Facing History and Ourselves
Bio-poem: Connecting Identity and Poetry
Writing a bio-poem is a great way to have young scholars go below the surface and reflect on who or what has made them who they are. Check out this richly detailed lesson that provides step-by-step directions for crafting a bio-poem.
Amani Project
Write a CoronaKindness Song
And the beat goes on! Finding a way to connect during the isolation imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic can be challenging. This activity from the Amani Project offers a way to stay close during a time of physical distancing....
Amani Project
Harmony Break! Finding Emotions With Music
Gather the entire family (or class members) for a fun Harmony Break! A volunteer thinks of a color from their Mood Meter that they will express by singing, playing an instrument, or performing a dance. After the performance, the audience...
Amani Project
Harmony Break! Mood Shifting
The fifth activity in the Amani Project series, another Harmony Break, has participants demonstrate a mood shift. They begin by drumming in a way that indicates their current feelings. They then model a change in mood by transitioning...
Amani Project
Harmony Break! Mood Meter Floor Board
The big idea in the fourth lesson from the Amani Project is that people can experience different emotions in precisely the same event. One participant uses their body to express an emotion. Then other participants move to the area of the...
Amani Project
Teach the Mood Meter
The third activity from the Amani Project has youths create a Mood Meter. The colorful meter, divided into red, yellow, blue, and green squares, lets participants indicate not only how they are feeling but also permits them to indicate...
Amani Project
The 5 Elements of Music
A series of activities teach young musicians that they don't need a room full of instruments to make music. The second activity in the Amani Project has participants use their hands, feet, and voices to demonstrate the five elements of...
Amani Project
Make an Instrument
Create a little harmony with Amani Project! Young musicians create their instruments using found or recycled objects. As an introduction, class members first experiment with sounds they can make with their bodies (clapping, stomping...
NASA
Pop! Rocket Launcher
How do I build a launcher to launch paper rockets? A teacher reference provides directions in order to build a rocket launcher out of PVC pipe and a two-liter bottle. The plans also contain directions on how to use the launcher.
Maryland Department of Education
The Moon Seems to Change: Phases of the Moon
Use Eric Carle's sweet book, Papa, Please get the Moon for Me to learn about phases of the moon. Young schholars use a moon template calendar to chart moon phases for a month, sing lunar phase chants, and create a delicious visual...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Word Checkers
Young scholars practice reading high-frequency words by playing word checkers. They use the provided checker mat and checkers to read their way to the other side of the mat, making a less stressful way to provide necessary practice.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phoneme Feud
This is a phoneme feud! A literacy game that is very similar to the classic card game War! has partners challenging each other for the most phonemes. They place one picture card face-up at a time and segment the phonemes aloud. Whoever...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phoneme Dominoes
Unlike regular dominoes, these have pictures of simple objects. Images are matched (like pig and plant) based on their initial phonemic sound. Learners will have fun playing and saying various words, matching initial letter sounds as...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Sentence Game
How many words do you hear? As you introduce the way sentences are made up of words, this listening game offers an excellent independent practice opportunity. Kids take turns with a partner as they listen to a sentence twice, counting...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Picture Slide
Here is another fun and engaging way to help youngsters build phonological awareness. In pairs, they use the provided picture cards to sound out segments of words. As they slide the picture together they say a segment of the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Word Blender
Little learners will love being able to blend sounds together to make words. This game provides eight onsets and eight rimes that can be used to mix and match to sound out words. This activity is to be completed in pairs and is a great...
Florida Center for Reading Research
One Card Out
Remember the song, "One of These Things is not Like The Other?" Well, this phonemic awareness activity is just like that. The only difference is that learners work to determine which initial phoneme is not like the others on the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Final Phoneme Pyramid
Little learners identify final phonemes found in various words. They play a game where they pick a card, say the name of the object on the card, identify the final phoneme, then match it to an image with the same final phoneme. Whoever...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Pocket Rhymes
Rhyming is fun and it helps build phonological awareness that is key in early reading. Learners use a pocket chart and a set of 40 cards that make 20 rhyming sets to practice recognizing rhyming words. Peer one picks a card from a bag...
US National Archives
Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony was willing to break the law to gain voting rights for women. Young historians investigate Anthony's willingness to go to jail to draw attention to the suffrage movement. They read and discuss primary source documents to...
DocsTeach
The Amendment Process: Ratifying the 19th Amendment
The process for adding an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is long and arduous, by design. High School historians study a series of documents about the Nineteenth Amendment and, using an interactive program, drag the documents onto a...
DocsTeach
Women of Color and the Fight for Women's Suffrage
Introduce young historians to primary source analysis with a lesson that teaches them how to use a four-step process to analyze a photograph of a 1913 Suffrage Parade. Groups practice the process and share their observations with the...
DocsTeach
Fannie Lou Hamer and Voting Rights
To understand the challenges Black voters faced in Mississippi, middle schoolers first gather background information about Fannie Lou Hamer and then read her testimony given during the 1964 Democratic Nation Convention. After a...
University of California
Maurya Connections
While many can name important European explorers, the Maurya empire and its role in building global trade is often neglected in world history curricula. Expand teaching on ancient India topic. Resource set includes ancient texts, such as...