Curated OER
Mystery Jars
This is a twist on the old "guess how many jellybeans" game. Using estimation and math skills, learners participate in a fun "mystery jars" activity, trying to make educated guesses at how many objects are in two jars. The basic activity...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Sargent Art
Picasso and Beyond!
After reviewing the life and art of Pablo Picasso, learners set out to create abstract, cubist, relief portraits. They'll draw, color, paint, and cut out portraits just like the ones Picasso created. The lesson is extremely well written...
Curated OER
Measuring Pumpkins and Our World
Students estimate the circumference of a pumpkin. They measure the pumpkin and other school objects, and record the measurements on worksheets.
Curated OER
Applied Science - Science and Math Lab
Create three dimensional objects in an applied science lesson plan. The goal is for your class to recognize, compare, and model shapes. Using cookie cutters and clay or play dough, they create models for three-dimensional shapes.
Curated OER
From Curiosity Cabinet to Museum Collection
Students study binomial nomenclature and museum-based research. They create a curiosity box, label the objects in their curiosity box , develop a classification scheme for the objects, and create a database of all objects collected by...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Kingdom Animalia: Classifying Animals
Six lessons, extension activities, and an assessment make up a series of lessons curated to reinforce the concept of classifying animals. Each informative and interactive lesson attributes to the knowledge of the seven levels of...
Rainforest Alliance
My Forest or the Rainforest?
The differences between tropical and temperate rainforests range from animals and flowers to climate and landscapes. Kindergarteners compare and contrast characteristics of their local forest to a tropical rainforest.
Noyce Foundation
Boxes
Teach your class to think outside the box. Scholars use the concept of equality to solve a problem in the assessment task. They determine how to use a scale to identify the one box out of a set of nine boxes that is heavier than the others.
Perkins School for the Blind
More or Less
The concept of more or less is one that needs to be mastered prior to learning other concepts such as quantitative analysis, addition, or subtraction. This activity provides several ways to teach learners with low or no vision to...
NASA
Space-Based Astronomy on the Internet
Young scientists compile everything they have learned into a report in the fifth and final lesson in a unit on the visible light spectrum. Access to photos from observatories, telescopes, and satellites allows learners to compare and...
Center for Learning in Action
Density
Explore the concept of density within states of matter—gases, liquids, and solids—through a group experiment in which young scientists test objects' texture, color, weight, size, and ability to sink or float.
Curated OER
Spoonfuls, Cupfuls and Handfuls
Explore the use of non-standard units for measuring volume with elementary learners. They fill a container and count the number used using cups, spoons, and bottles, build with blocks and count the number of blocks used, and compare and...
PreKinders
Pre-K Assessment Forms
This is a Pre-K teacher's must-have resource for pre-assessing learners at the beginning of the school year! Covering everything from alphabet recognition and sorting objects to social-emotional development and work habits, this resource...
It's About Time
Push or Pull - Adding Vectors
Demonstrate Newton's Second Law of Motion with an engaging lesson. Individuals explore the difference between forces in relation to a push or a pull, and they identify various forces that cause an object to move. They explore the concept...
College Board
Using the Java Collections Hierarchy
Collect a set of collections. Professional development material provides teachers with information about collections that are in AP Computer Science. Materials include teaching strategies, sample labs, and worksheets. Educators use the...
Curated OER
Estimate Length
Without measuring, can estimators determine which string is the longest? The shortest? There are two sets of strings here for learners to evaluate, circling the shortest in the first set and the longest in the second. Next, they eyeball...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Long
It won't take young mathematicians long to learn how to measure length with this fun, hands-on activity. Working in pairs, children use Unifix® or snap cubes to measure and record the lengths of different classroom objects. To extend the...
Inside Mathematics
Marble Game
Pupils determine the theoretical probability of winning a game of marbles. Individuals compare the theoretical probability to experimental probability for the same game. They continue on to compare two different probability games.
California Academy of Science
Dry My Laundry!
Meant to be a pre-field trip activity, this can also serve as a cute and simple activity to use when your little ones are learning about evaporation or surface area. The children cut tiny t-shirts out of paper towel material, wet them,...
It's About Time
Polymers
All plastics contain polymers, but not all polymers are plastic. Young chemists make their own polymer and compare the properties to those of other states of matter. After a reading passage, pupils answer analysis questions about natural...
Curated OER
Cubed Containers
Learners explore volume in relation to centimeter cubes and other nonstandard units of measurement using small containers. They will use hands-on materials to practice this concept. You will need small objects and containers to set this up.
Teach Engineering
What Floats Your Boat?
Clay's as good a material as any to build a boat, right? An introductory lesson sets the stage for two activities associated with buoyancy. The first involves building boats out of clay, while the second uses these boats to measure the...
Curated OER
Action-Reaction! Rocket
Students construct a rocket from a balloon propelled along a guide string. They use this model to learn about Newton's three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket. They measure the distance...