Curated OER
Short But Sweet
After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...
Curated OER
City, County, Community
Students explore issues and situations that make for a city and its local environments. In this local government activity, students design maps, define issues and create brochures that illustrate their understandings of these concepts...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
How is Flowing Water an Energy Source? Activity A
Here is a fun little exploration of the potential energy potential of falling water. Learners drop water from various heights using a straw, and they analyze the diameter of the splash. Pair this with two more activities of the same...
National History Day
Uncovering a World at War
Has media always had an influence on public policy? After researching and reading news articles written during World War I, learners understand the influence of communication and media. They discuss articles in small groups and as a...
Curated OER
Hurricane Katrina: You Be the Reporter
Students work in a small group to create news stories, feature stories and editorials/letters to the editor and organize them in a podcast, video-based program, or newspaper/magazine focused on Hurricane Katrina.
Curated OER
Lesson Exchange: Design and make Cents (Elementary, Mathematics)
Sixth graders work in teams to design the perfect bedroom. The teams must create a room that is functional, original, and stays within a budget of $650.
Curated OER
A Colony is Born : Lessons 7 - 10 What's My Line?
Fifth graders research their assigned regions, complete regional guide and prepare presentations about the New World colonists. They refer to "Everyday LIfe: Colonial Times" as well as searching marked internet sites.
Curated OER
The New York Times: A Journalistic Institution Since 1851
Newspapers, cartoons, and editorials have a lot to offer your classroom.
Curated OER
The Brooklyn Museum of Art Newspaper
Students create newspapers. In this technology skills lesson, students create a newspaper layout using a word processor program. The newspaper features stories regarding the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Curated OER
Photography
Students explore using photography as an editorial enhancement. In this photography lesson, students discuss the captions of samples of photos and crop their own photos to use with a writing piece.
Curated OER
Stamp It!
Students explore environmental issues through art. In this stamp instructional activity, students use preconsumer waste paper and colored pencils to create rubber stamp designs. This is an environmentally safe instructional activity.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Recent Weather Patterns
Decide whether weather is changing! A two-part activity first challenges classes to review the differences between weather and climate. Once finished, individuals then analyze historical data to determine if climate change is happening...
Grammar Net
Active to Passive
Do they inspect the trains, or are the trains inspected? Change twelve sentences from the active voice into the passive voice with a grammar worksheet.
American English
Create Your Own Sporting Event
Combine vocabulary development and a study of verb tenses with a general introduction to sports. Class members get acquainted with the language associated with sports, and then complete a project to design and describe their own version...
Career Solutions Publishing
It’s For Real Workplace Ethics
Discuss the ethical and practical consequences of dishonesty at work by analyzing a hypothetical situation in which a young employee at a pizza shop is being asked by her friends for free meals.
Curated OER
Write All About It
Fourth graders use research skills and the writing process to create a newspaper. Although students work in groups to complete the final draft of the newspaper, each student is responsible for doing his or her own research and writing...
Curated OER
Once a fact, always a truth
Students discover there are many sources of accurate and inaccurate information. They use newspapers and, in small groups, develop a statement explaining why they believe the article is accurate or inaccurate.
Curated OER
Fun With Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Students read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and listen to the musical tape. Then they make their own coconut trees, adding their own letters. They express and record their favorite parts. All are displayed on a bulletin board.
Curated OER
Camera Shots
Understanding how visual codes such as long-shots, close-ups, and camera angles affect meaning helps prepare young filmmakers to plan their own productions. The concepts embedded could also be used to analyze photographs and paintings.
Curated OER
Environmentally Friendly
What can your pupils do to promote better conditions for wildlife? After researching issues around wildlife management, class members use the Internet to locate three different organizations devoted to protecting wildlife. They then...
Curated OER
Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
Curated OER
Cite Your Sites
What information would you find in an almanac that you would not find in an atlas? What is the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus? Using a Cite Your Sites worksheet on which they record their observations, groups participate...
Curated OER
Getting the Story
Students examine and discuss the basic elements of a newspaper article. They listen to articles, discuss the 'inverted pyramid' style of a breaking news article, and list imaginary current events based on mythological characters.
Curated OER
Breaking News
Learners organize a newspaper article using a worksheet that helps them study the vocabulary of news articles. They write newspaper articles about mythical creatures invading contemporary Los Angeles.