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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Letters from the Japanese American Internment

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students examine letters of Japanese-American children during internment in World War II. They discover what it was like in the camps and how they were treated once they were released. They also view photographs of the camps.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Scientists and Inventors

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore human discovery by reading historical stories in class. In this inventors lesson, students define the terms scientist, invention, inventor and discovery before discussing the many differences between them. Students read...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Views of the American West: True or False?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain that a landscape painting may or may not accurately represent a specific place. They identify techniques that create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Letters from the Japanese American Internment

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students make deductions about life in an internment camp by reading and comparing letters written to Clara Breed. Along the way, they consider the advantages of looking at a historical event from the multiple points of view of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Does Technology Affect Me?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students compare and contrast the tools used by Native Americans from the Paleo, Archaic and Woodland periods. The visit and discuss a website describing inventions and the problems they solved. They use this historical information to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Revolutionary Money

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Examine paper money from the American revolution! Historians study the paper bills and discuss the history of money. How has money changed over the times? Activities are included. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

India: Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Students research India and Indian culture. In this Indian research lesson plan, students research and report on the lives of Indian children. The report will be in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and an Indian child....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Money Talks

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students move from fact finding to interpretation as they examine paper money from the time of the American Revolution. In the final exercise, they use the issue dates of the bills to construct a chronology of political changes during...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

JAPAN, IMAGES A PEOPLE

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Learners interpret Japanese and American paintings; evaluate paintings as sources of cultural and historical information
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and  investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black history,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Westward Movement

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students study the westward movement through examining stamps. In this westward movement lesson plan, students draw conclusions, determine cause and effect relationships and examine the westward movement of the United States by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fort Clatsop: The Corps of Discovery's Winter at Fort Clatsop

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the Lewis and Clark expedition and how it helped to shape American expansion during its early history. Students reflect upon the period of history and its implications for America.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mildred Brown: "Community Treasure" Hunt

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders delve into a hunt for information on an African American activist from the state of Nebraska. Primary and secondary sources of data are utilized in this search.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pictures Telling Stories

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students see the importance of primary sources in the study of history, but also the limitations of relying only on primary sources of taking the money, as it were, at face value.
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Watching Crystals Grow

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Amazing science can sometimes happen right before your eyes! The class gets cozy as they watch crystals grow. They use Epsom salts, rocks, and food coloring to create crystals. They'll observe the entire process, documenting every step...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mineral Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students complete a scavenger hunt worksheet as they find examples in their classroom, at home, etc., of minerals. Excellent worksheet!
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Classroom Exhibit: Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students bring in rocks and minerals from home. They observe them and describe them carefully, completing a worksheet. Finally, a classroom exhibit is created.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students participate in multiple hands-on activities to explore reproduction and pollination. In groups, using a cotton swab and powder, students simulate being pollinators and plants. They name the parts of the flowers and the function...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students bring rocks and minerals from home to investigate in the classroom. For this rocks and minerals lesson plan, students observe all the rocks and minerals brought into the class and answer 7 questions about the features of the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Under the Spell of Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Young scholars examine spiders. In these spider lessons, students will view spider images and live spiders to determine physical characteristics, habits, and habitats. Young scholars will examine fantasy and folklore about spiders to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Size Shapes Animals

For Teachers Pre-K - 3rd
Students investigate how size affects large and small animals differently. In this animal lesson plan, students determine how size affects different animals by constructing their own animal out of marshmallows. Once students create...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils Footprints Across Time

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine fossils to understand how they are formed and how they give information about geological history. In this fossil activity, students research and write about fossils and make models of different fossil types.The PDF...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests instructional activity, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the...