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Pooper Scooper
Science Students build a pooper scooper tool that helps them clean up after a dog without getting their hands dirty or their noses too close. They research the diseases that can be transported through animal waste and work in teams to...
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Preposition House
Identify and use prepositions to describe how objects relate to one another. Each child draws a house and then draws items in, around, on, and under the house to demonstrate different prepositions. Written descriptions accompany their...
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City, County, Community
Students explore issues and situations that make for a city and its local environments. In this local government lesson, students design maps, define issues and create brochures that illustrate their understandings of these concepts and...
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China: Land Beyond the Wall
An excellent series of five lessons on China awaits you and your young geographers. In these lessons, learners engage in hands-on activities, watch streamed video, access websites, and complete activities in cooperative groups in order...
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Are You My Little Peanut?
Fourth graders explore the mass and length of peanuts by pretending to parent a peanut. In this mode, median and range activity students graph their measurements and then use them to find the mode, median and range. Students discuss...
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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...
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Streetfilms' Moving Beyond the Automobile
This is an exceptional series that you can use in an environmental or engineering unit. There are four lessons: "Sustainable Transportation," "Designing for Safety," "Changing the Landscape," and "Engaging in Policy." Each lesson...
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Student News And Weather Channel
Fabulous! Your 5th graders should love this project. As an ongoing lesson throughout the year students use temperature probes to record outside temperature and then document their data using spreadsheets. They use their weather data and...
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Spelling Relay
Looking for a way to review and practice spelling words that's fun and creative? Use this spelling relay activity for any grade level. Using three spelling lists, ranging in difficulty, teams of young spellers choose words from the lists...
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Celebration and Satire
Students analyze 19th-century paintings that depict celebrations in various ways. In this visual arts lesson, students view samples of paintings during the Industrial Revolution and discuss the effects of that time period on society....
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Creating Characters: Movement
Young scholars compare two characters and role-play how they would perform various actions. They view and discuss a video, list opposite descriptions for the two girls in the video, and role-play the opposites.
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Words/Music/Images: Interpretation and Meaning A Motivational Activity
Students explore popular music in its historical context. In this music lesson, students examine the lyrics, musicical arrangement, and video imagery of selected songs to interpret the messages and themes of the songs.
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Families and Neighborhoods
Learners distinguish where their homes are in relation to the city of Pittsburgh. In this geography lesson, students read the book All Families Are Specialand find their city on a map of Pennsylvania. Learners locate Pittsburgh...
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Acceleration Science
In collaborative groups, physics learners design and create a web portfolio of internet resoucres explaining poitive and negative acceleration, zero acceleration, and positive and negative velocity. This is a terrific assignment for...
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City Streets: A Fold-up of a Street Lined with Buildings
After walking in a nearby neighborhood, have your class create this amazing city street pop-up. They study the facades of the buildings they see, focusing on geometric line, shape, and architecture. They then draw, cut, and create a city...
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Shoe Box Turtles
Turtles are the stars of the show in a creative instructional activity designed for very young learners. In it, learners are shown pictures of real turtles. They discuss the shell and the head, then they compare them to other animals....
Dream of a Nation
Big6 Research Project
Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...
Overcoming Obstacles
Getting Organized
If you've ever peeked inside a middle schooler's backpack, you know how valuable a lesson on organization can be. Help class members organize their binders, study habits, and schedules with a set of collaborative activities.
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Getting to Know You
Third graders explore different types of poetry and illustrate their own experiences through creating their own poem. In this getting to know you instructional activity, 3rd graders create and recite their poems with a self-portrait.
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Campaign Ads That Subtract and Add
Young scholars explore media and media misrepresentation of prodcts. They create a video of a person (with both good and bad pictures.) Using creative titles, students download a slideshow. They add sound effects and other Adobe Premiere...
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Amazon Water Cycle Role Play
Students participate in a role play where they play clouds, the ocean, rain drops, and more in order to learn about the water cycle. In this water cycle lesson plan, students have discussions and learn vocabulary.
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Track Traces
Students explore animal characteristics by participating in an animal anatomy activity. In this animal tracks lesson, students identify the differences between specific animals and the shape of their footprints. Students utilize a...
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Virtual Nature Walk
Students use the internet to take a virtual nature walk. Identifying animals found in specific forest habitats, they list their characteristics. They research various animals using the internet and create a PowerPoint slideshow with the...
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Telling Stories: Symbols of a Life
Art and literature can go hand in hand, they both are used to express elements of the self in a creative and interesting way. Budding story tellers interpret and analyze the narrative elements they find in a work of art. They focus on...