North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies
Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: African Americans in Revolutionary Times
What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and Black...
Curated OER
Clay Wipe Away: Ceramics
Discuss Pre-Colombian South American art with your class, then get out the clay and create some. Pupils practice using the wipe-away technique to create a ceramic tile similar to those made by the Maya. Great web links and a...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Scavenger Word Hunt
Participate in a scavenger hunt to find objects beginning with a particular letter sound and take digital photos of them with your scholars. Using software, they find word pictures beginning with particular letters and locate picture...
Curated OER
Cuisenaire Chefs
Favorite family recipes and cuisenaire rods are used to help learners understand fractions. They bring in recipes from home and then use their cuisenaire rods to model the fractional values needed to prepare various dishes. A great way...
Curated OER
Magnetic Levitation
A thorough investigation of magnetic levitation; this activity has four parts. First, physical scientists play with a wooden dowel and three disc magnets to review polarity and repelling action. Then they experiment with the strength of...
Teach Engineering
Energy Perspectives
The data says ... the resource is great to use. Using Microsoft Excel, pupils analyze data from the US Department of Energy in the fifth lesson of a 25-part Energy Systems and Solutions unit. Each group looks at a different data set and...
Teach Engineering
Energy Conversions
What energy conversions occur in the operation of a device? Small groups investigate devices and the energy conversions that occur. The groups create energy flow diagrams with added conversion processes for each of the devices...
Curated OER
Wagons West: Report
Have your middle schoolers choose a topic about the Oregon Trail to research for an informative report. They are given a list of report ideas and the components required when composing an informational report. Then, they choose one of...
Lakeshore Learning
Five Senses Sorting Game
Hone your senses with a fun educational game. Learners match pictures to each of the five senses before spinning a makeshift wheel, and matching their senses to their spin.
Curated OER
A Little Flossing Goes A Long Way
Students explore how to floss their teeth properly. They observe a demonstration showing that bruising alone is not enough to remove plaque from all tooth surfaces.
Curated OER
The Counting Caterpillar
A daily counting routine builds a caterpillar with 100 body segments (marked with symbols to indicate 2s, 5s, and 10s) by the 100th day of school. Provides structured repetition as part of the morning routine so that by 100th day,...
Curated OER
Catch Me!
Primary learners will listen to a story about leprechauns and discuss what they look like and how they act. Then they will construct leprechaun traps to try and catch one. They must explain how their trap works using complete sentences....
Curated OER
Web It!
Looking for a way to bring prewriting into your informative writing unit? Use this lesson to reinforce writing skills in your eighth grade language arts class. Young writers use a web graphic organizer as a prewriting tool for expository...
Curated OER
Scatter Brain
Examine a coordinated geometry grid to decode the hidden message. Pupils write a coded message to their parents using letter coordinates from the grid.
Curated OER
I Can Use a Worm to Count
Kindergarteners use worms, puppets or other props to practice counting to 100. First, they listen to a read aloud of Count Worms by Roger Hargeaves. A worm pattern is used to count to 100, with each segment of the worm representing a...
Curated OER
Nym Family
List and identify words for each part of the "Nym" family: synonyms, antonyms and homonyms. Middle schoolers place words in the correct category, then find the corresponding mate in a dictionary or thesaurus.
Teach Engineering
Bone Density Challenge Introduction
Can you use X-rays to measure bone mineral density? This is the essential question that learners must answer in the first installment of a seven-part series. They brainstorm ideas about necessary background information and what they...
Curated OER
SIMPLE FABRIC FOLDING FOR HALLOWEEN
Study the fabric folding techniques introduced and lead your class in applying them to quiltmaking, home decorating, fashion design, and other sewing projects. This lesson is geared to making items themed for halloween, but could be...
Curated OER
Block Heads
Students demonstrate whole numbers through one thousand using base ten blocks. They model and describe given numbers using ten blocks.
Curated OER
Writing the Newspaper Article
The class reads several newspaper articles and analyze them for purpose, style, tone, length and organization. They interview each other about important events in their lives and write journalistic articles.
Curated OER
Essential Elements of Habitat
First graders compare their local area with the Belize landscape. They construct maps of the school area, adding descriptive information. They write haiku poems about their favorite outside places.
Curated OER
Lighting The Way - Activity 1
Students discover the "rule of thirds" technique used in photography through the investigation of magazine and newspaper pictures and an in-class discussion. The work of photojournalist Jeff Bizzel is emphasized.
Curated OER
Winter Syllables pg. 2
Come December, practice syllable counting with the appropriate time of year! Using the winter theme, readers identify the winter picture, clap the number of syllables, and place the correct number of cotton balls next to the four...
Curated OER
Animal Babies
In this animals worksheet, students play a matching game much like the game memory where they match the animals to their babies. Students match as many cards as they put out.