Curated OER
Act it Out: Dramatizing Asian American Stories
Read and act out folktales, fairy tales, or myths from various Asian American cultures with your class. Each group reads a story aloud and then works together to create a short play or skit about the story. Suggestions for stories are...
Curated OER
Budget Busters
Use this economic activity to focus on writing summaries of informational text. First, middle schoolers define common economic terms used to describe news about the economy. They closely read news about the federal budget deficit and...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing: Using Art to Inspire description
Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...
Curated OER
Be That As It Maya
Creative projects are a great way to engage your class and can be a fun way to assess mastery! Learners create brochures and postcards that might have been created by and for travelers to ancient Mayan cities. They read and discuss the...
Carnegie Library
Creative Writing: Middle School Lesson Plan
Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers.
Syracuse University
Ancient World Writing System
Most twenty-first century pupils don't know how to interpret cuneiform. Examining images of cuneiform and papyrus writing and using a chart and Venn diagram, young historians extrapolate what life may have been like for people who lived...
Syracuse University
Civil War
What was it like to enlist as a soldier in the Civil War? By using enlistment papers, young scholars consider this question. After they've looked at the primary source and discussed it, they create a short story of a fictional soldier to...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas: The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds
Learners read The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds by Janna Cole. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the study of plants and seeds. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm
Students read Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen Harold. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the study of balloons. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and library...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Challenger: America's Space Tragedy
Middle schoolers read Challenger: America's Space Tragedy by MichaelD. Cole. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the study of the Challenger space shuttle tragedy. Included are reading, art, math, science,...
Curated OER
The Branches of Government
After reviewing and reading about the three branches of US Government, complete this activity with your class. In groups, they will place their "cards" on the board under the correct branch. This lesson is weak and unclear. I'd make a...
Curated OER
Grassland Animals
Third graders will be able to cut and paste from Internet into a word document with 100 percent accuracy. They use their research to write a 1-2 paragraph paper about their animal with 90 percent accuracy.
Curated OER
Are You Sure You've Got the Right Answer?
Young researchers work through the research cycle. They question, plan, gather, sort, synthesize, and evaluate the materials they collect at the library. There are web supplements for this lesson plan.
Curated OER
Searching the States (or Provinces) Scavenger Hunt
Students examine information on a particular state or province. Groups of students use the internet to locate facts about an assigned state. They research information such as capital, state song, and major crops. students report their...
Curated OER
Historical Fiction Project
Students be engaged in a history project that is combined with Language Arts with the purpose of teaching students how to cite bibliographic information. This is important for doing future research.
Curated OER
Lunar Myths
Fourth graders explore the phases of the moon. In this moon instructional activity, 4th graders research myths regarding the moon and create a PowerPoint presentation to share their findings.
Curated OER
Past and Present
Learners research their community history and choose on aspect to create an iMovie on. They use digital photographs and old images of community place that show how they have changed.
Curated OER
Creating Context Mural
students examine the historical, political, religious and culture aspects of the Renaissance. Using this information, they read "Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht. They use the internet to research a specific event of the time period and come...
Curated OER
Presenting Constitutional Issues in a Non-adversarial Mode
Students study the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth Amendments to the US Constitution. They apply different points of view to their research and present their finding to the class.
Curated OER
Creating a Wild Family Album
Third graders choose an animal to research and create a portfolio about that animal that includes information from at least three resources, a graphic organizer, maps, food webs, and captioned pictures.
Curated OER
In Congress Assembled: Continuity and Change in the Governing of the United States
Students interpret history using primary resources and secondary research. The Constitution is examined and changes are explained within the time period they were made.
Curated OER
Simple Internet Searching Lesson 2
Learn how to use search engines and keywords! Learners evaluate the information process using given criteria and determine ways in which the process may be improved.
Curated OER
Fairy Tales
Students research the Internet using hotlists to find two different versions of a fairy tale after watching a teacher presentation of two versions of The Three Little Pigs. They design a PowerPoint presentation that shows the comparisons...
Curated OER
Wings, Chrome, and Tailfins: Automobiles of the 1950s
Pupils study the automobile industry. For this cultural history lesson, students explore 1950s America as they view a teacher-created PowerPoint presentation regarding the 1950s. Pupils research how the automobile changed the 1950s...