Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Extend-sive Thinking
Can knowing about things of the past help predict the types of things seen in the future? Advanced learners consider the idea that things extend. In other words, concrete things like bridges and intangible things like ideas extend from...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Playing the Float
Got a rainy day and need a few fabulous activities to foster creative thinking skills? The class works to understand the three types of human power; direct, indirect, and stored. They do this by first creating a parade float like the...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Digging for Clues
Make critical and creative thinkers out of your class, with an archeology-based project they'll love. They start the activity by first researching what archeologists do, then they generate a list of the qualities archeologists need to be...
Creative Competitions, Inc.
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Fantastic Fairy Tale
Learning about literature can be so much fun; it can also be made more accessible through projects and dramatic play. As they explore theme, character, and setting, the class gets creative and makes a dramatic recreation of a classic...
California Academy of Science
Colorful Fish Adaptations
I love lessons that incorporate the arts, they're so engaging and address a more diverse set of learners. Your class will investigate the reasons fish from the coal reef have adapted such colorful fins. They design a fish that uses color...
Perkins School for the Blind
Timeline for Anne
It is key to the learning process to make everything a child with visual impairments does as tactile as possible. After reading Anne of Green Gables, the class discusses her life events in order to make a tactile time line. They choose...
Perkins School for the Blind
Tactile quilts that tell a story
Learners with multiple disabilities need to engage in projects that push them to know their full potential. They need to be able to express themselves in a variety of ways, and this very thoughtful lesson plan does just that. They make a...
Bekshire Museum
Cloudy Skies: The Art of Classification
Such a great resource and perfect for learners in Kindergarten through third grade. The class will discuss cloud types and formation, and then they'll get outside and draw as they observe the clouds they see. They'll need to take note of...
Denver Art Museum
Enticing Travel Brochure
Elementary schoolers examine Albert Bierstadt's Wind River Country, and examine the manner in which he created his paintings. Â The terrific plan has an outstanding version of the painting embedded in it for viewing. Learners look at how...
Teach Engineering
Solar Power
Elementary schoolers discover how engineers use solar energy to heat buildings. They take a close look at some of the materials used: sand, salt, water, and shredded paper and evaluate the efficiency of each material. An incredible...
Teach Engineering
You've Got to See it to Believe It!
Youngsters develop an understanding of how smog is produced, and how exhaust from automobiles is one of the major sources of smog. They explore the roles that engineers play in developing technologies that reduce smog, then work in teams...
Inter-American Magnet School
The Inca Projecta
Here is a wonderful idea, intended for learners in a collaborative multi-grade setting. While learners of different grades focus on different aspects of the same project, all their efforts culminate in a time tunnel, where they turn...
Curated OER
Secret Writing Devices
Elementary and middle schoolers explore the world of secret writing, otherwise known as cryptography. After an interesting introduction to the activity, learners utilize a decoder badge which uses the St. Cyr cipher - which is a cipher...
NASA
Radiation Shielding on Spacecraft
Here is a terrific science lesson for your elementary schoolers. In it, learners analyze different materials to simulate space radiation shielding on spacecraft, then select the best material to use to build one. This is a classic...
NASA
X-Gliders: Exploring Flight Research with Experimental Gliders
Young engineers build a glider, and they experiment with ways to change the flight characteristics of the glider. There are some templates embedded in the plan that learners can use as guides to cut out their gliders. The templates are...
SeaWorld
Bird Biology
Here you will find two good activities designed for young learners. In the first one, pupils explore the fact that all birds have feathers, and they discover what two uses those feathers have. After the discussion, the kids color in a...
Curated OER
Teaching "A Week in the Woods"
The book, A Week in the Woods is the focus of the very interesting language arts lesson presented here. After the book has been read, learners engage in study of certain parts of the book in order to gain a better understanding of how...
Fraction Bars
Subtraction of Decimals
Here is a fabulous lesson on subtracting decimals with different numbers of decimal places. There are teacher-led activities for learners to engage in, including, modeling decimal subtraction through decimal squares, looking at place...
Curated OER
Subtracting Fractions - Unequal Denominators
Subtracting fractions that have unequal denominators is a tricky process. The lesson utilizes fraction bars as a manipulative, in order to understand subtracting fractions and estimating differences. After completing three activities in...
Time Warp Trio
The Caveman Catastrophe
Young archaeologists study the development of human history, and work in groups to create a timeline that traces the development of humans. Additionally, the groups utilize a very clever graphic organizer embedded in the plan in order to...
Education Outside
Chard Tabbouleh Raps
Pupils work with homophones and heterographs found in a recipe for tabbouleh wraps. They work together in groups to perform the tasks necessary to create this Middle Eastern dish, then they get to enjoy it. A fine lesson that combines...
NASA
The Wright Quest
A very impressive lesson plan on the Wright brothers and their place in aviation history. Learners discover many fascinating facts about the Wright brothers and their trials and errors regarding flight. Best of all, they get to build a...
SeaWorld
Shark!
Here is an impressive collection of lessons on sharks. In them, pupils undertake a serious study of sharks, their habitats, their social structure, and how humans adversely impact their existence. These lessons effectively integrate...
Curated OER
England: Discover a World of Culture and History
England is a very interesting country full of cultural and historical geography. Here is an impressive collection of lessons that will familiarize your students with England's cultural and historical geography. The activities presented...