Five projects in the arts, such as drama and facepainting, provide a day's worth of class activities. Detailed instructions for each project, including materials and procedures, are given. (JL)

Five ideas for computer-oriented classroom activities are presented. They include sending secret messages (while introducing the American Standard Code for Information Interchange- ASCII), conducting a computer survey, playing adventure games, showing why the END command is needed, and using control characters to protect a program. (JN)

Although children often receive classroom opportunities to retell and summarize information, they must also learn how to critically examine what they read. Critical reading of multiethnic literature helps children develop understanding, respect, and value for the diverse cultures and people in the world. This paper discusses the value of…

Suggested are classroom activities for children ages 10 to 14, that relate sports to the worlds of art, economics, psychology, mathematics, the social sciences, the physical sciences, literature, and history. (Author/SJL)

Recreational reading was encouraged in a sixth-grade class through a "Famous People Auction Project." For each book read and reported on during the year, students accumulated play money, with which they could bid at an auction for mementoes the teacher had solicited from celebrities. (SJL)

Transcripts of two segments of CBS-TV's "Sunrise Semester" discuss the experiences of several participants in a production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" by elementary school students. (RL)

Describes the practical application of interdisciplinary activities in a fifth-grade classroom. Twenty-eight students participated in a two-month unit which integrated database activities with mathematics, art, English, U.S. history, and public speaking. Illustrates that student leaders were able to understand and construct search strategies,…

This article describes how a sixth grade teacher uses contests, games, and fun to teach superior geography skills. (Author/IAH)

Describes an activity used with fifth graders to keep the children using new vocabulary acquired during a shared literature study. (PRA)

Finds an overall drop in reading attitudes across the upper elementary school years in three of the four schools examined. Reveals few significant relationships between reading attitudes and teacher-reported enrichment activities. Notes that activities that fit with a traditional, direct instruction approach to teaching reading correlated…

Suggests implementing a pen pal program using students in the same school or from a school in the same district as a way to encourage written communication among elementary school students. (HTH)

Asserts that intermediate grade teachers should use poetry in the classroom. Offers criteria for selecting poetry, guidelines for its presentation, and strategies for involving the students. (PRA)

Presents an inexpensive class activity to teach elementary students about light reflection off various surfaces. The activity involves aluminum foil, waxed paper, magazine pages, newspapers, overhead transparency film, construction paper, fabric, and a hand lens. A student page includes questions to make students think about reflection. (SM)

Calculator riddles can interest elementary students in math. Solving riddles where a numerical answer turned upside down reveals a word answer provides an amusing way to practice mathematical operations and learn about calculator functions. The paper explains how to create word riddles and includes student work pages. (SM)

Suggests that not everything in education has to be evaluated in terms of cognitive outcome measures. Describes a computer-mediated communication project that involved sixth-grade students in a private school in Montreal and slightly older students in a mainly Inuit town in the far northern part of Quebec. Discusses the actual benefits of the…