Bringing the Joy: How Teachers Make Lessons Come Alive with Hands-On Learning

It’s a privilege to observe how educators are using high-quality resources to create meaningful, hands-on experiences for their students. Whether it’s squid dissections or fossil hunts, teachers are going above and beyond to make learning both engaging and enduring.?

I’m excited to share a highlights reel here and hope to bring you more joyful stories from the classroom in the year ahead.?

Real-World Lessons Inspire Students in Illinois

At Liberty Intermediate School, an hour south of Chicago, fourth-grade teacher Laura Cooper was teaching Wit & Wisdom lessons exploring the human heart in both literal and figurative ways when a home-school connection arose.?

The class was reading a book about the circulatory system, and a parent who is a dean in a nearby community college's health sciences department asked if he could come in and talk to the students.?

He joined the class one day and discussed his work with the students and did hands-on activities with them, including giving them stethoscopes to check their heart rates before and after they exercised.?

Fifth graders in Sarah Gibbs's classroom also were enthralled when a parent brought in their collection of Native American artifacts found in the community, particularly along the nearby Kankakee River.??

The class was reading texts about the Nez Perce Tribe as part of a module on cultures in conflict. Liberty Principal Brett Pignatiello says he loves how teachers at the school are extending the curriculum into the community and sparking excitement and curiosity among students.?

He noted that after the presentation on Native American artifacts, some kids went to the river to look for artifacts themselves and then came back showing him what they found.?

Massachusetts Students Team Up for Hands-On Squid Exploration

Third graders at Golden Hill Elementary School in Haverhill, Mass. recently took a field trip to the local high school. They were enjoying a Wit & Wisdom module featuring books and other texts about oceans and marine life and went to Haverhill High to visit the science labs to learn more about squid.??

High school students led a dissection of a squid and talked with the younger students about what they saw and learned. The third graders were particularly interested in cephalopod ink, which squid use as a defense mechanism to confuse predators when released into the water. They were amazed at how it serves as a natural smoke screen.?

Discovering the Fun in Forces and Motion

Elementary science teacher Jami Witherell loves teaching lessons from PhD Science focused on forces and motion and exploring the phenomenon: “How does a tiny tugboat move massive ships like cruise liners and cargo ships?”

When asked if they could bring a cargo ship into the classroom, students from Nantucket Elementary in Nantucket, Mass. laughed and then put their heads together to find a way to demonstrate the concept. Their solution? They built models out of wooden blocks and used a tugboat to push or pull them through a replica of a harbor.?

Engaging Parents in the Joy of Math Learning

Michigan’s teacher of the year Candice Jackson, pictured below, loves to get parents involved in their children’s math education. The third-grade teacher uses?Eureka Math?in her Detroit classroom and embeds fun hands-on activities into parent nights at school, including giving parents and kids dice and teaching them how to play dice games involving addition, subtraction, and multiplication.?

She also has had the kids and parents and guardians make flash cards to help them learn their math facts in fun ways. Parents report back that they use them while walking to school, preparing meals, and before bedtime, showing math, like literacy, can be part of everyday life.??

We love engaging with educators on social media and welcoming the inspiring moments they share with us here on LinkedIn and on other platforms. If you're a teacher or have heartwarming stories about joy in the classroom, I would love to hear from you—feel free to share in the comments below. And happy holidays to you and yours.