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Learning from Letters and Other Mail
Students explore the history of our mail system. In this postal lesson plan, students evaluate mail as a means of communication, create a mail system in their classroom where they can send and receive mail. Once the students receive...
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Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions instructional activity, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This instructional...
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Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students identify the plant parts and bee structures that are involved in pollination. They simulate pollination in a group activity and process the information.
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Japan: Images of a People
Students learn the geography of Japan and its location in reference to the United States.
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JAPAN, IMAGES A PEOPLE
Students interpret Japanese and American paintings; evaluate paintings as sources of cultural and historical information
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Views of the American West: True or False?
High schoolers explain that a landscape painting may or may not accurately represent a specific place. They identify techniques that create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface.
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Dinosaurs Were Real!
Students investigate the history of dinosaurs, as real animals. In this dinosaur lesson plan, students examine basic concepts that help them understand the history of all life. Included in this article is information on the world of the...
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Taking Pills Isn't the Answer
Students explore performance-related drug use. In this health journalism instructional activity, students read the USA Today article titled "Taking Pills Isn't the Answer", respond to discussion questions regarding the article,...
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Let's Get Moving
Students participate in sports activities that relate to motion, velocity and momentum. They produce a PowerPoint presentation after researching the activities.
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Careers in Health
Middle schoolers will identify several professions in the healthcare field along with the characteristics of effective healthcare providers. They will also consider if any of the occupations covered in class are appropriate career paths....
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Creatures from Planet X: Spiders
Students are given a description of some fascinating animals from "Planet X". They follow the descriptions given to illustrate one of these animals paying careful attention to introduced vocabulary such as 'appendages', 'receptors', and...
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Lewis and Clark: The Language of Discovery
Young scholars replicate some of the trailblazing methods of Lewis and Clark on a fifteen-minute "writing journey" through the school or neighborhood.
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Animal Encounters
Young scholars use their visualizing and interpreting skills to produce original writings and artwork.
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How Things Fly
Students observe photographs of selected twentieth-century aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum and note differences in the design of aircraft wings, fuselages, and engines.
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Stories of the Wrights' Flight
Learners examine and compare primary and secondary source accounts of the Wright brothers' first flights on December 17, 1903.
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Money Talks
Students move from fact finding to interpretation as they examine paper money from the time of the American Revolution. In the final exercise, they use the issue dates of the bills to construct a chronology of political changes during...
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Pictures Telling Stories
Students see the importance of primary sources in the study of history, but also the limitations of relying only on primary sources of taking the money, as it were, at face value.
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The Rocky Shore
Students compare a realistic landscape painting with a photograph of the same place.
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Spy on a Spider
Pupils view slides or live specimens to name and describe the distinguishing features of groups of arthropods, especially spiders and insects. They complete worksheets, observe webs and then search for and record where spiders can be...
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Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
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Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students make deductions about life in an internment camp by reading and comparing letters written to Clara Breed. Along the way, they consider the advantages of looking at a historical event from the multiple points of view of...
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Baga Drum
Students examine a Baga Drum in order to explore the history of the Baga people of West Africa. In this art history lesson, students recognize figures used in Baga Drum design that represent aspects of Baga culture. They also design and...
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Lance Armstrong: Racing for His Life
Students explore the courage and determination of a cancer survivor. They explore the effects of the disease on Armstrong's life and career, and they witness the strength of an American hero who refused to quit.