to construct and organize a chronological timeline.

• To Be or Not to Be (Authored by Pamela Teske.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students define the terms, abiotic and biotic. They compare and contrast biotic and abiotic factors presented while using the web cameras on the Web World Wonders website.

• To Express or Be Oppressed? (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students explore the debate between free-speech and patriotism using a northern renaissance scenario.

• To Read or Not to Read ? That Is the Question (Authored by Nancy Montague.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn how to use the book jacket to predict what the book is about. This aids in the decision to read or not to read the book, and decreases the amount of time they spend trying to find a book for pleasure or research.

• Toontime (Authored by Millard Nixon.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students write an essay about the govermental issues that surrounded Andrew Jackson's presidency. They discuss how editorial cartoons are made and create an editorial cartoon of their own about a president.

• Toothpicks, Gumdrops, and Polyhedrons (Authored by Amelia McCurdy.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using toothpicks and gumdrops, students make prisms and pyramids to discover the relationship between faces, vertices, and edges.

• Training for the Big Show (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using PowerPoint as a visual aid, students orally present information from research to the class. This is the third and final lesson plan in the unit.

• Traveling Through Europe with Brochures (Authored by Sheila Sexton.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is designed to help students become familiar with the cultural aspects of their chosen country through creating a travel brochure and an expression booklet. (NETS for Students 1.2 and 5.1)

• Tree Brains (Authored by Linda Doty.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Do you want your students to have fun and learn at the same time? Why not try hanging their brains out on trees? This lesson will teach students to pre-write using graphic organizers, checklist, and a rubric.

• U.S. State Reports (Authored by Sheila Sexton.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This project engages students in actively researching a given U.S. state. It allows students to use different forms of technology to assist them in their quest for information.

• Under the Weather (Authored by Kim Auerbach.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the Weather page in the local daily newspaper to review concepts of mean, median, mode, range and solve other weather related questions.

• Understanding Our Planet's Food Web (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A team structured problem-solving activity that challenges the student's problem-solving ability. Students understand man's tenuous position in the environment and learn through a hierarchy of decision stages to conserve species diversity.

• Understanding Oxidation Numbers (Authored by Dale Peterson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson will help students grasp the relationships among protons and electrons, locations of various elements, electron energy levels, and oxidation numbers.

• Uniforms vs. Fashion: Want to Take a Side? (Authored by Constance Light.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a draft of a persuasive essay to the principal addressing the issue of whether or not Three Oaks Middle School should adopt uniforms.

• Up and Down (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students participate in a variety of aerobic exercises placed at different stations and calculate their recovery heart rate after each exercise.

• Up, Up, and Away (Authored by Lisa Locklin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson will allow the students to explore the relationship between velocity and the time traveled by an airplane. The students will use hands-on activities to calculate the average speed, and approximate average velocity.

• Using Local Geography to Make Maps (Authored by Jerry Stephens.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In small groups, students research, create, and present a scale representation of the county in which they live.

• Viral Diseases (Authored by Jackie Robertson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students will research three viral diseases of humans, plants, or animals and report their findings to the class through a presentation using a visual aid.

• Vocabulary Bingo (Authored by Leslie Dobbs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students extend their vocabulary by participating in the Vocabulary Bingo activity. This activity can be used with other subjects to help improve vocabulary.

• Vocabulary Drawing (Authored by Jeannie Overby.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Vocabulary review by drawing pictures and writing sentences on index cards. Variations are found in CRISS strategies. This review can also be used with other subject area vocabulary studies.

• Walk That Line (Authored by Thomas Martin.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students work together to practice communication skills, leadership, trust, respect and creativity in this outdoor activity.

• Wanted New Authors! (Authored by Gloria Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students will learn to write a short autobiographical sketch and produce an author page to be used throughout the year with their writing. Students will learn how to take digital camera photos and produce a PowerPoint slide show with their photos and information.

• Water Displacement to Determine Volume (Authored by T. Sundeen.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use the water displacement method to determine the volume of solid objects.

• Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 (Authored by Patricia Wachholz.)

Subject(s): Language Arts, Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use graphic organizers and create timelines to make an historical connection to the 1960s as a prereading activity for The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.

• We Tumble Together (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: While working in cooperative groups, students create, practice, and perform a tumbling routine to music.

• Web It! (Authored by Gloria Smith.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn about using a web graphic organizer effectively as a prewriting tool for expository writing.

