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Lesson Plan: Carving Through History
Peek into the art and history of ancient Mexico by analyzing the artifact Stone Serpent Heads. Learners examine images of the piece, discuss its origin, history, and significance. They experience the carving process by creating similar...
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Lesson: Unmonumental: Yesterday's News
Upper graders are tasked with developing a social consciousness as they analyze the impact of the news media. They view a presentation depicting various media events in order to understand threshold moments in history. There are three...
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Lesson: Younger Than Jesus: Understanding, Looking at, Making Abstract Art
Before the class makes abstract art, they see contemporary examples and analyze them. They look at art made by abstract artists under the age of 33 then use similar techniques to create an interesting collection of their own. The lesson...
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Lesson Plan: Becoming an Animal
The Kwakwaka'wakw are indigenous people from Vancouver Island and British Columbia. The class analyzes a Kwakwak'wakw ceremonial mask, how it was used, and its cultural significance. They then create animal masks representing their...
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Harvesting Mosaics
Students use pieces of farm pictures to investigate the elements of art. In this farm art instructional activity, students use pieces of pictures to create an original artwork. Students use the Internet to find images. Students create...
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Recreate the Race
Learners research and find the route of the Alaskan dog sled race.In this Iditarod race lesson students find the checkpoints for the Iditarod on a map. Learners research information in pairs about each one of the checkpoints. Students...
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Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Middle schoolers read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. In this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using the...
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The Roots of Prohibition: Examining the Effort to Prohibit Alcohol in America
Five segements from Ken Burns' documentary series Prohibition, easily accessed on the PBS website, are at the center of a terrific short unit on the roots of America's ambivalent relationship with alcohol. Engage your secondary class...
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Lesson: Skin Fruit: Ideas of Empathy in Janine Antoni's Work
Kids get artistic as they explore the impact of art materials, sculpture, and performance. They discuss the work of Janine Antoni and then create a performance piece that reflects social or global issues they feel strongly about. The end...
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Political Asylum Talk Show
Learners view videos, visit websites, and read about the nature and changes made to the idea of political asylum. Beginning with Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, they will explore policy change throughout the years. The lesson...
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We Are Unique - Yet Also Alike
How about four engaging lessons all related to bringing cultural awareness into the classroom through the arts? Sound tempting? Sixth graders will reflect on the art, storytelling, and music of various cultures, and how each transmits...
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Freezing Point Depression
Students create ice cream in a zipped bag and measure the temperature of a salt/ice mixture. They discover how salt lowers the temperature necessary to freeze ice to a solid (below 0'C).
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A New Life, a New Home
Students connect with an immigration unit through research, journal writing, digital photography, and a movie production using iMovie. By acting out the immigrant's experience, students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of...
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Literature Through Silent Movies
Students participate in an engaging, alternative assessment activity: making a silent film of an Edgar Allen Poe story. This project offers them an additional way to demonstrate their mastery of the topic.
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Civil Rights Video Essay
Students investigate a decade of American history when the civil rights movement was a focus of national attention. They create a video essay about a person or event that played an important role in shaping the civil rights movement.
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Along the Birdhouse Trail
Students set up and maintain birdhouses on the school grounds in an effort to witness and capture (through video and photos) the major stages in the life cycle of cavity-nesting birds.
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Life Through Time: The Heart of the Phanerozoic
Students gain a deeper understanding of geological time and the evolution of life on Earth. They use iMovie to tell a complex story of a discrete time period with narration and images.
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Watershed Documentary
Students research and produce an iMovie documentary about the human and natural history of a stream basin (watershed).
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Movie Books- Children's Stories
Students use iMovie to write, illustrate, and narrate a movie book to bring their story alive visually and capture the interest of and inspire nonreaders at their school.
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Protest Music Video
Students use iMovie to express the meaning and context of a protest song from the '60s or '70s. They explore different views of the protest movement and gain an understanding of the emotional and political overtones of the times.
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Rights and Responsibilities in History
Students work cooperatively as they do research, produce written and visual materials, and compile their findings in an iMovie project that is both logically coherent and artistically compelling.
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Sound/Story
Students combine creativity with the rigor of careful editing by adding music to their story. It forces them to focus on how they communicate the meaning of their story to the listener.
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Miras, Mirrors, and Kaleidoscopes!
Learners use hands-on activities to explore transformations. They view a video segment that demonstrate how M. C. Escher employed geometry and transformations to create so many of his famous drawings.
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Ego Trip- Exploring the Inner Workings of the Human Body
Students gain an understanding of how systems and organs in the human body work. They create their own fictional account of a trip through the human body, and describe one response the body makes to stimuli.