Articles written by Susan Hyde
All 75 articles written by Susan Hyde
How to Teach Gifted Non-Readers: Differentiating Instruction for GT Students of All Ages
Category: Integrating Gifted Students
Gifted non-readers require differentiated instruction that combines higher level thinking skills with language rich activities that appeal to a variety of learning styles more...
Advocating for Gifted Students: Strategies for Working with Teachers and Administrators
Category: Integrating Gifted Students
Advocacy is often necessary if gifted students are to receive an appropriate education. Cooperation between parents and teachers ensures that learning needs will be met. more...
Gifted Students and the Socratic Method: Differentiate Instruction with Inquiry-Based Lessons
Category: Teaching Gifted Students
GT teachers who use Socratic inquiry challenge gifted students to work cooperatively while using logic and critical thinking to construct meaning and solve problems. more...
Category: Teaching Gifted Students
The identification of intellectually gifted children poses a challenge to educators who often disagree on how best to define and then serve this special needs population. more...
Category: Healthy Cooking (general)
Buying a share in a CSA farm supports the local economy and a healthy lifestyle. Share owners benefit from freshly grown produce and culinary joys of "Slow Food." more...
Symbolism and Theme in Water for Elephants: Discussion Notes on Sara Gruen's Book Club Favorite
Category: Modern American Fiction
Masterful symbolism and psychological themes contribute to Sara Gruen's literary success in her 2007 Algonquin Books historical fiction title Water for Elephants. more...
Budgeting Homeschool Expenses: Affordable Curricula, Books and Lessons for Unschooling Families
Category: Homeschool Curricula
Quality alternatives to pricey "canned" homeschool curriculum are abundant! Frugal parents save money and provide with free and low-cost online and community resources. more...
Handprint Flowers for Mother's Day: Develop Fine Motor Skills with a Garden Themed Art Project
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Students build fine motor skills while creating flowers for a spring bulletin board or Mother's Day gift -- a perfect addition to a multi-disciplinary garden theme unit! more...
Student Writing Journals: Encourage Composition with Interactive Assignments
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Language Arts and English students use writing journals to make observations, experiment with genres and practice composition while receiving regular teacher feedback. more...
Reader's Theater Curriculum: Elementary Lessons Encourage Reading Fluency and Cooperation
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Brenda and Tom McGee's Reader's Theater and So Much More offers elementary teachers fun skits, research activities, vocabulary lessons and creative writing ideas. more...
Learning Basic Math Skills: Kids Memory Wizard Helps Students with Arithmetic
Category: K-12 Subject Guides
Kids Success (TM) presents interactive Kids Memory Wizards to teach basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. more...
Thinking Organized Book Review: Students Manage Time, Improve Study Skills and Develop Better Memory
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
In Thinking Organized for Parents and Children, author Rhona M. Gordon provides planning tools to help students with Executive Functioning Weaknesses. more...
Character Study Lesson Plan: High School Writing Curriculum with Recipes and Literary Devices
Category: K-12 Subject Guides
Students create books with recipes that reflect the personality and actions of literary characters in a tasty high school writing unit. more...
Letter to the Editor Activity: Persuasive Writing Lesson Teaches Students Presidential Politics
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Students learn about persuasive writing and citizen involvement in national presidential elections with an authentic letter to the editor assignment. more...
Category: Kids Educational Activities
Deborah Shelton's new parenting book promotes child-parent bonding with games and activities that take only minutes. more...
Penmanship Curriculum Review: Handwriting Without Tears Activities for All Developmental Levels
Category: Packaged Curricula
From handwriting readiness to cursive, Jan Olsen's Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum teaches developmentally appropriate writing skills using multiple learning styles. more...
Evaluating Internet Sources: Teaching Students to Evaluate World Wide Web Resources for Research
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Provide students with guidelines to evaluate authority, accuracy, and relevance of online resources used for academic research projects. more...
Business Letter Lesson Plan: Students Learn Format, Tone & Organization in Writing Correspondence
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Writing business letters takes on new meaning when put in the context of a practical role playing exercise. more...
