This is a 6-page packet addressing the movement theme of geography. Students will read a short passage introducing the concept of movement and then label the locations of the world's greatest banana producers on a blank map. They will then plot the route they think a Mexican banana producer might use to transport their crops to a grocer in the student's community. Last, an enrichment essay assignment requires students to research a top banana-producing country to learn more about the country's process of production, its production history, and the economic impact of banana production.

The Flags of the World matching assignment packet requires students to match up the names of countries with their respective flags. The assignments come complete with separate name banks, which you can use (or withhold) depending on how challenging you would like to make the assignment. Answer keys are also included. There are eleven worksheets in this packet. These sheets include two Africa sheets, two Asia sheets, one Australia and Oceania sheet two Europe sheets, one North America, one South America sheet, and two sheets that allow students to test their knowledge of flags of countries from all over the world. This is a full-color assignment that would be great to introduce a new continent of study in a geography unit, to test students' abilities to conduct quick research, or to leave with a substitute teacher.

Are you tired of the same old geography worksheets? Your students are, too! Here is a project to keep them engaged while learning about location, population sizes, and simple logistics. Rock & Pop(ulation) is a collaborative assignment asking students to imagine they are part of a very successful musical act: a rock band, an indie outfit, a country group, or a rap collective. They must plan a tour to play for their thousands of fans. Students must work collaboratively – in groups of three or four – to “route” the tour correctly. They must play municipalities (i.e. cities) with a population size of at least 50,000 based on reported data. They must also be sure that the cities their band schedules to play from night-to-night are not too far apart. In this assignment, the logistics of a tour require large buses of equipment to move from city-to-city with enough time to set up the stage, lighting, instruments, and other equipment before the show.

In this project, students will design a walk-through aquarium full of exhibits containing their favorite marine mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and more! The challenge is that they must design their aquariums to scale. Thus, one inch on the map might represent 50 feet in their aquariums. I have taught map scale in several ways over the years, using worksheet after worksheet, to introduce the concept and allow students to practice it. I used political maps, highway maps, physical maps, and more, but I felt like I needed a project to allow my students more hands-on, critical thinking exercise to learn the concept. Recently, I developed this short project to give students just that. Included in this packet are: a brief teacher's guide, a step-by-step set of instructions including notes and a materials list, three sample maps, and a rubric for easy grading.

The First Thanksgiving R.A.F.T. Creative Writing Project is an excellent assignment to use to wrap up a lesson about this famous moment in American History. I wrote this project using the more accurate version of this historical moment, so please see the FULL PREVIEW before you buy. This R.A.F.T. is also a great idea if you wish to make a unit multidisciplinary: you can combine social studies and language arts into a fun, challenging creative writing project! What is a R.A.F.T., you might ask? R.A.F.T. is an acronym for a powerful writing strategy that stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. R.A.F.T.s provide rigor, flexibility, and variety. A R.A.F.T. can be implemented in all content areas, thus making it an excellent Writing Across the Curriculum resource. Young writers might pursue one of several genres or types of writing to create one of several products including a letter, a television commercial, a journal entry, and several more. I define this further in the packet. This packet includes: (1) the R.A.F.T. assignment sheet; (2) a Ready your R.A.F.T. graphic organizer; (3) a Show, Don't Tell graphic organizer; (4) a Planning My First Draft graphic organizer; (5) a Revising My Draft graphic organizer; (6) a Peer Review Checklist; (7) a Grading Rubric; (8) and a Ticket-Out-the-Door summarizing exit slip. Please see the preview! Why are RAFTS wonderful for reading comprehension assessment and writing projects? (1) They require higher-order thinking skills: students must role-play as the character they choose and utilize unique character traits to write a convincing response. (2) They are extremely difficult to plagiarize or copy from the Internet. This is NOT a basic report. Students must synthesize key details and create a brand new piece of writing. (3) As a result, students will emerge from the writing project with a much better understanding of the assigned reading. After all, they must demonstrate mastery in the project. Consider purchasing it today!