• Web of Life (Authored by Sherri Barber.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students investigate using the Internet as their tool to learn about the food web and construct a food web in which Alaska is their basis of research. Students then construct their own food web after researching a habitat of their choice.

• What a Difference a Year Makes: Billy's Letter (Authored by Thomasine Kennedy.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students complete a post reading activity for the novel [Where The Red Fern Grows]. They write a RAFT letter from the point-of-view of the character Billy to his grandpa reflecting about the death of his dogs and his adjustment to life in town.

• What Do You Think? (Authored by Janice Jowers.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The story, THE PAIN AND THE GREAT ONE, written from two different points-of-view, is read to the children. The students then read statements made by the characters in the book and identify from which character’s point-of-view the statement was made.

• What Goes in Must Come Out (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology, Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students devise a plan for modifying caloric intake and energy expenditure. Each week, they track information and record it in their journals. They use feedback to adjust their plans and then assess their progress.

• What Goes Up Must Come Down (Authored by Karin Friend.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity has students creating a story map identifying the complex elements of plot, after reading the novel [The Cay].

• What Is an Egg Without its Shell? (Authored by Wendi Henderson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lab activity allows students to observe osmosis – a cellular process that normally can’t be observed without a microscope. Students follow the steps of the scientific method to observe osmosis in a chicken egg.

• What Is in a Rock? (Authored by Terrie Lyons.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students identify, sort, and classify mineral samples that make up a common rock.

• What Is the Freezing Point? (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How does a liquid change to a solid? Students will remove heat energy and determine how it causes a phase change.

• What Is the Language of Television? (Authored by Lisa Meltzer.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson, students explore the language of moving pictures. By creating and understanding the basic building blocks used to form a video sequence (wide shot, medium shot and close-up), the student will discover how communication is enhanced. (NETS for Students: 4.2)

• What Is the Matter? (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What is the Matter? It’s a solid, a liquid, or a gas. In this lesson, students explore and identify the phases of matter and compare the particle motion in solids, liquids, and gasses.

• What Is Your Point? (Authored by Sue Garl.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this game a student challenges a partner to recreate his quadrilateral or other shape on a geoboard by calling out the ordered pairs of the quadrilateral’s vertices.

• What Kind of Student Do You Want to Be? (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write an essay which answers the question, “What kind of student do I want to be?”

• What Makes a Good Speaker? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Improvement of public speaking skills doesn’t have to be difficult or boring. In the first lesson of the unit, -Speak for Yourself,- students respond to a diagnostic assessment to determine what they need to know in order to become good speakers.

• What On Earth (Authored by Cheryle Borsos.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: What on Earth Is Earth science? That is what students discover in this lesson through concept mapping, discussion, and self-discovery.

• What's for Dinner? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this activity, students use adjectives to describe foods listed in restaurant menus. In cooperative groups, students create menus and identify the adjectives used in the menu created by their group.

• What's in a Name? (Middle School) (Authored by Cynthia Youngblood.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a quote from Shakespeare’s [Romeo and Juliet], the student creates a flower that illustrates himself or herself using scraps of colored paper and markers. In an informal presentation, students share how their flowers represent them.

• What's My Total? (Authored by Amanda Yates.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson teaches students how to calculate the total cost of an evening out. A student leads his/her peers in this activity.

• What's So Nice About Fairy Tales? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read fairy tales and then write a modernized version of the story. Students then compare their version to the original version and analyze whether or not the author's purpose is compromised.

• What's the Big Idea? (Middle School) (Authored by Abby Hill.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students learn to identify the main idea in a reading passage by using a technique to eliminate unnecessary words that are not relevant to the main idea.

• What's the Matter? Locating Electrons in an Atom (Authored by Timothy Byrne.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The students roll dice in order to simulate the probability of locating an electron in a certain region around the nucleus.

• What's the Scoop on Casey? (Authored by Farica King.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read and then use details from Ernest L. Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" to create a newspaper article about Casey's infamous at-bat.

• What's the Scoop on Slang? (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write a fictional news article about a sports event using slang (jargon) which is based on the special jargon (slang) that sportswriters have developed for writing and talking about sports.

• What's the Story? (Authored by Janice Wilkins.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the novel [The Giver] by Lois Lowry, students write a continuation story based on Jonas’s and Gabriel’s journeys into Elsewhere.

• What's Up, Doc? (Authored by Kathy Kelly.)