Creating Quality Essay Exams: Subjective Assessment Questions Focus on Learning Objectives
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Apply Bloom's Taxonomy to create fair essay questions that really test what students know. more...
Category: Packaged Curricula
Multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural lessons from Boston's Museum of Science teach K-6 students to apply the Engineering Design Process for 21st century problem solving. more...
Sugar Crystal Science Lesson: Teaching the Three States of Matter with Rock Candy
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Introduce science students to the three states of matter by growing rock candy sugar crystals. more...
Cyber Safety in the Classroom: Avoid Online Predators, Cyberbullies, and Inappropriate Web Content
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Establishing student guidelines for Internet use allows teachers to safely integrate computer technology for classroom and homework assignments. more...
Figurative Language Ice Breaker: Back-to-School Team Building Activity for High School English Class
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Start the year out with a fun literary icebreaker activity that teaches figurative language and literary devices. more...
Grading with Assessment Rubrics: A Guide to Evaluating Writing and Alternative Learning Projects
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
An assessment rubric simplifies grading and leads students toward academic success. Use the model persuasive writing rubric as a grading guide. more...
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Math and science are anything but boring with this sweet lesson plan. Homemade ice cream may be just the learning hook summer school students need on a hot summer day. more...
Summer School Shakespeare Lessons: Introducing Romeo and Juliet to Low-Level and Reluctant Readers
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Introduce Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with West Side Story and lesson plans that use contemporary music, humor, and art to make the Elizabethan bard's words come alive more...
Elementary Fine Motor Lesson Plans: Students Build Handwriting Skills with Tactile Activities
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Fine motor skills are important for academic success. Help students to develop tactile strength and dexterity with engaging arts and crafts activities. more...
Memorial Day History Lessons: Student Activities to Commemorate America's Fallen Soldiers
Category: Curricula by Grade
Memorial Day lesson plans teach students the history of American wars promote an understanding how patriotism and sacrifice have contributed to US freedom and liberty. more...
Persuasive Writing Activity: Middle and High School Students Learn from Benjamin Franklin Lesson
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Students learn persuasive writing, logic, and satire through an essay by Benjamin Franklin. more...
Elementary Mother's Day Activity: A Creative Flowering Art Lesson Students Can Make for Mom
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Mother's Day is coming! Help your students create beautiful and useful gifts for the most important woman in their lives. more...
Art Curriculum for Any Holiday: Thematic and Holiday Activities for Pre-K and Elementary Students
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Extend curriculum with fun tissue paper crafts that can be used in classrooms, homeschools, Scouts, and Sunday schools to commemorate thematic units or holidays. more...
National Poetry Month Lesson Plan: Teach Poetry with Nursery Rhyme Activities
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Lesson plans that use common nursery rhymes teach students the importance of syntax, connotation, metaphor, and other poetic devices in the writing and analysis of poetry more...
Mexican Easter Egg Activities: An Easter Craft with Physical Fitness in Mind
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Easter egg activities with a multi-cultural theme can be combined with physical fitness in this spring lesson plan. more...
Garden Poetry Lesson Plan: Grammar and Critical Thinking in a Thematic Writing Activity
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Diamond poetry provides a creative language arts writing center activity that uses alternative assessment to test student knowledge of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. more...
Cross-Curriculum Flower Activities: An Elementary Gardening Theme Unit
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Spring gardening lesson plans inspire hands-on, kinesthetic science, art, and social studies learning for elementary students. more...
Teaching Visual-Spatial Readers: Lesson Plans with Activities
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Reading teachers who integrate pictures, clip art, and graphics into phonics and reading curriculum teach visual-spatial learners to decode and comprehend. more...
Teaching Kinesthetic Readers: Reading Lesson Plans for Kinesthetic-Tactile Learners
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Lesson plans that allow children to move and touch will appeal to kinesthetic-tactile learning styles. more...
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Reading lesson plans and activities that appeal to multiple learning styles help students to learn phonics and phonemes necessary to meet No Child Left Behind objectives. more...
Category: After-School Gifted Programs
Gifted advocacy groups provide networking opportunities for parents while offering support for educational programs for GT students. more...
