Polar Trec
Family Polar Fun Day
Family fun days are great for connecting home and school life, building strong parent/teacher relationships, and engaging students in a fun and social way. Here are several activity ideas to help you and your class run your own Family...
Critical Thinking Cooperative
Doing Our Share
Whether at home or in the classroom, each member of a community has certain responsibilities they must tend to. With the help of the children's story Piggybook by Anthony Browne, kids learn how to assign jobs in a fair and safe...
Penguin Books
White Fang Teacher's Notes
If you're looking for a way to structure your unit on Jack London's White Fang, use a well-organized guide to bring the intrigue of the novel to your middle school classroom. Covering a biography of the author, main background and...
Berkshire Museum
Adopt a Schoolyard Tree
Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it in...
NOAA
Plate Tectonics II
Mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys, island arcs, mountain ranges, earthquakes, volcanoes ... there are so many features associated with plate tectonics. The 14th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography...
New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park
What would change in your daily life due to a power outage? Here, learners explore the inventions brought to us by the one and only, Thomas Edison, and imagine a day without them. Scholars take part in a grand conversation and write a...
Illustrative Mathematics
Telling a Story With Graphs
Turn your algebra learners into meteorologists. Students are given three graphs that contain information about the weather in Santa Rosa, California during the month of February, 2012. Graph one shows temperatures, graph two displays the...
Museum of Disability
A Picture Book of Louis Braille
Teach kids about the beginnings of the Braille writing system with a lesson about Louis Braille. A series of discussion questions guide young readers though A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David A. Adler, and once they finish the...
Odell Education
Plant and Animal Cells
Incorporate multiple facets of the cell into your next high school lab! Through an introduction to cell organelles, class members observe each cell type and draw visuals to further demonstrate understanding of cellular processes in both...
Peace Corps
Introducing Culture
Growing up within a culture leaves a lot of ideas and values unspoken. Take a closer look at the cultures in which your learners live with a discussion activity that addresses cultural identity and traits of those living within the...
Space Awareness
Valleys Deep and Mountains High
Sometimes the best view is from the farthest distance. Satellite imaging makes it possible to create altitude maps from far above the earth. A three-part activity has your young scientists play the role of the satellite and then use...
American Museum of Natural History
Being An Anthropologist: Laurel Kendall
Imagine studying Korean culture, especially the role of women, as well as marriage and religious rituals from home! Anthropologist Laurel Kendall shares what she has learned from her many trips to this fascinating country half a world away.
Sargent Art
Kandinsky - Inspired by Music
Who is Wassily Kandinsky? Introduce your young artists to the wonders of abstract nonobjective art through music. They'll listen to music as they cut, paste, and paint emotional works of art. The activity suggests the use of soothing...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Shapes - Kindergarten
Extend scholars' learning experience with a unit consisting of five shape lesson plans, an extension activity, assessment, and rubric. Begin by reading a story about shapes, then conduct an overview and assign pupils' their first...
Facing History and Ourselves
Stereotypes and “Single Stories”
Help bring subconscious stereotypes to the surface to stop it in its tracks. Pupils first read an excerpt describing the experience of prejudice and analyze how this process connects to World War II. Then, they write a creative story...
Curated OER
The Alphabet Garden
Third graders transplant, tend and observe a plant for each letter of the alphabet in a school garden. They work individually to research and select a plant that will grow in their local climate. Students then care for and observe the...
Curated OER
Bioethics
Students are introduced to the issues surrounding bioethics and begin to discover how some of these values can influence decision making. The exciting part of this lesson is the constructivist method used to engage students of all...
Curated OER
Coping or Coping Out?
Fifth graders explore, analyze and study personal safety skills and coping strategies for managing life changes or events. They participate in small groups to identify and present coping skills when experiencing possibly the loss of a...
Curated OER
Non-living Things
Very young scientists circle the things on the worksheet that they think are living things. Most of the pictures are of non-living things. A handy worksheet to use during any initial discussion about living vs. non-living things.
Curated OER
STAR Deputies, Unite!
Second graders work in small groups to brainstorm solutions to safety situations. They use the STAR safety model worksheets and role play as STAR deputies. Based on the scenario presented on the worksheet, they develop skits that show a...
Curated OER
Animal Research Pamphlet
Fourth graders perform research on an animal of choice. The reading of a novel is done prior to the research in order to establish context for the lesson plan. The use of the library for research is a key skill for this lesson plan.
Curated OER
Design Patterns in Everyday Life
Students find symbols and patterns in everyday life. In this patterns instructional activity, students break into groups and look for specific patterns and symbols. Students record their findings. Students create a graphic organizer with...
Curated OER
Liberation and Return to Life
Students read testimonies of Holocaust survivors, describe conditions liberators found upon entering camps, investigate liberation, and research background of the Office of Special Investigations and Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
Shakespeare in American Life
Patriarchy in King Lear and As I Lay Dying
King Lear, “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz and Anse Bundren? Imagine a unit that examines the tragic hero and patriarchy in King Lear, As I Lay Dying and Apocalypse Now. To liven the brew, learners are asked to include in...