This assignment is titled “‘Romeo & Juliet’: The Social Network.” We hear a lot these days about how our students enjoy communicating with one another on sites like Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter. This assignment is essentially a 21st century character analysis assignment as a “mock social network.” Students must imagine that six characters from “Romeo & Juliet” have social networking pages where they post their thoughts, concerns, activities, and more. There have been many creative ways to teach “Romeo & Juliet” over the years including mock newspapers, mock trials, and the like. This particular project puts a 21st century spin on those assignments and allows students to express themselves in a familiar medium. Students may role-play as one of six characters in Shakespeare’s play – Romeo, Juliet, Friar Laurence, The Nurse, Mercutio, and/or Lady Capulet – and write “status updates” as if they were the character.

This is a challenging set of 20 research questions for a 20th Century American History class studying the decade 1970-1979. Here is what is GREAT about this assignment: it's fully customizable! For instance, you might use only 10 of these questions instead of the 20 in the packet. You might choose 5 of the questions and ask students to conduct in-depth research for a full-length report. The possibilities are endless! The questions are organized chronologically, and there are two questions per year in many cases. I decided to make a research assignment that required strong critical thinking skills and better research skills and - above all - taught an appreciation for 20th Century American history.

The Declaration of Independence R.A.F.T. Creative Writing Project is an excellent assignment to use to wrap up a lesson about this famous moment in American History. This R.A.F.T. is also a great idea if you wish to make a unit multidisciplinary: you can combine social studies and language arts into a fun, challenging creative writing project! What is a R.A.F.T., you might ask? R.A.F.T. is an acronym for a powerful writing strategy that stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. R.A.F.T.s provide rigor, flexibility, and variety. A R.A.F.T. can be implemented in all content areas, thus making it an excellent Writing Across the Curriculum resource. Young writers might pursue one of several genres or types of writing to create one of several products including a letter, a television commercial, a journal entry, and several more. I define this further in the packet. This packet includes: (1) the R.A.F.T. assignment sheet; (2) a Ready your R.A.F.T. graphic organizer; (3) a Show, Don't Tell graphic organizer; (4) a Planning My First Draft graphic organizer; (5) a Revising My Draft graphic organizer; (6) a Peer Review Checklist; (7) a Grading Rubric; (8) and a Ticket-Out-the-Door summarizing exit slip. Please see the preview! Why are RAFTS wonderful for reading comprehension assessment and writing projects? (1) They require higher-order thinking skills: students must role-play as the character they choose and utilize unique character traits to write a convincing response. (2) They are extremely difficult to plagiarize or copy from the Internet. This is NOT a basic report. Students must synthesize key details and create a brand new piece of writing. (3) As a result, students will emerge from the writing project with a much better understanding of the assigned reading. After all, they must demonstrate mastery in the project. Consider purchasing it today!

This is a challenging set of 22 research questions for a 20th Century American History class studying the decade 1960-1969. The questions are organized chronologically, and there are two questions per year in many cases. Here is what is GREAT about this assignment: it's fully customizable! For instance, you might use only 10 of these questions instead of the 22 in the packet. You might choose 5 of the questions and ask students to conduct in-depth research for a full-length report. The possibilities are endless! I decided to make a research assignment that required strong critical thinking skills and better research skills and - above all - taught an appreciation for 20th Century American history.

This is a challenging set of 20 research questions for a 20th Century American History class studying the decade 1920-1929. The questions are organized chronologically, and there are two questions per year in many cases. Here is what is GREAT about this assignment: it's fully customizable! For instance, you might use only 10 of these questions instead of the 20 in the packet. You might choose 5 of the questions and ask students to conduct in-depth research for a full-length report. The possibilities are endless! I decided to make a research assignment that required strong critical thinking skills and better research skills and - above all - taught an appreciation for 20th Century American history.

Students research the origins of the names of five American sports teams -- the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Blues, the Seattle Sounders, the Boston Celtics, and the San Francisco 49ers. What is the city's relationship to the American sports team's name? Is it a historical, cultural, or geographical connection? Or a combination of two or three? Students also create their own team for their communities. They must base their team nicknames on a local historical, cultural, or geographical connection.