Characteristics of Gifted Preschoolers: Identifying Intellectually Advanced Young Children
Category: Gifted Education (general)
Gifted preschoolers typically have uncharacteristic interests and abilities well before elementary school begins. more...
Category: Gifted Education (general)
A highly gifted child's intensity and divergent thinking may inhibit social interaction with age peers causing educators to suspect Asperger's Syndrome. more...
Category: Integrating Gifted Students
Differentiation, subject acceleration and grade skipping are alternatives for advanced students who require more challenging classroom activities. more...
Testing for Intellectual Giftedness: Assessing Students for Placement in GT Programming
Category: Gifted Education (general)
IQ testing to identify intellectually gifted students allows for appropriate placement of GT children who require an advanced and differentiated curriculum. more...
Delicious Warm Spinach Appetizers: Herbed Spinach Ball and Microwaved Warm Dip Recipes
Category: Recipes (general)
Need snacks for last-minute holiday company? Guests will rave about these two tasty warm spinach hors d' oeuvre recipes that can be made ahead and frozen for later use. more...
Handwriting Without Tears Training: Penmanship Training for Teachers and Pediatric OTs
Category: Packaged Curricula
Handwriting Without Tears Two-Day Workshops provide professional development for educators and Occupational Therapists who teach writing readiness, print and cursive. more...
Teddy's Travel Lessons: Educational Book Highlights America's National Parks
Category: Curricula by Region
This summer vacation, study America's National Parks with Trefoni Michael Rizzi's award winning book, Teddy's Travels. With Tedrick De Bear, the world is a classroom! more...
Teaching Ratios and Bar Graphs: Creative Curricula Using Elementary Recipe Math Lesson Plan
Category: Curricula by Grade
This hands-on, kinesthetic activity requires elementary students to concoct "secret" juice recipes while learning about ratios and reporting data with bar graphs. more...
No Child Left Behind: A Review: A Complete Guide to NCLB for Parents, Educators and Advocates
Category: K-12 Subject Guides
Pete and Pam Wright of Wrightslaw.com team with Suzanne Heath in this reference to clarify the No Child Left Behind Act. more...
Kinesthetic Measuring Lesson Plan: Multidisciplinary Activities Help Elementary Students Calculate
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Students learn the importance of standard measurements with hands-on, kinesthetic activities that put size into perspective. more...
Alliteration Activities: Creative Figurative Language Writing Lessons for Middle Schoolers
Category: Curricula by Grade
Students use alliteration and consonance to write original fairy tale story titles and create poetry using words cut out of magazines. more...
Student Discipline Guide Review: 1-2-3 Magic for Teachers Provides Classroom Management Strategies
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Thomas W. Phelan and Sarah Jane Schonour provide teachers with practical advice for class discipline in their 2004 PMI, Inc. title, 1-2-3 Magic for Teachers . more...
Winter Snow Science Activity: Benjamin Franklin's Color and Heat Experiment
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Students use the scientific method in a color spectrum experiment using Benjamin Franklin's well documented heat experiment as a model. more...
Category: Packaged Curricula
Phil and Dori Schlemmer's Teaching Beyond the Test: Differentiated Project-Based Learning in a Standards-Based Age provides teachers with strategies for all students. more...
Word Web Vocabulary Review: Interdisciplinary Word Lessons Teach Terms without Rote Memorization
Category: Packaged Curricula
Word Web curriculum activities challenge students to use Greek and Latin roots to make interdisciplinary vocabulary connections. more...
Writing Strands Activities: National Writing Institute Curriculum Stresses Process and Purpose
Category: Packaged Curricula
Although intended for homeschool students, David Marks' Writing Strands curriculum provides excellent guidelines for anyone who teaches or evaluates student composition. more...
Vocabulary Cartoon Mnemonics: Students Remember Definitions with Visual-Spatial Associations
Category: Packaged Curricula
Vocabulary Cartoons promote retention with word links, mnemonic cartoons, humorous captions and sample sentences. more...
