Curated OER
The World of Amelia Bedelia
Get ready to laugh with your class by reading the book Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School. After they read the book and do activities comparing their first day of school with Amelia' they will then have conversations around the story....
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Geocaching
Using GPS units, small groups participate in a scavenger hunt to find an object that you have hidden. They use coordinates for stopping points along a pre-planned path to get to the final cache. This is a terrific activity to include in...
TCI
What Are the Biggest April Fools Jokes of All Time?
After working in groups to analyze primary sources related to a historical hoax, learners will discuss how people managed to be fooled and work to identify one of the biggest April Fools jokes in history.
Curated OER
Fault Features
Students discuss the different kinds of faults in the earth's crust and examine photos of the San Adreas Fault. Working in groups, they experiment with fault making by placing fabric in a pan and filling the inside with wet dirt. When...
Curated OER
The Point is to Make ATP
Storing and transferring energy is explained here with reference to the fight or flight response, along with the need for activity in times of lowered nutrition. This is a great summary of ATP applications, and after the multiple stages...
Shaker Junior High School Library Media Center
WWII Project Outline
Work together as a class and get to know the ins and outs of World War II with this engaging collaborative project. Class members are broken into groups to research particular war topics, from life on the home front to the Holocaust and...
Scholastic
Owl Moon Teaching Plan
Capture the engagement of young readers with this collection of activities based on Jane Yolen's book, Owl Moon. Following a shared reading of this children's story, the class explores the geography of the American Northeast,...
Sharp School
Real Life Economics 101
Your learners will take key economic concepts, such as identifying needs versus wants and the four factors of production, and design a video to explain their topic choice to the class. Rather than have one person in charge of dispensing...
Trash For Teaching
The Light-House Project
Groups work together to design a lighthouse, from designing and drawing the wiring diagram, to creating prototypes of the switch and circuit, to envisioning and building a scale model along with a blueprint. By including different...
Mikva Challenge
Why Vote?
Elections are supposed to represent the will of the people. So why don't 100% of registered voters line up at the polls on Election Day? High schoolers study the last few elections and the voter turnout for each, according to race,...
Curated OER
Dewey Decimal Game
Engage all the upper elementary classes in your school in a game to learn Dewey Decimal Classification. On 5 or 6 consecutive visits to the library, teams from each class learn how the system works, locate books in each category, and...
Curated OER
Multiplying Fractions Times Whole Numbers
Multiplying fractions by whole numbers is the focus of the math lesson presented here. There are three activities outlined in the lesson along with a nifty game learners play on the computer that reinforces their learning. These lessons...
Discovery Education
Physical Oceanography and Meteorology, Navy Search and Rescue Operation
It's an ocean rescue mission! Groups must find a pilot downed off the coast of the Chesapeake Bay. Rescuers must determine the distance needed to travel as well as the heading to get to the pilot's last known position. Taking...
DiscoverE
Sun-Warmed Treats
Treat your class to a fun activity, complete with treats. Groups create a solar oven from a pizza box. They then use it to heat up some food ... that's what an oven is for, after all!
Curated OER
Fact Families Lessons
Have you ever tried using arrays to help you teach the fact families that go with multiplication and division? If not, you should read this article! Some excellent and easy-to-implement ideas are presented, along with some good lessons...
Curated OER
Let's Grow Plants!
Students read and dramatize the stories "The Tiny Seed" and "The Carrot Seed" as an introduction to seeds and what they become. They work in small groups to plant their own seeds and over the span of a week (+ or -)students keep track of...
Curated OER
Go West: Imagining the Oregon Trail
Students access the Oregon Trial website to find information on what it was like to experience traveling the Oregon Trial. Then, in groups, they create dioramas depicting events that could have happened along the Oregon Trail.
Curated OER
Blubber Mittens:Adaptation to Cold Climates
Students get a first hand look at the benefit of a "blubber layer" in cold climates through a simulation using vegetable shortening and icy water. Through this simulation, students examine how adaptations help organisms survive.
Curated OER
Rule for Equality of Fractions
Here is a instructional activity on equality of fractions. Learners use fraction bar manipulatives as the instructional activity goes along to help them visually understand equivalent fractions. The activities described are top-notch,...
August House
Anansi Goes to Lunch - Kindergarten
Greed is the theme of the West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch and this multidisciplinary collection of lessons. First, scholars listen to a read aloud and participate in a grand conversation about the book's key details and...
Curated OER
Media Literacy Analyzed
Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...
Curated OER
Teach Ancient Greece!
“We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless but as a useless character.” Pericles’ comment, part of a funeral speech, sets the tone for a unit study of Ancient Greece. A series of activities...
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
PSE Character Education: Respect
Every healthy classroom community is built on a foundation of respect. Through whole group discussions, shared readings, and collaborative activities this lesson plan teaches children how to be respectful of one another, making for a...
Smithsonian Institution
The Sounds of an Island: Jamaican Music for the Classroom
Introduce young explorers to the music and history of Jamaican culture through game songs and dances. As a bonus, class members get to play simple songs transcribed for the recorder.