With Star Wars Day, May 4th, just around the corner, it’s a great time to turn the magical allure of the Star Wars movie franchise into fun and fascinating lessons in the classroom. Using these free Star Wars ideas and tools, teachers of any galaxy will easily engross Padawans of any age in instruction on any topic. Enjoy!
Create a Star Wars Adventure in Scratch (opens in new tab)
Get your students excited about coding with this step-by-step video guide to creating a digital Star Wars adventure in Scratch (opens in new tab), the free online coding platform.
Star Wars Crawl Creator (opens in new tab)
In this lighthearted look at the iconic Star Wars crawling-text introduction, users simply edit the text to create their own reimagining. Ideal for storytelling and movie-making lessons—in addition to fun—at the end of the school year.
Artificial Intelligence | Science And Star Wars (opens in new tab)
A fascinating examination into how artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing science fiction closer to science fact. Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO in 10 Star Wars films, joins Watson the supercomputer and IBM scientists in exploring the state of AI today.
NASA STEM Education Resources (opens in new tab)
Transform your students’ Star Wars enthusiasm into genuine learning with this extensive collection of STEM teaching resources for K-12 and beyond. Included are lesson plans, educator guides, interactive multimedia learning modules, contests, challenges, and much more. Searchable by grade level, subject, and type of activity.
Explore great ideas for using Star Wars themes to teach music, social studies, English, science, math, and more in May the 4th Be With You: Real-World Connections in the Classroom and Beyond (opens in new tab).
Star Wars Online Games (opens in new tab)
More than fifty high-quality browser-based digital games with Star Wars themes ranging from lightsaber battles to clone wars. Reward your students for their hard work by assigning some enjoyable gameplay.
Not So Far, Far Away (opens in new tab)
A lesson about latitude and longitude based on Star Wars fictional planetary locations and their Earthly analogues. Students learn how filmmakers used various extreme Earth landscapes as the basis for other-worldly Star Wars scenes, then map latitude and longitude of the real-world locations. Includes follow-up questions.
A wealth of Star Wars STEM activities can be found on Star Wars STEM Activities for May the 4th Be With You Science (opens in new tab), from creating colorful lightsaber greeting cards to building robots from junk. Many of these super resources are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Take a deep dive into multiple subject areas using Star Wars (opens in new tab) as the learning lens. Social studies, robotics, ELL, STEM topics, and even global citizenship will engage kids like never before when their favorite Star Wars characters, moments, and lines form the basis for each lesson.
Teaching With Star Wars (opens in new tab): The true lessons to be learned from Star Wars aren’t about advanced technology. Instead, they’re about navigating life, whether in a galaxy far, far away or right here on Earth. Star Wars expert and educator Dan Zehr’s terrific series of articles examines ideas such as commitment, learning from failure, and leadership in the context of Star Wars and the classroom.
TED Lesson Plan: The Birth of the Lightsaber (opens in new tab) is a great video-based lesson that guides learners to think about the luminous lightsaber in terms of cinematic design effects and physics.
The Mathematic Shed blog (opens in new tab) features Star Wars flashcards, geometry questions based on Star Wars characters and spacecraft, and, impressively, a Darth Vader blueprint lesson.
From the amazing Code.org folks, this Star-Wars themed coding a galaxy activity (opens in new tab) includes everything kids and teachers need to start block-based and JavaScript coding.
What is Starwarigami? Explore software engineer Martin Hunt’s extensive collection of Star Wars-themed origami plans (opens in new tab); it’s a wonderful way to get kids excited about making art.
Teaching ‘Star Wars’ With The New York Times (opens in new tab): The Times takes Star Wars lessons to a level above Cloud City with its Shakespeare, history, physics, science, math, and yes, economics, Star Wars-themed lessons. An exceptionally strong resource, especially for middle schoolers and above.
Try this Yoda speak translator (opens in new tab) just for fun. Even better, use it as the foundation for an English grammar lesson. For computer science classes and advanced students, the Yoda translator API (opens in new tab) allows users to integrate the Yoda speak translator right into their website or application.
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