Curated OER
I Have No Money, Would You Take Wampum
Students engage in a discussion about their experiences with goods, services, and money. In this bartering lesson, students read The Wampum Bird story and brainstorm their personal experiences with economics.
Curated OER
Mosaic America on Film: Fact Versus Fiction
Seventh graders define race, ethnic group, and culture. They identify the ways in which words are used in political cartoons and examine the way visual elements in a cartoon determine the meaning of words and enhance their impact. They...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Exploring Boston's Big Dig
Students, in a high school class for autistic children, take a virtual tour of Boston's "Big Dig" and the artifacts discovered there. During weekly lab sessions, they discover the processes involved in artifact preservation. Using...
Curated OER
African Slaves in Haiti
Sixth graders examine how Africans were treated in the Caribbean and Haiti after reading about the Atlantic Slave Trade. From a multicultural information passage, they complete a time line on Toussiant L-Ouverture and write an obituary.
Curated OER
The Buffalo War: A Clash of Cultures
Students view a documentary on the different values and meaning placed on the buffalo. Examining various cultures, they link the attitudes to the treatment of the animal in the wild. They develop solutions to the conflict raised by the...
Curated OER
100% Recyclable
Seventh graders research recycling activities at schools across the country using e-mail. They research the waste management and recycling program at their school and problem solve to create an environmentally sound program for the future.
Curated OER
Cherokeee Myth: Origin of Strawberries
Fourth graders read a Cherokee myth about the origin of strawberries. After reading the story, they add another chapter to it and read their additions to the class. Or, as a group activity, they each write a few sentences and then pass...
Curated OER
Code Talkers
Students investigate the Navajo code talkers contributions to World War II. They read and discuss a fact sheet, and create and decode secret messages using a Navajo code talkers' dictionary.
Curated OER
Poetry Pop-Up
Third graders, after exploring the process of writing poetry through imagery words that go beyond pen and paper, create a Poetry Pop-Up Book. They incorporate the use of the Thesaurus and clip-art/digital photography to assist them in...
Curated OER
Imagery: Symbolic/realistic
Students recognize and use the visual arts as a form of communication. They use the computer as a visual arts tool to gather images for a story they are telling. They discuss related stories that differ in their realistic images. They...
Curated OER
All About Me Brochure
Eighth graders complete a prewriting activity to gather information about themselves. They create a brochure using their prewriting activity that will introduce themselves to either a prospective employer or their freshman teachers.
Curated OER
Way to Go! Create a Road Map Game
Students create a travel game of one of the United States. They research a state of their choice and create a travel game using a common road map. They interpret map symbols as they calculate map mileage for their games. They create...
Curated OER
Hypothermia: Temperature Changes Under Varying Conditions
Students conduct an experiment to determine what type of clothing would be most suitable for outdoor activities. They determine the temperature changes of the skin under various wet clothing materials and graph the temperature changes. ...
Curated OER
In Search of California Indians
Fourth graders research information about some of California indigenous tribes to find out as much as possible about the first people found in the west. They research about the history of a selected tribe and their contributions to...
Curated OER
Building a Volcano
Students research volcanoes and then build one out of salt dough. Before the final step is completed, they find main ideas about volcanoes, write sequential steps to building, use correct grammar, to gain knowledge about them. There is...
Curated OER
Making a Colorado Brochure
Students create brochures reflecting the state of Colorado. In groups, they write about tourist attractions, important people, major cities, and statistical information. After writing, they create their brochure importing clip art and...
Curated OER
Health Wheel Self-Care Plan for Diabetics
Students help create a Health Wheel: a personal, inspirationally based, self-care plan for preventing or managing diabetes in daily life. They (student or client) researches the causes of diabetes, and creates a "health wheel" that...
Curated OER
Data Collection and Graphing
Students collect data and graph it on a coordinate plane and analyze it. In this statistics lesson, students display their data collection using a graph. They determine which central tendency will work best.
Curated OER
The Columbian Exchange
Students examine the process of the Columbian Exchange. In groups, they create a poster showing the good exchanged and the people affected. They note the impacts of the Exchange on the world and present their poster to the class to end...
Curated OER
Irish Jig Tag
Students study Irish Dancing. They watch a video or have experienced watching dancers, such as a dance company, perform. They practice the Irish Jig as a class before the actual game. If a student is tagged by the individual with the...
Curated OER
Human Settlement and Movement
Students are introduced to the way humans have settled and moved throughout history. In groups, they compare and contrast the settlement and movement of two different ethnic groups. They discover why some are more dominate in an area...
Orange County Department of Education
Integrity and a Boy Called Slow
Fifth graders identify the character trait of integrity in the main character, Slow, in "A Boy Called Slow." They participate in a discussion to determine what steps the main character took to earn his new name. Students write an essay...
Curated OER
What is Suffrage? Understanding the Right to Vote
Students discover one of the restrictions forced on women of the early 1900s. In this civil rights lesson, students investigate suffrage and why women were not allowed to vote in the early twentieth century. Students create a mock...
Curated OER
Harvest Celebrations Around the World
Pupils, working in groups as cultural anthropologists, research harvest festival around the world. They design a Harvest web page based on their research.