Classroom Law Project
What does the Constitution say about voting? Constitutional Amendments and the Electoral College
As part of a study of voting rights in the US, class members examine Constitutional amendments connected with voting and the role of the Electoral College in the election process.
Curated OER
How Much Does Soap Cost?
Explore multiplication and division using real life problems, including how to find the cost of soap per bar. Individuals or small groups work to find answers. They then share with the class how they found their answer.
PBS
What We Do Adds Up
With so many tons of trash going into landfills each year, your environmentalists can calculate how much the average person is tossing away. This activity has a series of questions not only requiring math, but a conscious thought of how...
Center for History Education
How Did the Public View Women’s Contributions to the Revolutionary War Effort?
Calling upon the legacies of Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, and Catherine the Great, Esther Reed rallied Southern women to support the American Revolution. Using a broadside by Reed and other primary sources, such as poetry, young historians...
Curated OER
How Do Authors Use Imagery to Shape Their Writing?
Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...
Colorado State University
Why Do Clouds Form in the Afternoon?
The stability of the atmosphere changes on a daily basis. A kinesthetic lesson models how the stability of the air changes as it's warmed by the sun. Learners connect their models to the changing air currents and movement of warm and...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Infer Motives
Why did they do it? Get to the bottom of complex characters and people by analyzing their motivation. Learners select an action and take a close look at that action in order to infer motive. They then explain why they determined that...
Teach Engineering
Rube Goldberg and the Meaning of Machines
A Rube Goldberg machine does not really look like it would make work easier. Introduce your class to Rube Goldberg with a resource that shows how his inventions make simple tasks harder to complete.
Albert Shanker Institute
Economic Causes of the March on Washington
Money can't buy happiness, but it can put food on the table and pay the bills. The first of a five-lesson unit teaches pupils about the unemployment rate in 1963 and its relationship with the March on Washington. They learn how to create...
Curated OER
Where Did the Water Go? An Investigation in Scientific Methods
Students view a teacher demonstration that prompts them to solve a problem using the scientific method. In this scientific method lesson, students guess which cup has water and are presented with a conundrum when the water does not...
Curated OER
What Did I Touch Today?
Second graders describe and adopt behaviors for health and safety. They explore what germs are and how they can make you sick. Through graphing activities, 2nd graders examine the way germs travel and what they can do to prevent the...
Curated OER
How Do You Measure Up?
In this how do you measure up worksheet, students interactively answer 10 multiple choice questions about measurement, then click to check their answers.
Curated OER
Housework: Make vs. Do
In this verb usage worksheet, students read the sentences and determine which form of make or do best completes each sentence. Students complete 8 sentences for the online activity.
Curated OER
Predicting the Meaning of Unfamiliar Words in a Text
Middle schoolers develop strategies for what to do when they come upon words in a text that they don't know. After a class discussion, pupils are given a selection of text that contains some very difficult words. They are instructed to...
Curated OER
Pioneering Principles: Why Character Matters
What does it mean to "be of good character"? What are the qualities that define such a person? The 1825 Colonization Law of Coahuila y Texas required that all new immigrants into Mexican Texas present documentation that they were of...
Curated OER
Musical Instruments
Here is a complete workbook which leads children as they work through the art of making a musical instrument. The instrument made must be a percussion instrument. The workbook is incredibly thorough and does a good job of leading pupils...
Annenberg Foundation
Rhythms in Poetry
Rhyme, rhythm, free verse, imagery: Do these words describe poetry, or jazz music? The answer is both! A resource explores these similarities as scholars watch a video, engage in discussion, read author biographies, write poetry and...
Curated OER
Direct Object Pronouns
What is a direct object pronoun and how do you use one? After looking at several examples, give your Spanish speakers an opportunity to practice. Can they place the direct object pronoun correctly in the sentence provided? Two separate...
American Chemical Society
Condensation
It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...
Curated OER
What a Character! Comparing Literary Adaptations
What do Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Fritz Weaver, Roger Moore, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daffy Duck have in common? Why, it’s elementary, my dear Watson! They all have portrayed Sherlock Holmes. Literary detectives...
Historical Thinking Matters
Social Security: 3 Day Lesson
What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...
Annenberg Foundation
Poetry of Liberation
How do writers use words to protest injustice, challenge the status quo, and shape their own identities? Individuals watch and discuss a video, read author biographies, write poetry and journals, develop a slideshow, and complete a...
Curated OER
Mystery Jars
Youngsters discover ways to estimate. They will use two jars with large and small items and estimate the number of items. Then record their estimate and explain why they answered the way they did. They try this experiment with different...
Biology Corner
Pipe Cleaner Babies
Ever been told you have your father's eyes? How did it happen? Young biologists get a hands-on experience in meiotic gene expression with a fun pairs-based activity. Participants use pipe cleaner chromosomes with trait beads to make...