This article describes covert and overt active engagement strategies for use with elementary students. Find the Question templates are included for use with informational text.

This article discusses the four forms of identifying similarities and differences: comparing, classifying, creating metaphors, and creating analogies and how these strategies can be used in an elementary classroom.

Learn about how organisms adapt to their habitats. This video is part of The Virtual School's "Adapting and Living Together" chapter within our Ecology and Environment topic.

This is a great lesson to use with pre-intermediate students. Though parts of it can be used with beginner students and as a review for more advanced students. The point of this lesson is to give students the ability to differentiate between similar-looking adjectives in English. When teaching adjectives ending in –ed and –ing you will cover words like boring and bored which tend to confuse new speakers. So if you find that one of your students is struggling with adjectives this is the right lesson to teach.If you want additional lesson plans and support, including teachers’ notes, be sure to register for a free Off2Class account.

This article provides an overview of icebergs' formation and characteristics and the hazards associated with icebergs.

This article describes several traditional Inuit games and provides background information and resources for incorporating them into a lesson or unit on Inuit culture.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores the amazing birds that live in or migrate to the polar regions. The issue was co-produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In addition to content knowledge articles and lesson plans, the issue includes information about bird-themed citizen science programs from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

This article assembles free resources from the Arctic and Antarctic Birds issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

This article discusses how to use murals as an interdisciplinary, cooperative activity to blend science, art, and math concepts.

This article provides an overview of using rubrics as a method of assessment and discusses technological tools that facilitate the creation of rubrics.

This article reprints and links to informational text about the adaptations that allow mammals and fish to survive in polar oceans. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

This article lists seven art techniques and four poetry types that can be used to depict and describe the aurora.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbes are all around us. With around the same number of bacteria as cells in each human body, our microbiomes are constantly interacting with microbes in the surrounding environment. And indoor environmental microbes can influence our health, affecting allergies, asthma, and other health conditions. To better characterize indoor microbial communities, researchers conducted an environmental assessment as part of an epidemiologic study of 50 elementary schools in a large city in the United States. They identified more than 2,000 bacterial species in floor dust collected from 500 classrooms. The most abundant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, and interestingly, the genus Halospirulina was reported for the first time in a classroom sample. Outdoor-associated and gram-negative bacteria were more abundant in classroom floor dust compared to homes, where human-associated and gram-positive bacteria are more abundant..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This article provides a brief discussion of the importance of teaching students to analyze data and representations of data as well as two resources that can help teachers implement these strategies into their instruction.

This article provides an overview of how teachers can use bibliotherapy to help students deal with social, emotional, and behavioral issues.

This article provides links to six web sites that provide an overview of cause/effect relationships, graphic organizers, and teaching strategies for elementary teachers.

This article features children's literature about weather, climate, and climate change. What’s the difference between weather and climate? How do scientists observe, measure, and predict weather phenomena? How is Earth’s climate changing, and why? This month’s bookshelf will help students develop a solid grasp of weather-related concepts. It will also introduce students to global warming and climate change and inspire them to do what they can to combat the problem.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, highlights resources that help elementary teachers learn about climate change and teach their students important foundational concepts.

This article assembles free resources from the Climate Change and the Polar Regions issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5.