Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition Community Showcase

To celebrate the end of the Nursery Rhymes and Fables unit, students participated in a Nursery Rhyme Olympics.

Credit: Kelly O’Connor, Huber Street Elementary School, NJ

BONUS: Watch this video to see Nursery Rhyme Olympics in action!

As a special activity for The Five Senses unit, students explored their sense of taste with a pop-up farmers market.

Credit: Debbie Braaten, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, OH

BONUS: Hear how Jamie Vannoy, a teacher in Wirt County, WV, plans a braille activity for this unit!

Kindergarteners worked in groups to construct houses using straw, sticks, and bricks to commemorate the reading of “The Three Little Pigs.” 

Credit: Manal Abuhouran, Clarendon Elementary School, NJ

To apply their learning, students at Superior Elementary planted grass seeds at the beginning of the Plants unit, then cared for and observed the grass daily to ensure it flourished.

Credit: Emma Fynbu, Superior Elementary School, NE

To celebrate the Farms unit, students visited a local farm to study the equipment and farm animals!

Credit: Kirsten Tingley, Cumberland Valley School District, PA

To showcase their knowledge, students created a gallery walk that displays information about the Lakota Sioux, Wampanoag, and Lenape tribes. 

Credit: Dalphne Harrison, Aldine ISD, TX

To help this class showcase their knowledge, this educator made a velcro set representing different types of geography, mixed them up in a bag, and had students put the animals and plants in the appropriate environment. When they finished sorting them, they got to free play—making the animals friends or taking a trip to a new place!

Credit: Stephanie Abney, Bonneville District 93, ID

To mark the end of the this unit, this class hosted a royal tea party in the cafeteria, complete with cloaks and handmade crowns.

Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR

To close the Presidents and American Symbols domain, hold a sample election in your classroom! Create a voting booth, ballot box, ballot cards, election music, campaign posters, stickers, balloons, and confetti. Before announcing the winner, discuss the importance of voting, the voting process, what a campaign involves, and what to look for in a great leader.

Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA

In celebration of Earth Day, these young learners worked together to help clean up their school garden. From pulling weeds to clearing out old plants, they showed teamwork, responsibility, and care for their environment. They learned that even small actions can make a big difference and they were proud to put those lessons into practice. As an extra layer, they partnered with fourth-grade students to plant wildflowers in the garden. It was a wonderful opportunity for collaboration and continued learning across grade levels!

Credit: Franklin Elementary School, IA

Teach your students more about seasons and weather: Invite your local meteorologist to visit, like this classroom did!

Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR

These kindergarteners transformed their classrooms into art museums to showcase their learning and creativity! Inspired by their Amplify CKLA unit, students explored famous artists and tried their hands at becoming painters, weavers, potters, and sculptors. Families were invited to tour the “museums” to celebrate the students’ hard work and view the masterpieces firsthand. 

Credit: Bannach Elementary School, WI

To celebrate the Fables and Stories domain, students participated in a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” race while teachers dressed as fable characters.

BONUS: Hear how Brittany planned a Fable Olympics for her Grade 1 students!

Credit: Brittany Sachs, Monon Trail Elementary School, IN

To showcase their knowledge of the topic, students participated in a “hospital day.” The classroom was transformed to look like different operating rooms. Stations included blending and segmenting CVC words with Band-Aids, a Tricky Words eye exam, sentence writing, an X-ray light table, food sorting according to the food pyramid, and an operation game!

BONUS: Erin explains how she planned the activity, and shows us snippets of the culminating activity in action.

Credit: Erin Chester, Thompson Crossing Elementary School, IN

Take inspiration from this classroom and have your students create a Thumbelina floral craft to round out the unit’s celebration of folktales.

Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH

A surefire way to ignite your students’ excitement about astronomy is to create a moon phase Oreo chart!

Bonus idea: Have your class send postcards to space through the Club for the Future program. 

Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL

Using their trusty compasses, these first graders mapped out and trekked their way to some local community sites. They explored, navigated, enjoyed a tasty treat, and learned like true young explorers, having an amazing experience along the way!

Credit: Bessemer Academy, CO

Students can research an animal and habitat, then express their creativity by creating a diorama of the habitat, making a clay animal, and writing about the animal and habitat!

Credit: Caroline Unger, Herman Rohwer Elementary School, NE

Posters beautifully summarize the learning from a unit. Pair students to create and present to their classmates!

Credit: Tracy Hatch Gagnon, Holy Name Parish School, MA

To wrap up the Fairy Tales unit, sharpen your students’ drama skills by having them act out their favorite stories.

Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH

Students channeled their inner geologist during this unit and dug for rocks.

Credit: Ronda Scott, Dixon Public Schools, IL

Looking for a culminating activity for this domain? Plan an ancient Egypt day filled with crafts and activities, including pyramid-making, writing in hieroglyphics, trying Egyptian food, and mask-making.

BONUS: Watch this short video about how to make pyramid-making easy in your classroom! 

Credit: Camy Stirling, Brevard Academy, NC

Students can apply their learning about early American civilizations by creating their very own Moctezuma headdresses.

Credit: Emmett J. Hoops, Moriah Central School, NY

To celebrate the end of the Fairy Tales and Tall Tales unit, encourage students to showcase their favorite stories by crafting paper collages and clay figures. 

Credit: Jessica Berg, Arlington Public Schools, VA

This class had a great time becoming world travelers and celebrating all the knowledge gained throughout the Ancient Greek Civilization domain. The students started their day getting their passports stamped. After entering ancient Greece, they engaged in many Centers. They built the Parthenon and Athena’s throne, wrote facts about Sparta, created locks for Pandora’s box, built a harp for Apollo, and played vocabulary games. In addition to Centers, the students learned that they all qualified for the Olympics and were led by teachers on a victory walk as the entire school cheered for them! 

Credit: Terri Hart, Jefferson Parish Public School District, LA

BONUS: Take inspiration from this Louisiana educator and plan a Potato Olympics day with your students! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A_GNbNwBZB4

Students wrote and shared their very own Greek myths, made props, and dressed in togas to celebrate this unit! 

Credit: Chelsey Steinmetz, Cornell Elementary School, WI

To bring the Cycles in Nature unit to life, students learned how to make their own greenhouses and watched lima beans germinate and sprout.

Credit: Amber Taylor, Corbin Primary School, KY

These students celebrated all the knowledge they gained by visiting a local Edison beekeeper. They tasted honey, tried on gear, felt beeswax, touched beehives, and held the smoker!

Credit: Catherine San, Woodbrook Elementary School, NJ

Have your students showcase their knowledge of the American Civil War by creating posters of important historical figures of the time.

Credit: Heather Griffin, Rochester School District, NH

These Grade 2 students worked in small groups to write and illustrate memory poems, then practiced sharing them with others. To celebrate, they opened a Poetry Café where students enjoyed treats while listening to their classmates present. 

Credit: Kristen Capion, Nye Elementary School, PA

To wrap up this unit and showcase their knowledge, students created VIP books about important historical figures!

Credit: Meghan Scheffler, Community Unit School District 300, IL

Students created their own passports and participated in an Ellis Island simulation in their classrooms at the end of the Immigration unit!

Credit: Sandra Garcia, Austin Independent School District, TX

To showcase their knowledge of nutrition, students created food trucks with one of the body systems and then devised a balanced menu on the side.

Credit: Amy Wethington, Aspen Academy, CO

Second-grade teachers worked together to create an amazing dragon at the end of their Early Asian Civilizations unit. Each student created a scale for their grade-level dragon!

Credit: Emma Bridgeforth, Windsor Elementary School, WI

BONUS: This class at Windber Elementary, PA, celebrated this unit by hosting a Chinese New Year dragon parade.