This is an 18-page packet of questions for Jerry Spinelli's Smiles to Go. You might use novel studies like this one in segments. Some parts of the novel study will benefit students before you begin reading the novel (such as the vocabulary section). Other parts work best as you encounter major moments in the novel, while the bulk of it will benefit readers who have completed the reading assignment entirely and are ready to talk about “the big picture.”

Here's a fun, challenging way to teach global awareness and one of the five themes of geography: place. The "A-to-Z Countries" and "A-to-Z World Cities" assignments require students to find a country or world city for each letter of the alphabet. These are great, flexible assignments that you can leave with a substitute teacher or to be used on a regular learning day. I have used them both ways. You simply need a world political map (with well-labeled countries) or Internet access for quick reference to sites like Google.com or KidRex.org. I have included the student assignment sheets and two lists of possible answers. Your students will really enjoy this assignment. Mine certainly have over the years!

This assignment piece allows students to create a social network account for a character in any story, play, or novel! We hear a lot these days about how our students enjoy communicating with one another on sites like Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Twitter. This assignment is essentially a 21st century character analysis assignment as a “mock social network.” Students must imagine that the character they are working with has a profile where they post their thoughts, concerns, activities, and more. There have been many creative ways to teach literature over the years including mock newspapers, mock trials, and the like. This particular project puts a 21st century spin on those assignments and allows students to express themselves in a familiar medium. Students may role-play as a character and update “status updates” as if they were the character. They must write updates in a way that demonstrates what they know about each character and/or how the character impacts the work of literature. For example, a student analyzing Romeo & Juliet might role-play as Romeo and post some of his deepest concerns about the Montague-Capulet conflict on his social networking page, while a student playing Juliet might make comments about her mother’s cold indifference on hers. A student might imagine Friar Laurence’s status updates as he thinks about ways to help Romeo and Juliet, while another student might consider writing from the perspective of the free-spirited Mercutio or the warm-hearted Nurse.

This assignment is titled "Let's Explore Canada! Use a Map to Find Canadian Provinces, Territories, Cities, Landforms, and Bodies of Water." This assignment includes 20 questions that require students to analyze a map of Canada for boundaries and borders, major cities, landforms, and bodies of water. Here are two sample questions: "Which river forms part of the border between Ontario and the American state of New York?" and "What is the name of Canada's southernmost province?" I also included two basic mapping assignments: students must label maps of the provinces and territories, and the provincial and territorial capital cities. This would make a great introduction to elementary students preparing to study Canada for the first time. It would also work well in any higher elementary or middle school classroom as map skills are still critical needs in these areas. You might even consider it a "substitute assignment" and leave it for a substitute teacher on a day you are away from the classroom. This assignment works well as an individual assignment or as a partner assignment.

“Macbeth: The Social Network” is an excellent way to bring differentiated instruction to the classroom for a complicated Shakespearean play. We hear a lot these days about how our students enjoy communicating with one another on sites like Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. This project is essentially a character analysis assignment in the form of a “mock social network.” Students must imagine that characters from Macbeth have social networking pages where they post their thoughts, concerns, activities, motivations, and more. There have been many creative ways to teach Macbeth over the years including mock newspapers, mock trials, and the like. This project puts a 21st-century spin on those assignments and allows students to express themselves in a familiar medium. This packet includes pages for seven characters in Macbeth. Students may role-play as any of them (or all of them) and write “status updates” as if they were the characters. They must write updates in a way that imaginatively demonstrates their knowledge of the character. Ideas for doing so might include interpreting the character’s motivations, justifying his/her actions, inventing private thoughts, and more. The idea however must apply to all: we must find this character’s social networking profile “believable”; the student must stay within character to prove their knowledge of the play. For example, a student might role-play as Macduff and post thoughts that reflect his impulsiveness, while a student role-playing as Lady Macbeth might make comments reflecting her constantly twisting mindscape. A student might take artistic liberty to imagine Malcolm’s thoughts on being king, while another student might get really wild and explore what it’s like to run a joint social media account as the three witches. (That one will be wild, right?) Consider purchasing the assignment today!

