Curated OER
Welina's World
Students living in Hawaii draw a picture of themselves in their neighborhood. They draw their neighborhood in relation to their district and then in relation to the island they are from. They compare their pictures to their classmates'...
Curated OER
Around the Town
In the world of GPS, make sure your kids can still read maps and determine distances between locations. You will need neighborhood street maps, ideally of your class' home turf. Ask kids questions about different locations in relation to...
Curated OER
How Far Did They Go?
Students create a map. In this direction and distance lesson, students come up with familiar places in the community and calculate the distances from these places to the school. Students create a map that displays these places and their...
Curated OER
From a Distance
Students think about their neighborhood and get a mental picture of their community. They then interpret aerial photography, learning how to use shapes and patterns to describe urban, suburban and rural communities.
NOAA
Mid-Ocean Ridges Interactive
Your class will be on top of their game when it comes to mid-ocean ridges! The second installment in a 13-part series focuses on the 65,000-km underwater ridge system that spans our globe. Junior oceanographers practice placing the...
Curated OER
Celebration
Students identify the different ways in which different countries celebrate and why, including story, dance, music, and exchanging gifts. Then they develop a basic standard of non-verbal communication through either dance, mime,...
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Olympic Challenge
Have your class research a country related to the Olympics. They participate in physical education activities included in the Presidential Physical Fitness Test and write about their country. This is a very interactive plan.
Perkins School for the Blind
Beginning Map Skills
Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...
Curated OER
All Aboard!
Students, in groups, create a display showing a "train trip" to a destination of their choice from a teacher-made list. They also answer a series of questions related to their trip. Groups present their displays.
Curated OER
Scaling it Down: Caves Have Maps, Too
Measurement and map skills are the focus of this lesson, where students crawl through a "cave" made out of boxes, desks and chairs, observing the dimensions. Your young geographers measure various aspects of the cave and practice math...
Curated OER
What Makes The Good Life
What makes a good life? What makes life hard? Get your class thinking about the global picture with this extensive packet. They read quotes from around the world, analyze statistical data from every continent, then read and answer...
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Relative History
Students explore theories about how the Olmec civilization influenced other Mesoamerican societies. They research the Olmecs to create a museum exhibit of their findings and reflect on how an Olmec person might have understood the...
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Hopi Running
Students identify why the Hopi tribe practiced running as it relates to health, delivering messages, defeating other tribes, and for ceremonial events. In this social studies lesson, students use maps to identify latitude and longitude...
Curated OER
Math: The Cathedral Project
Second graders take a field trip to a nearby church or other historical building and examine it from a mathematical perspective. In groups, they calculate the seating capacity, describe the window patterns, differentiate types of...
K12 Reader
The Metric System
How did the metric system come to be, and why does the US not use it very much? Your class can learn the answers to these questions with the reading passage included here and then respond to the five related questions.
Curated OER
The Roaring Twenties
Let's take a look back at America during the 1920s and 1930s. Information regarding the economics in the 1920s that led to some of the issues during the 1930s are covered using text and images. Learners will consider economic booms,...
Curated OER
Spatial Understanding of the Cities and Towns
Students engage in a fun stand up, move around activity that teaches some basics of geography. They develop concepts of distance between community locations and practice giving and taking directions in an organized manner.
Curated OER
Oral Language
Students use distances on a map to draw a route, give directions, and follow directions. In this map lesson plan, students explain their route and directions orally.
Curated OER
Policies that Relate to American Indians
Eleventh graders demonstrate an understanding of the impact of the western settlement patterns on American Indians. They analyze the growth and division of the United States from 1820 through 1877 and examine the non-Indian concept of...
Curated OER
Where is ? ? ? ?
Students explain and explain the concept of a grid system. They define absolute and relative location and develop an imaginary city on graph paper using a grid system.
Curated OER
The Mind Map
Learners form a mental map of their residence in relation to school and recreate it on paper showing distance, direction, location and symbols. This lesson is designed to introduce learners to geographic thinking.
Curated OER
Rivers Run Through It
Using a relief map of New York State, learners answer questions about the distance between different cities, identify bodies of water, and more. First, they discuss vocabulary related to the Hudson River area. Then, they complete a...
Curated OER
Learning Landscapes
Fifth graders analyze a landscape depicting Yosemite during the time of the Wild West. They compare their perceptions of the West from film and television to this representation. They observe the use of scale and color to depict size and...
Curated OER
Flying with Pythagoras
A lengthy narrative about Pythagoras and his young scholars precedes an activity in which your young mathematicians practice using the Pythagorean theorem to solve three problems about flight and distance. Answers are provided.