Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Analyze the free-writing method of brainstorming to explore how to write an essay. Middle schoolers plan their writing from the beginning after reading two samples of free-writing, then creating their own. The lesson includes extension...
Curated OER
What Does Your First Day of Winter Look Like?
Students brainstorm the characteristics of winter. Using an email program, they share their characteristics of winter with those in another part of the country. They compare and contrast each letter they receive with their own criteria...
Curated OER
The First Amendment
Students participate in a mock trial. Given the scenario, students prepare a cases concerning the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to assemble. In groups, students prepare an opening and closing statement, as well...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part II), The Geology of Oil
More of a mini-unit than a lesson, these activities lead inquisitors through a survey of oil deposits. In the first part, they read about and view diagrams of sedimentary rock layers that trap oil. Next, they test porosity and...
Clark County School District
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
A thorough lesson plan takes your first grade class through Jane Yolen's beautiful Owl Moon. It crafts the unit with clear objectives, high-level guiding questions, cloze activities and sentence frames, and extension...
Curated OER
Health Database Lesson Plan
Third graders demonstrate the ability to identify personal health needs. They classify foods from the school lunch menus into the correct food groups. A database file is created. They determine if the school lunch menu offers a balanced...
Perkins School for the Blind
Making Choices
Here is an excellent and well-developed lesson intended to promote choice-making skills for learners with visual impairment and intellectual disabilities. It fosters choice-making skills through a soft version of discrete trial training,...
Curated OER
Properties of Useful Carbon Compounds
Nine action-packed organic chemistry exercises are contained in this mini-unit on carbon containing compounds. Examples include constructing models of alkanes, producing aromatic esters, and preparing pigments for paint and dyes....
Curated OER
Air Resistance and Friction
Physics learners experiment with three laboratory activities to learn about air resistance and friction. First, they use a hair dryer to move different sized spheres to determine the relationship between cross-sectional area and air...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black...
Curated OER
Jim Murphy, The Great Fire - Grade 6
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy provides the text for a study of the Chicago fire of 1871. The plan is designed as a close reading activity so that all learners have the same background information require for writing. Richly detailed, the...
Perkins School for the Blind
Beginning Map Skills
Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...
Curated OER
First Grade, First Grade, What Do You See?
First graders read the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin, Jr. and work cooperatively to create an online book about their geographic region. Books can be posted on the internet with other books from around...
Curated OER
Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
Curated OER
Goal-O Bingo
While playing a long-term game of Goal-O Bingo, your class will practice replacing unkind words with kind ones. First, read Casey and Amazing Giant Green Shirt by Margaret Ross. Then have your class write down 25 goals they would...
Curated OER
Let's Play Outside!
Here are 14 games for you to bring to summer camp, a neighborhood gathering, or a birthday party!
Curated OER
End of the Year Lesson Plans and Activities
End of the year lesson plans can help you and your students finish the year right.
Baylor College
Can Nutrients in Water Cause Harm?
Ecology candidates culture pond water organisms over a few days time, then they experiment to find out how increasing nutrients affects the population. As part of a unit on water, this exploration gives your class an understanding of how...
Discovery Education
STEM Camp—Urban Infrastructure
Build a bridge to learning in a STEM-aligned unit about urban infrastructure. Young engineers explore the many aspects of civil planning and design in a five-day unit. Content includes the challenging aspects of balancing building with...
Curated OER
Play House
Students explore U.S. government by participating in a role playing activity. For this House of Representatives lesson, students discuss the first day of congress and the role the House plays in running the United States. Students define...
Teach Engineering
The Energy Problem
Think you can solve the energy problem? You'll first need to know about current energy use. Analyzing a set of circle graphs lets scholars see where energy consumption is the greatest, both by sector and by household use. They develop a...
Curated OER
The Marvels of Mud
Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine...
Curated OER
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
In this online interactive Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry activity, learners respond to 14 multiple choice reading comprehension questions regarding the book.
Annenberg Foundation
Controversial Issues in Practice
Wow! This resource provides three related lessons on the First Amendment that challenge US government students to explore their personal opinion on the separation of church and state. Each lesson can be adjusted in length, but is...