Curated OER
Elements of Culture
Sixth graders work in small groups to research an ancient culture using guide questions. They use note-taking and research skills, and organize their research information using a software graphic organizer program. They create a museum...
Curated OER
Wanted: Only the Facts!
Learners apply three steps to summarizing successfully (delete trivial and redundant material, replace superordinate terms with a list or action term, and invent a topic sentence.) Through guided practice, they follow these rules in...
Curated OER
Shhh! Quiet!
Students become aware that when certain letters are put together in a word they are said with a single mouth move. Through modeling and a variety of guided practice activities they explore the /sh/ phoneme. They read and identify 'sh'...
Curated OER
Cave Painting in the Ice Age
Students take notes and sketch during the Internet research. They take notes of the colors found in the cave paintings (black, browns, ochre, sienna). They create an initial full size comprehensive sketch on scrap paper and in their...
Curated OER
Drawing Into the Imagination
Sixth graders examine the work of artist Saul Steinberg by visiting online galleries of his work and looking at photo reproductions. After viewing and interpreting Steinberg's work, they write and illustrate fantasy stories which are...
Curated OER
Construct with Solids
Students discover which properties of solids lend themselves to building a tower through hands on trial and error and observation of others as they are building. They write down the steps it took them to build the tower and label an...
Curated OER
Technology: The State of the Internet
Young scholars develop ratings criteria for evaluating Websites. Once they brainstorm lists of qualities for Websites, students, in pairs, browse various Maine Websites and create evaluation systems. As a follow-up activity, young...
Curated OER
Spirit of Enquiry
The lesson includes guided questions to help students to think about their own behavior and purpose in life. They do this through a quiet time of reflection that can include the writing of ideas. Then students act out a play to...
Curated OER
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
In this story structure lesson, students read the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and identify the characters, setting and main themes of the book. They answer a list of study questions about the book.
Novelinks
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers: Literary Mandala
Explore the concept of yin and yang with this resource. On the first page, learners study a picture of George Bush. Then, have learners choose a character from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. After brainstorming adjectives and choosing...
Curated OER
Exploring the Personal Narrative
Students define the characteristics of a personal narrative, explain the difference between a 'memoir' and an 'autobiography', and create a reading journal in which they will log their reading activities. For this personal narrative...
Jessica Winston
Tacky and the Winter Games
Helen Lester's wonderfully wacky, Tacky and the Winter Games, is the core text featured in a resource packet that includes a prediction exercise, an activity menu, vocabulary flash cards, and book review worksheet. A great way to cheer...
Curated OER
Interpreting Graphs and Analyzing Data
Students investigate graphs and analyze the data displayed in the graph. They read a graph reflecting the birthday data for the students to read and analyze. Students use the graph to determine the number of birthday cards they need to...
Curated OER
Dawdle Duckling
Students read the book Dawdle Duckling and complete different activities about the book. Students research the wetlands, research ducks, complete an oil and water experiment, map a cove, and more.
Curated OER
Scientists Breed See-Through Frogs
Students participate in a pre-reading activity, then read a news article about the breeding of transparent frogs. In this biology and current events instructional activity, the teacher introduces the article with a question and a...
Physics Classroom
As the Crow Flies Lab
A simple, yet memorable, way of practicing with displacement vectors is described here. Divide your class into groups and assign each a different landmark on campus. They measure smaller legs of the path from the classroom to their...
Curated OER
Under Construction
Young readers examine the elements of story structure that are included in all stories. They include these elements in their own written pieces. This phenomenally-designed plan has everything you need to easily implement it in your...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Curated OER
Baby Elephant Orphans Get New Home, Families
Students react to a series of statements about elephants, then read a news article about how workers at an elephant orphanage are working to return the animals to the wild. In the animal studies and current events lesson, the teacher...
Curated OER
Soda to be Absent from Schools
Should schools serve soda to students? Learners read an artlcle that argues against the sale of soda in schools and engage in a class discussion. They then complete a short assessment to check for comprehension and reflect on the...
Curated OER
Gold Rush California and its Diverse Population
Young scholars compare contemporary cultural differences with historical differences based on population percentage. In this cross-curriculum Gold Rush/math lesson, students analyze aspects of California's Gold Rush population and...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 2
Ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM. The force will be strong in the hearts of your young Jedi as they use their lightsabers to strike the accentted syllables in lines from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New...
Curated OER
Gary Paulsen's Canyons: Question the Author (QtA) Strategy
Gary Paulsen’s Canyons is the focus of an exercise that models how to read closely using a Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy. Complete directions for the strategy, which can be used with any text, are included in the richly-detailed...
Novelinks
The Giver: Reading Road Map
Sometimes it's helpful to read certain passages in a novel slowly and carefully, and to read other parts more quickly to move the plot along. Learners tread carefully through Chapter 20 of Lois Lowry's The Giver, noting which parts need...