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
Human Body Lessons
Learners read "The Magic School Bus in the Human Body" and discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy body. They create a hinge and joint paper skeleton, follow the journey of a hamburger through the digestive tract, jump rope and...
Curated OER
Writing About Art: Subjective vs. Objective
Explore objective and subjective writing in this interdisciplinary lesson, which brings language arts and visual art together. Middle and high school students examine the sculpture Head with Horns by Paul Gauguin. They then analyze the...
Curated OER
Math Hunt
Go on a scavenger hunt around your school to find evidence of math. Investigate different areas of your school for patterns, fractions, and different geometric shapes. Finally, create a spreadsheet and plot the data you've collected.
Curated OER
Hypothetical Heights
Students participate in an interdisciplinary lesson to discuss improvements that would make them want to return to a previously poor neighborhood. In this civics lesson, students work in a budget to make a plan to better their...
Curated OER
Call It a Hunch
Give young scholars a chance to practice making inferences after reading the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges. They confirm whether or not their conclusions are true, have a class discussion, and then independently complete an...
Curated OER
Is Modern Culture Ruining Childhood?
There are a lot of different ways a learner could respond to this New York Times article discussing the effects of modern culture on childhood. After reading the article, pupils construct a thoughtful blog post. The guiding questions...
Curated OER
Keeping students engaged after standardized testing
Instructional strategies and lesson ideas to keep students excited about learning, while reviewing and preparing for the next grade level.
Baylor College
Post-Assessment: Brain Chemistry
If you have implemented this fabulous brain chemistry unit in its entirety, you should have saved the pre-assessment quizzes from day one. In this assignment, individual learners go back over their original answers, and correct any...
Curated OER
An Author Report on Beverly Cleary
Students examine Beverly Cleary as a reader and an author. They write a letter to Beverly Cleary that details their personal journey as readers and writers after reading her work and keeping a reading journal.
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Cup Capacity Tool: Measuring Cup
Students examine containers and their capacity. They fill a one-cup measuring cup with water and pour cups of water into other containers. Through observation, students discover how many cups make a pint, and how many teaspoons make a...
Curated OER
Switcheroo
Who doesn't want to play tag? Here's a nice movement activity to keep your class running about practicing hopping, jumping, leaping, skipping and whatever motor skills your can think of. I like that the taggers are not "IT" forever, and...
Curated OER
I'm a Changed Pig - Personal Narrative
Young writers explore character arcs, conflict, and narrative in this complete and ready-to-use lesson plan from Scholastic. As a class read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig and discuss the dramatic change the pig...
Curated OER
Volleyball Online Quiz
Here's a website that allows you to create quizzes and/or tests for your PE classes. There is a link to the general website and there is a link to this specific example of a volleyball quiz. It's a multiple choice quiz and the pupils...
Curated OER
Best Part of Me
After listening to the story, The Best Part of Me, learners will identify a positive physical feature of themselves, and create a descriptive poem about their favorite feature. Photographs are taken, and a nice final draft of the poem is...
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Author's Purpose
Find the author's purpose in this review worksheet. Fourth graders read each of the three following paragraphs and decide whether the author's purpose is to persuade, inform, or entertain. You could use this activity as a class...
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Chapter 3 Reading Check
"I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple." Young readers examine one of the ways Steinbeck brings his characters to life by closely examining what characters say and imaging why Steinbeck choose...
Curated OER
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Chapter 2 Reading Check
"What is George upset about? Check all that apply." Here's a learning exercise that asks readers to delve more deeply into character attitudes and motivations. In addition, Part II asks individuals to record passages from that text that...
Perkins School for the Blind
Prepositions
When most children learn about prepositions, they are provided with a visual to show them the concepts of on, in, near, and beside. For learners with visual impairments, concepts need to be constructed in a very concrete way. A stuffed...
Curated OER
Year Round Schools?
Students explore reasons for the length of the school year in the United States. The pros and cons for extensions of the year are researched and discussed.
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The Kissing Hand
Pupils listen to "The Kissing Hand," by Audrey Penn to calm their fears of the first days of preschool or kindergarten.
Curated OER
Math:Survey Role-Playing Activity
Students create survey questions to discover why students join clubs. Using sampling methods and question phrasing techniques, they conduct the survey both in and out of school. Once students analyze their survey information, they...
Curated OER
My Summer Vacation
In this summer vacation instructional activity, students are given lines on which to write about their summer vacation. Worksheet is a blank template. A reference web site is given for additional activities.
Curated OER
Does the falling tree make a sound if no one if there to hear it? (or communication via encryption)
Young scholars explore encryption. They discuss the importance of cryptography in our daily lives. Students use games and cryptography to discover transformational geometry and modulo systems. They design their own encryption puzzles...