Curated OER
Butterfly Camouflage
Fifth graders discuss camouflage and warnings by butterflies as a class. Students design and color their own butterflies that they are to place somewhere in the classroom. Students explain why their butterfly is colored the way that it...
Curated OER
What Boat Designs Float the Best?
Fifth graders investigate buoyancy by conducting a science experiment. In this water properties lesson, 5th graders predict which of their different paper boat designs will float for the longest period. Students conduct the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The Living Symbol
This lesson plan presents both the real events of Washington's life and the legends that persist about him. Young scholars examine how the legends relate to reality, how they grew, and what effect they have on American culture.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Lowdown: Brief History of the First Earth Day and What We Can Learn From Its Success Lesson Plan
Earth Day grew out of the environmental movement in the late 1960s in response to a series of environmental disasters that took lives, marred natural beauty and threatened animal species. An estimated 20 million Americans participated in...
Read Works
Readworks: Read Aloud Lesson: Stellaluna
Compare Stellaluna's experience of living like a bird with her experience of living like a bat. Included in this lesson are a detailed lesson plan, a graphic organizer, and a student worksheet.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: m.l. King, Jr.: Identifying With a Hero
Lesson that attempts to help younger students understand and identify with Martin Luther King, Jr. through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities. Encourages students to attempt to live out King's "Dream," in their own lives.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
This instructional activity helps young scholars study life in the United States in the years before the Civil War. Students will gain a better understanding of why people grew willing to fight to defend their way of life. Many of the...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: America at the Centennial
A lesson plan requiring student to analyze primary documents from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Students interpret what these historical artifacts say "about the lives and values of Americans in 1876" among other things.
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: Commemorating 9/11 and America's Civic Values
A lesson plan which breaks down the events of September 11, 2001, particularly drawing attention to the civic responsibilities the victims shared and used to fight back against the terrorism they were living through.