This section provides you with dozens of easy to implement lesson ideas that incorporate technology. The lesson ideas build important skills in language arts, multimedia, and critical thinking. In addition, three eight-week projects developed for specific age groups are available in the interdisicplinary category.

Before using these in your center, we encourage you to read our general information about activities and projects, especially the article on How to Develop an Inquiry-based Project, which provides an overview of how to construct student-driven projects. Elsewhere on YouthLearn you'll find information and advice on teaching techniques and creating lesson plans.

Most of these lesson ideas will work with kids of any age, so feel free to mix, match and adapt them to your own needs. Take into account factors such as the children's age, the length of your classes, the equipment and resources you have on hand, how frequently you meet and so on. Be creative and find the patterns that work best for your kids. For a list of all the lesson ideas available here, click on the sidebar on the right or see the index at the bottom of this page. The ideas are organized in the following major subject areas:

• Language Arts lessons include ideas for working with kids on reading, writing, words and sentences, and provide techniques for helping kids become good storytellers.

• Multimedia lessons show how to work with kids both on and off the computer on drawing, photography, editing images, animation and video.

• Critical Thinking lessons explain how to build research and reasoning skills through activities that involve kids in categorizing ideas, conducting interviews, and creating a survey.

• Interdisciplinary lessons feature information on how to conduct three projects called "Our Neighborhood," "The Soil Around Us" and "Internet Photo Essays."

The lesson ideas are a mix of activities and projects. Activities are short, bounded lessons targeted toward a specific goal. They can even be combined, mixed and matched to form larger projects. Projects are extended exercises that combine several elements of planning, skills development and technology learning, and often culminate in a multimedia component. A good example of a project is the Video Project on Idioms and the interdisciplinary projects called Our Neighborhood, The Soil Around Us and Internet Photo Essays. Be sure to also see How to Develop an Inquiry-based Project for step-by-step information on using projects with kids.

The lesson ideas below are organized by major subject areas.

Language Arts Lessons

Reading

• Acting Out the Story is a read-aloud activity for younger children that involves elements of play.
• The Patterns in Poetry teaches something about poetry and reading while focusing mainly on words and vocabulary building.
• Sounds and Words includes some techniques for building vocabulary and reading skills.
• Creating a Chapter Book is a simple and powerful project to engage kids in reading aloud.
• A Video Project on Idioms teaches kids about idioms while introducing video and presentation software.

Writing

• Pattern Writing explains how this technique is useful for teaching writing, sentence structure and parts of speech.
• Pattern Writing from Books and Poems moves kids to new levels of sophistication in writing and provides a foundation for better understanding storytelling.
• Using Maps for Pattern Writing turns writing into a group activity that transforms a repetitive exercise like pattern writing into an energetic game.

Storytelling

• Writing Stories shows how to use pattern writing to begin teaching more complex models that form the basis for learning how to tell a story and organize ideas.
• Developing Stories With Maps helps kids understand the patterns involved in creating a written short story, a slide show, a video or anything else that has a plot.
• Making a Panel Book offers a different way for kids to examine a story and explores how pictures and words work together.
• Using Storyboards shows kids how to create storyboards, an essential tool for planning presentations, Web sites and videos.

Multimedia Lessons

General Information

• Teaching Visual Arts is an introduction to working with kids both on and off the computer on drawing, photography, editing images, animation and video.
• Teaching Media Literacy expores the importance of teaching kids how to analyze and assess messages and information for validity and bias.

Drawing

• Teaching Drawing explains how to introduce the basic compositional forms.
• A Mirror Drawing is an intermediate activity to move kids to more representational drawing.
• Creating a Chapter Book is a drawing project for younger kids to get them engaged in classroom reading.

Graphics

• Teaching Computer Graphics and Image Editing explains how to teach kids to draw and edit on the computer.
• Look Who's Talking is a great way to introduce simple image editing techniques.

Animation

• Teaching Simple Animation offers a variety of techniques for making simple, manual animations such as thaumatropes, flip books and zoetropes.
• Make a Zoetrope is a short lesson for 5-8 year olds on how to create a zoetrope animation.

Photography

• Teaching Digital Photography explains how to introduce digital photography and the digital camera to kids.
• Introducing the Digital Camera shows how to review the features of a digital camera.
• Introducing Photography Techniques describes ways to teach common photographic concepts such as angle, focus and distance.
• Zoom Ins is a photography activity that makes a game out of taking close-up pictures.
• In Which Direction Is My Collection? is a project that incorporates photography and photo editing and culminates in the creation of a Web page.

Videos and Presentations

• Teaching Kids How to Create a Presentation provides an introduction to media presentations.
• A Video Project on Idioms teaches kids about idioms while introducing video and presentation software.
• You Oughta Be in Pictures is an introduction to making videos that explores some of the finer points of storytelling and production.
• Build Your Own Zoo uses Inspiration software as an introduction to organizing ideas and creating simple presentations.

The Internet and the Web

• Teaching and Using the Internet provides an introduction to helping kids understand the Internet.
• What Does the Internet Look Like? shows how to use journals to get kids to express what they know about the Internet.
• Going on a Surfing Safari explains how to introduce the Web to kids.
• What's the Weather? is a simple way to introduce Web page creation and reinforce the concepts of navigating the Web.

Critical Thinking Lessons

• Categorizing Ideas helps kids understand how to find things on the Web while developing reasoning skills to make them better writers and researchers.
• Four Out of Five Kids Surveyed is a survey project that helps kids learn more about their community as they create a Web page.
• More Than Just the Facts, Ma'am teaches good interviewing, questioning and communication skills and culminates in a Web page with photos and drawings.

Interdisciplinary Lessons
(8 sessions each)

• Our Neighborhood introduces 6- to 8-year-olds to structured ways of thinking and expressing ideas about the people, places and things that matter most to them.
• The Soil Around Us introduces 9- to 11-year-olds to methods for investigating the origins, characteristics and uses of soil.
• Internet Photo Essays introduces 12- to 14-year-olds to tools and techniques that can be used to create original digital content about issues, trends and happenings.