Curated OER
Music: Caterpillars, How They Grow!
Put on some music and get moving as a way to represent the life cycle of a caterpillar. Kids listen to the story The Very Hungary Caterpillar, discuss the life cycle, then create vocal expression that represent each stage of the cycle....
EngageNY
Launching the Performance Task: Prompt, Characters, Groups
Scholars unpack the word confession as they prepare to write confessionals based on characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Next, they read their narratives to a small group of peers as part of a final performance task.
Teach Engineering
Energy Forms, States and Conversions
Even magicians can't make energy disappear. In a discussion-based instructional activity, young scientists learn about energy forms and conversions. They see how energy is neither created nor destroyed; it just changes forms. This is the...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Drafting a Historical Fiction Narrative Based on Expert Trades
Young historians use their planning graphic organizer to prepare a personal narrative draft on expert trades. Since the instructional activity is considered the mid-unit assessment, learners respond to a writing prompt related to the...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 5: The Tragic Hero
Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...
Curated OER
Producing Beats
Turn your classroom into a music studio as groups work together to determine why music sounds different when performed live versus a recording. After listening to some different music, each group picks a poem, creates a recording, and...
Mathalicious
On Your Mark
With many factors leading to a great athlete, does height make Usain Bolt unfairly fast? Middle schoolers conduct analysis to change the running distance of the Olympic races to be proportional to the height of the participants. They...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education students, this resource provides reading comprehension,...
Curated OER
Performance into Art
Students explore two works of art of performance art. In this performance art lesson, students analyze performance art in the examples of Yves Klein and Joseph Beuys. Students complete image based discussion activities. Students research...
Curated OER
Colorful Indicators
Young chemists learns about acids and bases by coming up with a solution that will test for each. They also access the Internet to perform research. They are encouraged to contact students in other schools by conducting the experiment at...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Musical Myths
Create musical myths in this West African tales lesson. Middle schoolers read myths from African Myths and Legends as well as West African Trickster Tales. They note when music could be used to enhance the tales, and then write their own...
NYSU
Understand a Fraction as a Number on a Number Line
Piece by piece young scholars build a basic understanding of fractions in a Common Core-designed elementary math lesson plan. Through a series of hands-on activities and journaling exercises, and with the help of multiple...
Curated OER
Welcome To Ella Fitzgerald: the Singer Not the Song
Learners study the life and musical works of Ella Fitzgerald. They investigate how technology influences art using this series of web and video based lessons. They create their own melodies.
Curated OER
Music Lesson Plan for Teaching Children with (Severe) Autism
Here's a packet of music activities designed specifically for children with autism. Kids learn greeting, echo, and repertory songs, as well as rhythmic patterns to play rhythm instruments.
Film Foundation
To Kill a Mockingbird: What Is a Movie?
The challenge film makers face when creating a film based on a novel or nonfiction text is the focus of a interdisciplinary resource that uses To Kill a Mockingbird to teach viewers how to read the visual images of film. A must-have...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing Using the Book Rumpelstiltskin
Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...
Texas Woman’s University
Patterns, Patterns Everywhere!
Not only is pattern recognition an essential skill for young children to develop, it's also a lot of fun to teach! Over the course of this lesson, class members participate in shared readings, perform small group activities, and complete...
VH1
Lesson 4: Behind the Movie Chicago
The elements of music and journalistic integrity in one instructional activity; What could be better? The class discusses journalistic approaches to better understand responsible reporting versus sensationalism. They watch the Act One...
Curated OER
Lesson 2- Spanish Greeting
Break down a quick conversation in Spanish. After the teacher presents the vocabulary, the class heads to the computer lab, where class members can watch a brief interactive video. The visual is one clip separated into four clearly...
California Department of Education
Slap Tubes, Flutes, and Xylophones: The Physics of Pipe-Based Instruments
It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...
Curated OER
Lesson: Double Album: Sentence as Thought
The cut-up technique invented by surrealist artist Tristan Tzara is the focus for today. Young artists examine the technique and analyze its use in relation to expressing and viewing the world. They then use a newspaper to create a...
Curated OER
Lesson: Looking Closer: The Artwork of Martha Rosler
Have a class discussion to better understand the art of Martha Rosler. Young art critics consider Martha's art as it is used to express issues of political unrest and social awareness. They look at each of the five images and use the...
Curated OER
Performance Poppers
Students examine the controversies surrounding the use of performance-enhancing supplements in sports by interviewing athletes and writing feature articles that compare the skills required to compete in different sports.
Science 4 Inquiry
Musical Vibes with Palm Pipes
Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...