Smithsonian Institution
Autobiography through Objects
Show youngsters how objects can tell a story! Here your class will learn about Cuban salsa dancer Celia Cruz by analyzing pictures of her dress, her shoes, and her marriage certificate. After describing Cruz's items and imagining what...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Gargoyles Galore
Grrrrr, gargoyles are on the loose! Young artists are familiarized with the history of gargoyles, examine pictures of them, and hear a story about them. Then, they draw a gargoyle and write down exactly how they did it (procedural...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Angles on Kandinsky
Not only is Wassily Kandinsky fun to say, his art contains tons of angles. Learners discuss Kandinsky's music-inspired abstract art and four types of angles. They search one of his paintings for obtuse, right, straight, and acute angles,...
San Francisco Symphony
Learning Adjectives through the Duke
Duke Ellington, jazz, and jive kick-off a fun and creative lesson on responding emotionally to music. The class will learn about jive talk used in the 1920s and the life and music of Duke Ellington. They'll listen to a selection of his...
San Francisco Symphony
Washington Portrait
Fifth and second graders pair up to create mini dance scenes based on the image Washington Crossing the Delaware. Second graders create the movements while their fifth grade partners play the musical accompaniment. Leadership skills,...
San Francisco Symphony
Biographical Slideshow
Biographies can be a fun topic for any history project. Learners choose one famous person that lived between 1865 and 1930 to research. They gather information, work on reading comprehension, and use what they find to create slide shows...
San Francisco Symphony
Music and Early Man
Creative projects are great ways to increase interest in topical research. Middle schoolers learning about primitive life styles in the Americas explore the importance of music to hunter gatherers. They research and create musical...
Curated OER
Sound Walk: Discovering Data and Applying Range, Mode, and Mean
Elementary schoolers sharpen their listening skills as they use sound maps, tallies, and line plots to organize and interpret data. Everyone takes a "sound walk," and focuses on the sounds around them. They chart and tabulate the sounds...
San Francisco Symphony
By the Great Horn Spoon!
By The Great Horn Spoon is a fantastic novel for introducing learners to life during the California Gold Rush. First, kids research and analyze American folk songs, then they connect to the text as they listen to symphonic pieces written...
Georgia Aquarium
The Ocean's Nursery
Linear perspective, estuaries, and water ways converge in a science-inspired art project. The class uses what they've learned about eco-systems, estuaries, and the food chain to create scale models of a local marsh. While the...
Japan Society
Tanabata: Japan's Star Festival
The Star Festival or Tanbata, is a holiday celebrated in Japan every year. People make tanzakus out of paper and hang them on the trees. Pupils will learn about this culturally significant holiday while creating tanzakus of their own....
Curated OER
"The Midwife's Apprentice"
Here is an inventive, and educationally rich way to conduct a literature study of the book, The Midwife's Apprentice. After the book has been read, learners get into three groups. One group is assigned the task of being the writers....
Curated OER
Multimedia Presentation on Roll of Thunder Hear Me Cry
What a wonderful way to follow up on the reading of, Roll of Thunder Hear Me Cry! The lesson has pupils split up into small groups of two to four learners. Each group must work collaboratively to create a multimedia project that relates...
Curated OER
Creating a Character Chart for the Secret Garden
The Secret Garden, is a wonderful book to read with your class. After reading, why not employ the lesson plan presented here as a follow up activity? In it, pupils create character charts that portray the tremendous changes that take...
Curated OER
How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great instructional activity on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography....
Curated OER
Inequality and the 1/2 Benchmark
Fourth graders utilize fraction bar manipulatives to compare a variety of fractions to the fraction value 1/2. Pupils are put into groups, and they begin to see how fractions that look completely different actually represent the same...
Curated OER
Invisible Life
By setting up an aquarium in the classroom, learners are able to describe some macroscopic and microscopic organisms that are found inside. This well-designed, and educationally rich lesson requires pupils to use microscopes to view...
Curated OER
Cartography Project
A lesson involving mapping, the use of a compass, writing and following directions, and exploring the first two themes of geography is here for you. Learners create original maps that show the routes they take through their own...
Eastern Michigan University
Energy Flow in a Wetland Ecosystem
How is energy transferred within an ecosystem? What would happen to a food web if one of the organisms was removed? Elementary or middle school ecologists examine these questions and more in a comprehensive 5E learning cycle lesson....
Curated OER
Why Can’t I Have Sugar? All About Diabetes
Begin the lesson plan by having your class write what they know about diabetes. They learn through a skit how the body metabolizes glucose. A visual representation of the two types of diabetes is displayed, and then learners participate...
Curated OER
"Zebra" by Chaim Potok
Combine art and literature to teach greater themes and symbolic meaning. Using the plan outlined in this resource, expose your class to the story "Zebra" by Chaim Potok, conduct discussions about social issues and nicknames, and ask...
Desert Discoveries
Who Depends on the Saguaro?
Young scientists design a picture of a saguaro cactus that shows the cactus and some of the animals and plants that interact with it. There are many of these special relationships between plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert. Your...
Curated OER
Solving Problems Involving Subtraction
Here is an excellent lesson plan on solving subtraction word problems using fractions and mixed numbers. Learners complete three activities that will help them to explore and better-understand the world of mixed numbers. Fraction bars...
Fraction Bars
Quotients of Whole Numbers that Equal Fractions
A complete lesson on dividing whole numbers by other whole numbers and getting a fraction result. Groups of learners use fractions bars, and strips of paper that are cut to specific lengths. The hands-on activities in the lesson are...