To immerse themselves in the Classic Stories domain, students hosted a party inspired by classic literary celebrations.

Credit: Laurie Valente, Secaucus Public School District, NJ

A great way to shift perspective and get students to apply their knowledge? Transform your classroom into a vibrant “rainforest café” that showcases students’ published writing. Each student can create an informational piece about a specific vertebrate, learning how to introduce a topic, group related information, and support it with facts and details. They then turn their writing, complete with text features, into restaurant-style menus! Dressed as rainforest and safari guides, students can present their work to other students and staff, answering questions about their animal and its classification. 

Credit: Nicole Desmond, Riverside School District 96, IL

BONUS: To celebrate the Light and Sound unit as well as all units about animals in grades K–4, take a cue from Windber Elementary and plan an animal-themed glow show with your students!

To wrap up this Amplify CKLA unit, students were welcomed into their own cafés for the day! Students read the poems they wrote to the class, got to order custom drinks made by their barista (teacher), and created a coffee-cup acrostic poem about autumn.

Credit: Wyalusing Area School District, PA

This third-grade class enjoyed a day-long Saturnalia festival. Students dressed as Roman citizens and enjoyed building mosaic temples, playing Morels, and relaxing by the pool to feast on figs, dates, apricots, and grapes.

Credit: Ann Ingham, Westlawn Elementary School, WI

As a culminating activity for the Astronomy unit, an Oreo moon phase exercise really motivates students to apply their knowledge!

Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI

Flex your students’ creativity at the end of the Native Americans unit by having them gather natural materials and creating Native American shelters!

Credit: Alisa Byrd Fesmire, Roane County Schools, TN

BONUS: Hear how a teacher in Wisconsin plans a basket-weaving activity for her students during this unit.

After reading Charlotte’s Web, these Grade 3 students decorated their classrooms to look like barns and wrote summaries of the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Students also put the story events in chronological order—in the shape of Charlotte’s spider body!

Credit: Wyalusing Area School District, PA

After these students completed the novel Stella Díaz Has Something to Say, they wrote their own narratives about a new summer adventure Stella had after the book ended. They created a new character for their stories, too!

Credit: Oshkosh Area School District, WI

Get crafty in this unit by having students make body parts out of household supplies: a pipe cleaner becomes the spinal cord, noodles represent the vertebrae, and gummy Life Savers turn into cartilage. You can also make X-rays by tracing hands and wrists on construction paper. Students can color around the bones with a dark crayon, then use vegetable oil and a Q-tip to “paint” the bones. When held up to a light, the project resembles an X-ray!

Credit: Crystal Chwatek, Muhlenberg Elementary Center, PA

To celebrate the Light and Sound unit, your students can make colorful suncatchers and witness the science of light and color in action.

Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI

BONUS: Watch how another teacher plans a black light party for this unit! 

It was a “jazzy” afternoon in this third-grade class. They celebrated their Amplify CKLA end-of-unit project and the achievement of meeting their behavior SMART goal of “being focused during independent work time”!

Credit: Sarah Jerina, Sun Prairie, WI

To celebrate the Personal Narratives domain, students created posters using information about their names.

Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary School, AL

BONUS: Hear how an educator in New York plans an engaging culminating activity for the Personal Narratives unit!

Flex your students’ creativity: Have them create their very own shields and write a paragraph describing them!

Credit: Elisabeth Freligh, Spring Hill Elementary School, AK

BONUS: See how students in Minnesota participated in a stained glass art project to celebrate the Middle Ages.

Empower students to apply their knowledge of this writing discipline with poetry journals.

Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH

Encourage students to showcase their innovation at an Invention Showcase! Here, they pitched their ideas using the slides they created and the models they made. 

Credit: Daniella Cucunato, Merchantville School District, NJ

Geology offers great opportunities to facilitate hands-on learning! Students can examine rocks and fossils or bust geodes to supplement their lessons.