Subject(s): Applied Technology, Language Arts, Physical Education (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create and then participate in a fitness program designed to improve their cardiovascular fitness. Students document the benefits of participation in the fitness program in their journals.

• What's Your Function? (Authored by Catherine Densmore.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a creative way for students to learn and know the parts and functions of an animal cell.

• What's Your Opinion? (Authored by Michelle Gowan.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Through a Think-Share pre-reading activity, students formulate and negotiate opinions on issues that will be addressed in the literature to be studied in preparation for reading the novel, [Sing Down the Moon]. Students also make predictions based on the activity about what events might occur in the novel.

• Wheeling Around (Authored by April Jackson.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity is a fun way to use real-life examples to introduce circles. This lesson explores the characteristics of a circle and the formulas to find circumference. The student uses a bicycle wheel to determine the circumference around a wheel.

• When Are We Ever Going to Use This? (Authored by Sara Tomlin.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This lesson is intended as a wrap-up following the teaching of relationships among fractions, decimals, and percents. It could be used following any lesson as a means to encourage the understanding of real-world applications of mathematics.

• When Old Meets New (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a T-chart, students synthesize and separate collected information. Students define comparison and contrast in literature for diagnostic assessment.

• Where Is the Magnetism? (Authored by Jeri Martin.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: How does a magnet lose its magnetism? Students become familiar with magnetic domains and their influence on the magnetism of a magnet.

• Where Is the Moon? (Authored by Laura Jackson.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A simulation is used to help students understand the location of the Earth, moon, and sun, in relationship to each other, during a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse.

• Where Is Your Story Set? (Authored by Kathryn Clark.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students develop an understanding of setting in literature by first examining where their own life stories are currently set and then imagining what their ideal settings would be.

• Where No Student Has Gone Before (Authored by Leslie Briggs.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As a pre-reading activity for the novel, A WRINKLE IN TIME, cooperative writing groups create a story about an unknown planet suddenly invaded by humans.

• Which Car Will Mom Approve? (Authored by Dawn Kaunike.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Which car will Mom spend the money for? This lesson focuses on writing a comparison/contrast essay about two cars the student wants. The student’s purpose is to determine which one of the two cars should be purchased from the parents’ perspective.

• Who Am I? (Primary Grades) (Authored by Timothy Mark Dillehay.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students complete a classroom game used to build understanding of two and three-dimensional shapes. Diagonals, sides, regularity, congruency, Angle measurements, parallels, perpendicular, faces, edges, and word pre-fixes are a few of the vocabulary reviewed.

• Who Built the Pyramids? (Authored by Chet Geering.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students process a variety of information on the pyramids at Giza and create an opinion essay which uses the information gathered as well as student feedback.

• Who Gets the Money? (Authored by Thomas Lucey.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Working in groups, students determine the characteristics of a good loan. They also make practical application of what they learn.

• Who Is That Ghostly Character? (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students provide an additional scene to the radio play, "The Hitchhiker," by Lucille Fletcher. The conclusion explains the role of the hitchhiker and ends Adam's traumatic travel experience.

• Who Me? A Writer? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain information from an interview and organize the information in order to create a three-part biography of the person they interviewed. This is a good lesson to do the first month of school.

• Who Needs a Dress Code? (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using the Dress Code Guidelines from a Code of Student Conduct, students make notes and create a poster to present appropriate/inappropriate examples of students’ grooming/attire, and include comments regarding the need for each guideline.

• Who Wants To Carry a Million? (Authored by Annette Nixon.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students use cooperative learning, problem solving skills, and volume to find the dimensions of a box large enough to hold a million dollars.

• Who Will Be Our Mayor? (Authored by Johnnie Bush.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After learning about the roles of citizens in selecting a mayor to run a city, students work in groups to research candidates’ viewpoints on the improvement of Parks and Recreation and then select a candidate to support for Mayor.

• Who Would Have Figured? (Authored by Melanie Malone.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students discover what happens when a coin is tossed a few times versus when a coin is tossed many times. They discover the answer to -What is the probability of heads, and does it change as you toss the coin more times?-

• Who's Confused? Not Me! (Authored by Megan Siska.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students create flashcards that explain often confused words which enables them to understand correct usage in writing.

• Who's Speaking? (Authored by Vicky Nichols.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students prepare a short speech, record it on video tape, edit, then deliver the speech. (NETS for Students: 4.1 and 4.2)

• Who's Your 'Toon? (Authored by Cherie Collins.)