The Lewis & Clark Expedition R.A.F.T. Creative Writing Project is an excellent assignment to use to wrap up a lesson about this famous moment in American History. This R.A.F.T. is also a great idea if you wish to make a unit multidisciplinary: you can combine social studies and language arts into a fun, challenging creative writing project! What is a R.A.F.T., you might ask? R.A.F.T. is an acronym for a powerful writing strategy that stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. R.A.F.T.s provide rigor, flexibility, and variety. A R.A.F.T. can be implemented in all content areas, thus making it an excellent Writing Across the Curriculum resource. Young writers might pursue one of several genres or types of writing to create one of several products including a letter, a television commercial, a journal entry, and several more. I define this further in the packet. This packet includes: (1) the R.A.F.T. assignment sheet; (2) a Ready your R.A.F.T. graphic organizer; (3) a Show, Don't Tell graphic organizer; (4) a Planning My First Draft graphic organizer; (5) a Revising My Draft graphic organizer; (6) a Peer Review Checklist; (7) a Grading Rubric; (8) and a Ticket-Out-the-Door summarizing exit slip. Please see the preview! Why are RAFTS wonderful for reading comprehension assessment and writing projects? (1) They require higher-order thinking skills: students must role-play as the character they choose and utilize unique character traits to write a convincing response. (2) They are extremely difficult to plagiarize or copy from the Internet. This is NOT a basic report. Students must synthesize key details and create a brand new piece of writing. (3) As a result, students will emerge from the writing project with a much better understanding of the assigned reading. After all, they must demonstrate mastery in the project. Consider purchasing it today!

This six-question activity challenges students to identify the "Big Six" British Romantic poets - Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, Blake, Wordsworth & Keats - by lines of poems they wrote. The complete assignment features lines from Ode to the West Wind, The Chimney Sweeper, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, She Walks in Beauty, and Ode to a Nightingale. Also, included: please find a short list of free online resources you might consult while planning your lessons for this topic. (If you have access to subscription databases, however, you might consider those first.) Consider downloading the activity to challenge your students to identify these six great poets!

The French & Indian War R.A.F.T. Creative Writing Project is an excellent assignment to use to wrap up a lesson about this famous moment in American History. This R.A.F.T. is also a great idea if you wish to make a unit multidisciplinary: you can combine social studies and language arts into a fun, challenging creative writing project! What is a R.A.F.T., you might ask? R.A.F.T. is an acronym for a powerful writing strategy that stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. R.A.F.T.s provide rigor, flexibility, and variety. A R.A.F.T. can be implemented in all content areas, thus making it an excellent Writing Across the Curriculum resource. Young writers might pursue one of several genres or types of writing to create one of several products including a letter, a television commercial, a journal entry, and several more. I define this further in the packet. This packet includes: (1) the R.A.F.T. assignment sheet; (2) a Ready your R.A.F.T. graphic organizer; (3) a Show, Don't Tell graphic organizer; (4) a Planning My First Draft graphic organizer; (5) a Revising My Draft graphic organizer; (6) a Peer Review Checklist; (7) a Grading Rubric; (8) and a Ticket-Out-the-Door summarizing exit slip. Please see the preview! Why are RAFTS wonderful for reading comprehension assessment and writing projects? (1) They require higher-order thinking skills: students must role-play as the character they choose and utilize unique character traits to write a convincing response. (2) They are extremely difficult to plagiarize or copy from the Internet. This is NOT a basic report. Students must synthesize key details and create a brand new piece of writing. (3) As a result, students will emerge from the writing project with a much better understanding of the assigned reading. After all, they must demonstrate mastery in the project.

This assignment introduces students to the six American standard time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii-Aleutian. Students read a short, original non-fiction story about time zones. Next, they answer 15 questions (including two critical thinking questions) about American time zones.