Five elementary teachers explain how they orient pupils and get learning started on the first day of school--whether or not their supplies or textbooks have arrived--by building learning activities around a common interest like dogs, earthworms, football, or the Statue of Liberty. (Editor/SJL)

Outlines 39 multidisciplinary learning activities about the circus, 19 for the primary grades and 20 for the middle grades. (SJL)

Suggestions are made for using traditional Halloween activities, such as jack-o'-lantern carving, bobbing for apples, and trick-or-treating, for classroom learning. (SJL)

Suggests 21 ways that Mother Goose rhymes may be used to enliven lessons in all elementary subject areas. (SJL)

Presents an overview of an interdisciplinary animal behavior unit on wolves, including aspects of science, social studies, and language arts. Includes sources of wolf information. (MKR)

This chapter from the book "A New View: Economics and the Zoo" makes use of a zoo setting to teach basic concepts of economics. The chapter presents zoo-related learning activities on the concepts of revenue, community support, and philanthropy. (DB)

Presents elementary reading and mathematics activities, plus a trivia quiz, about baseball. (SJL)

This article describes a literature-based unit on mythology taught to 85 gifted middle school students. It identifies project objectives, gives examples of the grouping of myths according to broad themes, and provides more detail about one of the themes, assessment activities, and long-term effects of the project. (Contains six references.) (DB)

Designed to introduce students to the world through nonfiction, this book presents easy-to-follow suggestions for class projects, activities, strategies, and learning centers. The book uses an integrated approach to promoting inquiry in the classroom through the use of quality nonfiction. Aimed at middle grade students and using vignettes which…

Read, Play, and Learn is a play-based curriculum designed to promote growth across all of the areas of development important to a young child. With a school-year's worth of ready-to-use lessons or modules, the curriculum provides story-related activities centered around themes such as enjoying seasonal festivities, sharing emotions, making…

Read, Play, and Learn is a play-based curriculum designed to promote growth across all of the areas of development important to a young child. With a school-year's worth of ready-to-use lessons or modules, the curriculum provides story-related activities centered around themes such as enjoying seasonal festivities, sharing emotions, making…

Provides background information on and development and use of mental imagery exercises in environmental education. The exercises are designed to help people make contact with those symbolic forms which then actualize certain aspects of their personality. (JN)

A teacher recounts a summer school program for 9 students (ages 9-16), all with hearing loss and several with other learning problems. Stressed is the role of the summer program in maintaining academic skills. Specific activities around the theme of "rivers" are detailed. (DB)

Science, health and nutrition, cooking, and social studies activities on the subject of apples are described. (SJL)

Puts movement in the context of "thematic learning" and "thematic learning" in the context of a general approach to education. For a fuller picture readers are referred to his book, "Children and Themes." (Editor/RK)