Curated OER
Ships 2: What Floats Your Boat?
Students design, build, and test the specifications (water displacement and load line) for a model boat. The lesson focuses especially on integrating design principles with inquiry-based experimental skills.
Wildwood Trust
Habitats
The circle of life is all around us, from the black bears in the nearby mountains to the pile of dead leaves in the backyard. Encourage young scientists to take a critical look at the world around them with a set of lessons...
Curated OER
Writing Pourquoi Tales
Complete research on Pourquoi tales and then lead your students in creating their own. This instructional activity accompanies another on Pourquoi Tales on our site and deals more with the writing process. Your class will put the tales...
Texas Instruments
Collaborating on Flashback
Explore a flashback in a story with readers. They will read a story, identify the flashback in the story, then evaluate how the flashback is used. Using the NoteFolio, students analyze the meaning and merit of a flashback in a story....
Curated OER
Alphabet Poems
Develop fluency with a variety of works. Help kindergartners use multiple strategies to understand text and decoding. They will create an alphabet poem book on Kid Works 2 to illustrate and write their own poem. In the end, they will...
Film Foundation
The Day The Earth Stood Still: The Filmmaking Process
How are films made? As part of their study of film, middle schoolers investigate the pre-production, production, and post-production process and consider the role of the director, the screenwriter, production designer, cinematographer,...
Curated OER
Cheerful Hearts and Willing Feet
Students explore characterization in Little Women. In this literature instructional activity, students participate in written analysis and research in order to explore Alcott's characterization in the novel.
Penguin Books
The Curriculum Guide for The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer
The death of a parent can turn a child's world upside down. A curriculum guide for The Secret Hum of a Daisy explores defining moments in the main character's life, including the loss of her mother. Chapter-by-chapter discussion...
Curated OER
Letters from Emily Dickinson: Letters and Poems
Students analyze how Emily Dickinson perceived herself as a poet. Students read correspondence between Dickinson and her preceptor, Mr. Higginson to determine the depths of their relationship. Students interpret several of her poems.
Curated OER
What's in a Sentence? Getting to Know the Parts of Speech
What a kick! After examining the definitions and looking at examples of the different parts of speech, partners work together on a retelling of a famous nursery rhyme. For each sentence, they must select a word that matches the part of...
Curated OER
Nonfiction Genre Mini-Unit: Persuasive Writing
Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.
Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
Poetry Lesson Plans
Need some ideas for poetry lessons? Check out this packet loaded with suggestions for elementary, middle, and high school writers.
Prestwick House
Into the Wild
Chris McCandless's life, adventures, and untimely death is the subject of Jon Krakauer's nonfiction work, Into the Wild. A thorough crossword puzzle includes quotes, characters, and key details from the book as clues.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sentence Structure of Technical Writing
Most teachers and scholars look for a way to simplify information. Informational how-to slides simplify the process of technical writing into a step-by-step process. Learners gather information on what to do, as well as what to avoid....
Pace University
The Harlem Renaissance - The Journey to Freedom: An Interdisciplinary
The Harlem Renaissance if the focus of a carefully crafted, interdisciplinary unit designed to introduce middle schoolers to the contributions key figures made to American art and culture during the period. Class members select...
Curated OER
Picture Yourself in an Ornament
Students create an ornament with their photo inside of it. To create the personal memento, students observe demonstrations and follow directions. Students experience making a craft and giving the memento to a family member.
Curated OER
Mastermind
Students observe the differences and similarities between "masterpieces" and mass-produced objects. They analyze the value of masterpieces and mass-produced items. Students persuade panel members to accept items that they recommend into...
Curated OER
Manifest Destiny
Young scholars explore the Manifest Destiny. They interpret quotations, study point of view in writing, research English words that derived from Mexico, and analyze reasons why settlers moved west. After writing journal entries in...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Dancing With the Indians
Students read Dancing With the Indians by Angela Shelf Medearis. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the study of Native American festivals and traditions. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing,...
Curated OER
Making a Leprechaun Trap
How do you trap a Leprechaun? Young scholars will use their knowledge of force and motion to make working leprechaun traps.
Curated OER
Proud to Be Me Mobile
Student create mobiles to promote self-awareness and discovery. In this creative hands-on mobile lesson, students use large star patterns to create a mobile that reflects a theme they've chosen, representing something about themselves....
Curated OER
MAKE A PINATA
Students create a sculpture with a theme using a balloon and flour and water paste.
Curated OER
Beautiful Butterflies
Students use coffee filters, pipe cleaners and markers to create butterflies.
Curated OER
Crazy Hair
Students decorate small styrofoam cups with faces and plant grass seeds in the cups in this Science and Art lesson for the early-elementary classroom. Emphasis is placed upon the science of seed growth. The lesson includes resource links.