Credit: Spring Choate, Overton County Schools, TN

Work a STEM activity into this Knowledge Domain by inviting students to recreate the Boston Tea Party with craft sticks and items of various weights.

Credit:  Maureen Elliott, West Irondequoit CSD, NY

To wrap up their From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler novel study, each class created a collaborative collage of a scene from the book. Each student colored one piece of the collage, and together they formed one big, unique image!

Credit: Glasscock Elementary School, KY

After wrapping up their novel study of The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon, students took their learning a step further with a creative project titled “What Makes Me Extraordinary.” Through the project, students reflected on a character’s strengths, challenges, and growth, then made meaningful connections to their own lives. Then they presented their projects to the class, sharing what makes both their character and them extraordinary in their own unique ways.

Credit: Broadalbin-Perth Central School District, NY

To celebrate the end of the Treasure Island domain collaboratively, students can build their very own map sections and put them together.

Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL

These fourth grade superstars learned about inventors in this Amplify CKLA unit and researched a famous STEM inventor. They wrote about their chosen inventor, built an interactive touchpad, recorded themselves reading, and even wrote code to instruct the computer to display a visual and audio component for each paragraph when the audience pressed the touchpad! 

Credit: Washington Local School, OH

Have your students refine their personal narratives into graphic stories to celebrate the end of this unit.

BONUS: Hear how a teacher plans a name-poster activity for her students to wrap up this domain!

Credit: Anna Barba, Arlington Traditional School, VA

To celebrate this unit, have your students create codices and Mayan mythical character sculptures using clay! 

Credit:  Anita Trolese, TASIS Portugal

Transform your classroom into a poetry café where students share their work with the rest of the class. 

Credit: K.D. Meucci, Bethel Park School District, PA

These students are an inspiration! To celebrate this unit, they reenacted scenes from The Adventures of Don Quixote by choosing a chapter, summarizing its plot, writing scripts, and acting out their chapter for their classmates. They even chose their own backdrops and props to help embody the characters. 

Credit: Riley Montgomery, Hamilton Local School District, OH 

BONUS: After reading about the dubbing ceremony in Don Quixote, these brave students at South Allegheny School District took the oath of knighthood. Their teacher lightly tapped each students’ shoulders to symbolize bravery, kindness, honesty, and the promise to help others. From that moment forward, they were recognized as true knights of learning and imagination.

This fifth-grade class celebrated the end of this Amplify CKLA unit with an ocean party! The class worked hard on informational papers about specific animals in ocean ecosystems, then celebrated by watching “Finding Nemo,” enjoying ocean-themed snacks, and participating in ocean-themed activities across math, science, and social studies.

Credit: Havel Elementary School, MI

Personal totem poles are a great extension project for the ​​Native Americans unit! Have your students determine their own personal totems, write an explanation of totem poles and why they selected the totem they chose, and use a template to create their own totem pole.

Credit: Kristin Rea, Cicero School District 99, IL

These fifth graders really dressed to impress! After finishing The Phantom Tollbooth, they brought idioms to life—proving learning isn’t just a “piece of cake”; it’s a whole lot of fun. From silly to creative, these outfits are the “icing on the cake.”

Credit: Glasscock Elementary School, WI

This fifth-grade class wrapped up the unit in the most egg-citing way: an egg drop competition inspired by the book! Students put their creativity and problem-solving skills to the test, designing unique ways to protect their eggs. From clever cushioning to innovative structures, the ideas were incredible—and best of all, very few eggs cracked!

Credit: Northeast Elementary School, IA

The arts and the Renaissance go hand in hand, so have your students get creative and create their own Leonardo da Vinci portraits!

Credit: Windber Elementary, PA

Turn your classroom into a theater for this unit and have your students read the play using character cards and donkey headbands.

Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL

Students explored how architecture shapes communities across the world. They then stepped into the role of architects themselves, designing bird feeders and birdhouses inspired by the architects and structures they studied throughout the unit.

Credit: Worthington City School District, OH