Subject(s): Foreign Language (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This activity evaluates students' understanding of the placement and agreement of descriptive adjectives in Spanish by describing their favorite cartoon character. (It can be adapted for any target language.)

• Whodunit? Creating Mysterious Plays (Authored by Dawn Capes.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: The activity is designed to have students study mystery plays and then write and perform their own plays.

• Why Do Art? (Authored by Cathy McIntyre.)

Subject(s): Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Does art have a purpose, or is it just a leisure time activity? After understanding the multiple purposes for creating works of art by fine artists, designers and craftspeople, students distinguish examples of each occupation.

• Why Do Authors Write? (Authored by Delshuana Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: In this lesson students use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author’s purpose for writing.

• Why or Why Not Law? (Authored by Joyel Glaze.)

Subject(s): Social Studies (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students obtain a firm grasp on the importance of law through web-based resources, magazines, newspapers and collaboration within student cooperative groups, class discussion and teacher discussion/explanations.

• Why the Grinch Stole Christmas (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Everyone knows “How the Grinch stole Christmas,” but no one seems to know [why] the Grinch stole Christmas. This lesson is a look at what might have given the Grinch the feelings that he had to steal Christmas from Who-ville.

• Wild Babies (Authored by Suzan Smith.)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: During this first day of the unit, students consider the source of our traits and characteristics. This activity is designed to get the students thinking, intrigue their interests, and to involve them in class discussion. A KWL Chart will be initiated and used as the Diagnostic Assessment.

• Working Hard or Hardly Working (Authored by Jennifer Hall.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: This is an individual research project during which students learn about a specific career. The project provides students the opportunity to gain new information, utilize electronic technology, and write a grade-level appropriate paper.

• Wrap it Right! (Authored by Delia Pogorzelski.)

Subject(s): Mathematics (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Are you tired of miscalculating the length of ribbon needed for a gift? No more cutting & re-cutting for you. This lesson teaches how to eliminate this frustration. It’s a failsafe method, and it’s just in time for any gift-giving occasion!

• Write or You’re History! (Authored by Jill Blonder.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students write letters demonstrating their knowledge of how to use English in formal and informal settings.

• Yes, No, Maybe So! (Authored by Kerry McMillen.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After looking at various pictures, the students, as a class, identify the ones illustrating action verbs. Then, after looking at a picture individually, students write sentences using strong, active verbs summarizing the action in the picture.

• Yes, There Really Was a Santa! (Authored by Shirley Godbold.)

Subject(s): Social Studies, Visual Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students read a selection concerning Santa Claus and the orgin of the Jolly Old Elf in the United States.They will also create their own version of a new and modern Santa Claus that will remain in the American culture.

• You Are What You Eat (Primary Grades) (Authored by Debra Harris.)

Subject(s): Health (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students research and prepare 20 cards regarding nutritional needs, obesity, and health issues. Students determine their ideal weights and how many calories should be consumed daily to obtain the ideal weight and/or maintain it.

• You Are What You Read (Authored by Joan Jackson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students select a prose, poetry, or nonfiction excerpt from a book of their choice and share it by reading aloud to their classmates, who identify the genre and respond to related questions in their journals.

• You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover (Authored by Kimberly Marlow.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: As an introduction to teaching a new novel, students make predictions about the novel's story line. Students then form groups of three to come to a consensus prediction about the novel which is presented to the class.

• You Do Judge a Book by Its Cover (Authored by Patricia Morres.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: After viewing several magazine pictures of different types of people, students recognize how much we stereotype.

• You G.O.T. It! (Authored by Lisa Ove Gibson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Using a graphic organizer, students synthesize and separate collected information. G.O.T. stands for Graphic Organization using a T-chart.

• Zipping Through Our Solar System and Beyond (Authored by Richard Angelini Sr..)

Subject(s): Science (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: A team-structured inside and outside classroom activity incorporating the concepts of scale, and ratios and proportion. Students construct many solar system models to scale and see our solar system as an action location in the vast void of space.

• Zoom In with Internet Keyword Searches (Authored by Linda Robertson.)

Subject(s): Language Arts (Grade 6 - Grade 8)
Description: Students gain an understanding of appropriate search skills for locating information while using the Internet as a reference source. Students will search for answers for content-specific questions after identifying keywords and phrases to use as they access different search engines on the Internet.