Center for Civic Education
What Is Authority?
Young scholars examine the concepts of power and authority as they begin learning about government in this elementary social studies lesson. Through a series of readings, discussions, and problem solving activities, children learn about...
Lied Center of Kansas
The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare
Both The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare are great additions to an elementary language arts lesson. Young readers focus on the literary elements of each story, including characters and plot development, and apply counting and...
Center for Civic Education
What Basic Ideas About Government Are Included in the Preamble to the Constitution?
Young historians explore the meaning of the Preamble to the US Constitution in this upper-elementary social studies lesson. Working with partners or in small groups, children discuss the purpose of government before reading and analyzing...
Cornell University
Wasps and Ladybugs
Can a good bug ever become a bad bug? An elementary entomology resource explores what to do when too many ladybugs or too many bees are in your home and can become a problem.
Curated OER
Inspector Readers: The 002 Book Club
This unit introduces book clubs/literature circles to lower elementary classes, but could be adapted to higher grades. It outlines the anticipatory activity that includes a WebQuest, a discussion to clarify questions about the unit,...
Baylor College
What Makes Water Special?
Get close up and personal with a drop of water to discover how the polarity of its molecules affect its behavior. Elementary hydrologists split and combine water droplets, and also compare them to drops of oil. Much neater than placing a...
Captain Planet Foundation
P is for Poppies
Explore the way local farming and rationing helped the war effort in World War I with a lesson plan on gardening. After learning about trench warfare, reading "In Flanders' Field" by John McCrae, and studying poppies, kids discuss the...
Captain Planet Foundation
Rotting Away
What happens at the end of a plant's life cycle? Show kids the natural way that plants show that they're decomposing, as well as the importance of compost, with a activity about living organisms. After reading Log Cabin by Anne...
Curated OER
Schoolyard Field Guide
Fourth graders observe, plan, research, and create a field guide for the trees that are in their schoolyard. In this trees lesson plan, 4th graders make careful observations of what they see around their school and create a guide.
Curated OER
Grab a Winning Book to Read on March 3
Learners identify periods of history and read a news article about a librarian who wrote an award winning book. In this current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a class challenge and a vocabulary activity, then...
Public Media for Northern California
An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Gun Control Issues | The Lowdown
The topic of gun control is vast, controversial, and difficult to introduce to students. This gem of a resource covers both sides of the issue and provides topic background, various multimedia and print resources, analysis questions, and...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Classroom Paper Recycling
After reading about the history and recycling of paper, creative crafters collaborate to think of a new process for making recycled paper. A complete teacher's guide and student worksheets are included. There is no written procedure for...
Curated OER
guided reading using OWLS
Learners complete activities based on All About Owls written by Jim Arnosky, Owl At Home written by Arnold Lobel, and Owl Moon written by Jane Yolen.
Candace Fleming
Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life
Candace Fleming's award winning Ben Franklin's Almanac is the anchor text for a classroom guide that provides teachers with a cache of pre, during, and post-reading activities.
US Holocaust Museum
Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story
Imagine being a child forced from your home and into a concentration camp during World War II. Scholars prepare for a visit to the United States Holocaust Museum by researching the children of the horrible event. They analyze...
Memorial Art Gallery
Art Alive! - Beach at Blue Point
And then what happened? Class members engage in a series of activities that model for them how to read the story in a painting. Participants respond to questions that ask them to closely examine the elements in William Glackens' "Beach...
Curated OER
Linguistic Diversity. Languages in Canada - Elementary
Create a language mosaic to reveal the linguistic diversity in your community. Pupils interview a person with a home language other than English and contribute to a bulletin board display representing the variety of languages spoken. The...
All for KIDZ
Building Relationships: The Orphan of Ellis Island
Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource provides...
Visa
Credit Cards
Choosing your first credit card can often be an intimidating and confusing experience for young adults. Give your pupils the foundational knowledge they need for tackling this process head-on, including learning to distinguish different...
Skyscraper Museum
Building a Skyscraper
The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third activity in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children about the...
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
PSE Character Education: Respect
Every healthy classroom community is built on a foundation of respect. Through whole group discussions, shared readings, and collaborative activities this activity teaches children how to be respectful of one another, making for a much...
National Institute on Drug Abuse
The Brain's Response to Drugs
Marijuana affects the brain differently than inhalants, which have a different effect than opioids. Elementary and middle school classes read about these drugs as well as nicotine, methamphetamine, hallucinogens, and steroids before...
Maryland Department of Education
Our Children Can Soar
Amazing efforts of African American leaders are celebrated in a lesson on civil participation. The engaging resource focuses on primary and secondary sources to analyze the impact of African American leaders such as Ella Fitzgerald....
Curated OER
March of the Dividing Ant
Students inspect divisibility rules. In this divisibility rules lesson, students study the relationship between factorization and the divisibility rules for 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10. Students read One Hundred Hungry Ants and A Remainder of...