Curated OER
Peking Opera Mask
Learners design and create their own masks using the symbolism evident in Peking opera masks.
Curated OER
Celebrate Music In Our Schools Month
Learners celebrate music for a month with a creative project.
Curated OER
Exploring Stereotypes and 19th Century Culture from "The Merry Widow" from the San Francisco Opera
Students view the video of "The Merry Widow". They identify and discuss the plot and theme. They create their own song or poem that describes a problem and performs it in front of the class.
Curated OER
The Cotillion or One Good Bull is Half the Herd, a Black Arts Movement novel by John O. Killens
Students study late twentieth-century African American satirical literature as well as its cultural antecedents. they analyze and discuss, within the contexts of race and gender, the social criticism of the middle classes presented by...
New York City Department of Education
Poetry…Do I Dare?
Whether you're considering a poetry unit or just want to incorporate more poetry in your curriculum, this unit plan is a must-have. Packed with poems, teaching points, powerful prompts, and poetry performance suggestions, the resource is...
Curated OER
It's a Matter of Opinion
Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: Re-envisioning Classic Stories
Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...
John F. Kennedy Center
Folktale Theatre
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
Curated OER
African Folktales
Students study the elements of folktales. They write, perform and produce their own African folktales using camcorders and movie software.
New York City Department of Education
Dance and Text
Use texts and dances to teach inequalities and equations. A sixth-grade unit covers using variables in equations and inequalities to solve problems. Learners show what they know at the end of the unit using two performance tasks, one...
Education.com
Winter Break Survival Kit
Help parents and children survive the long winter break with this collection of fun activities. Offering suggestions for volunteering during the holidays and making family New Year's resolutions, as well as a variety...
Curated OER
The History of The Cyclorama and Moving Panorama
Here is a instructional activity designed to acquaint learners with two amazing forms of entertainment from the 19th century: The Cyclorama and the Moving Panorama. After seeing what these two contraptions were all about, pupils make...
Curated OER
What Does the Public Know About You? --Does it Matter?
Young people today have to be very careful with how they present themselves online. Show them the possible impact of their online activity and what employers might see when performing a basic search. The lesson provides a video clip...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Be a Problem Solving Star
Reach for the STARs! Using the resource, scholars review the STAR (Stop, Think, Act, Review) method and discuss how to use it to solve a math equation. Next, small groups collaborate to solve a common problem in the classroom using the...
Curated OER
Ballet and Classical Music
Fourth graders explore ballet. In this dance and music humanities lesson, 4th graders practice ballet positions and play a card game using French ballet vocabulary. Students count beats in rhythm patterns and listen to classical music...
National Wildlife Federation
Massive Migrations
Turn your students into flocks of migratory birds for this fun lesson on animal migration. Prior to the activity, the teacher creates four different migration routes in the classroom or any available open space, labeling nesting...
Curated OER
Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
Students role play a press conference on Hurricane Georges by acting as interviewers from the press. They research the impact of the hurricane in order base their questions on pertinent information. They present the press conference for...
Curated OER
Making Service Count
Students investigate the importance of community service by creating their own project ideas. In this volunteering lesson, students research stories of Peace Corps Volunteers and how they were able to have a positive effect in...
Missouri Department of Elementary
How I Act Is Who I Am
A lesson centers itself around the topic of family roles. A whole-class discussion uses puppets and posters to go in-depth into the following character traits; caring, responsibility, respect, and cooperation. The discussion closes with...
Curated OER
To Be a Drum
Young scholars use a scene from a book and make it come alive in movie clips.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Conflict Mediation – Part 1: Getting Ready
Two scholars walk into a room arguing, what is happening? Peers observe the two actors in preparation for a whole-class discussion about conflict. Learners establish a conflict, name the three approaches—passive, aggressive, and...
Missouri Department of Elementary
A Stranger Among Us
The final lesson in the R.E.S.PE.C.T series asks eighth graders to expand their vision beyond the walls of the classroom and to consider how they can promote acceptance and respect of others within in the global community. "A Stranger...
Curated OER
Regions of the United States
Your learners practice writing ideas on paper and logically presenting them in an organized manner. They brainstorm ways to write down ideas while creating a travelogue about a particular U.S. geographic region. When they present...