Elementary Halloween Lantern Craft: Creative Paper Craft Activity for the Classroom
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Students will enjoy decorating the classroom with creative Halloween themed construction paper lanterns. Bats and black cats and witches, oh my! more...
Illustrated Multiplication Rhymes: Multiple Learning Styles for Times Table Memorization
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Visual-spatial, kinesthetic, and auditory-sequential strategies help students memorize mulitplication facts using different learning modalities. more...
Math Games for Elementary Students: Hands-On Pyramid Solitaire Activity Teaches Break-Apart Numbers
Category: Curricula by Grade
Elementary students learn break apart number strategies and counting skills with games that promote kinesthetic learning. more...
Category: Packaged Curricula
Companies offer free supplementary educational curricula, posters, software, DVDs, and other resources for teachers, homeschoolers, 4-H groups, and Scout leaders. more...
Freemason Symbols in America: Class Notes on Mason Influence in Colonial and Revolutionary America
Category: Curricula by Grade
MIddle School and High School students learn lessons connecting Benjamin Franklin and other famous Masons to the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. more...
Boston Freedom Trail Field Trip: Colonial and American Revolution History and Literary Lessons
Category: Curricula by Region
Field trip activities on Boston's Freedom Trail make the American Revolutionary War and United States colonial history come alive for students of all ages more...
Father's Day T-Shirt Craft: An Elementary Art Lesson Plan with a Fabric Paint Activity
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Elementary students use a fabric paint t-shirt activity to surprise the world's best dads on Father's Day . more...
Virtual Field Trip Lesson Plan: Internet Classroom Activity for Literature or History Classrooms
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Technology allows students to take educational field trips, even when funding isn't available, when they create travel brochures that support learning objectives. more...
Visual Imagery, Painting, & Poetry: Figurative Language Lesson Inspires Students to Paint and Write
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
A Vincent Van Gogh quotation teaches students the importance of color in poetic imagery and inspires students to write original poetry in a summer inspired activity. more...
Harry Potter Book Six Activity: Literary Lesson Plan Teaches Argumentation with a Snape Trial
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Is the sinister potions master loyal to the evil Lord Voldemort, or was Dumbledore wise to trust him? Students will enjoy the Snape Debate in this literary lesson plan. more...
Teaching Expository Writing: Class Activities Teach Essay Genres and Thesis Statements
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Teaching students to write expository essays begins with a lesson on general and specific topics, a discussion of organizational strategies, and a group thesis activity. more...
Playdough and Paper Mache Recipes: Kitchen Concoctions for Student Projects
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Elementary children develop fine motor skills using homemade playdough, and all K-12 students enjoy creative hands-on projects using salt dough and paper mache. more...
Harry Potter Lesson Plan: Activities to Celebrate JK Rowling's Bestselling Series.
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming! Celebrate the finale to JK Rowling's seven book phenomenon with poetry and creative writing curriculum! more...
Math Activities for Spring: Jelly Bean Math Teaches Students Sequencing, Graphing, and Geometry
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Math lessons are educational and sweet when jelly beans are used to teach sequencing, graphing, and geometry lessons. more...
Easter Crafts and Activities: Free Holiday Curriculum Ideas for Teachers and Homeschoolers
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Easter art activities brighten lesson plans with curriculum for students that celebrates the traditional beginning of spring. more...
Composting Lesson Plans: An Elementary Gardening Theme Unit Lesson
Category: Curricula/Lesson Plans (general)
Celebrate spring with composting in this hands-on garden activity that brings reading, writing, and science curricula together for elementary school students. more...
Newspaper Writing Lesson Plan: Kids Learn to Write for a School Audience
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
A classroom newspaper activity promotes student creativity and cooperation while meeting national learning standards and No Child Left Behind mandates. more...
Figurative Language Activities: Use Humor to Teach Literary Terms to Students
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Who says that memorizing literary definitions has to be boring? Children can use kinesthetic skills and sense of fun to understand and remember literary terms! more...
Auditory Reading Lesson Plans: Reading Activities for Auditory-Sequential Learners
Category: Lesson Plans & Materials
Traditional auditory-sequential curricula and reading activities appeal to kids who prefer organized, language based instruction. more...
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