Curated OER
Now That's a Problem!
Help learners improve multiplication skills by skip counting and creating their own multiplication word problems. They will begin by practicing skip counting and then illustrate word problems using a software program. Pixie is a software...
Cornell University
Catapults
Ready, aim, fire! Launch to a new level of understanding as scholars build and test their own catapults. Learners explore lever design and how adjusting the fulcrum changes the outcome.
Teaching Ideas
The Victorians Pack
What was life like during the Victorian era? Images of crowded factories and lavish palaces may come to mind—and both would be accurate. Learn more about Britain during the 64-year reign of Queen Victoria with a series of informational...
Curated OER
A Primary Source Picture Book
Travel through Europe with ten-year-old Teddy Roosevelt in this writing activity, which uses the picture book My Tour of Europe: by Teddy Roosevelt, by Ellen Jackson. After reading the book, readers compare it to passages from The...
Mind Snacks
SAT Vocab - MindSnacks
Who knew learning and practicing vocabulary for the SAT could be this absorbing? With 500 words to learn after an upgrade, and nine different games for practice, users are sure to feel prepared on testing day!
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 1
Work out your core, Common Core State Standards, through the first workshop in a series of 15 designed for educators. Inquiry-based activities designed for all content areas and grade levels explore the shifts to new standards,...
Curated OER
Warm Thoughts About the Cold
“What do you think life is like at the South Pole?” After responding to this journal prompt, class members read and discuss the New York Times article, “At South Pole, New Home for a New Era.” Using resources available from the Times’...
Curated OER
Monster Descriptions
Monsters take center stage! Elementary schoolers are assigned to write a descriptive paragraph by a toy company to help in designing a new monster for their toy line. One student composes the paragraph, another uses that to create a...
Curated OER
A Photosynthesis Timeline
Science learners discover that scientific advancements come in increments. Beginning as an idea, changes and developments are influenced by available resources and current societal values. As an example, pupils examine the conclusions...
Curated OER
Turn-of-the-Century Child
Students are put in the role of historians and develop strategies for applying methods in historical inquiry:
Curated OER
The Minority Majority
Students design a census class and school, then tabulate the results. They respond to a sample census, then reflect on why questions of race and national origin are different.
Curated OER
Food, Glorious Food?
How are the reactions between American and European consumers different when it comes to genetically modified foods? Use the New York Times article "Consumers in Europe Resist Gene-Altered Foods" to inform your middle schoolers about the...
Curated OER
Technical Merits
What is technical knowledge? The class explores what technical knowledge might mean to an Olympic athlete. They catalog the different types of information that athletes would need to compete in various Winter Olympic sports and develop...
Curated OER
A Discourse on the History of Language
Analyze and make inferences from the information used by linguists to construct the evolution of languages. They research different dating techniques to explain how scientists infer age with evidence.
Curated OER
Animal Self-portrait Mosaics: A Visual Arts Elective
Out-lined here is a two-week procedure that has the class creating ceramic animal tiles that are metaphorical representations of their own personalities. They discuss animal images found throughout history, what they mean, metaphor, and...
Curated OER
Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts
Students explore the idea of movements in the visual arts and differentiate between some of the most well known movements in Western art. The lesson focuses on what makes a painting an example of a particular movement.
Curated OER
German Immigrants Contributions to the Upper Midwest
Learners explore contemporary lifestyles, cultures, traditions are influenced by the contributions of the German settlers of that region. They research these influences and design a brochure to entice potential immigrants to the Upper...
Curated OER
Exploring Gullah Culture...Through Language and Numbers
First graders examine the culture of the ancient Gullah people. As a class, they practice saying and writing the days of the week and numbers in Gullah. They are read a Gullah folktale and put the events of the story into the correct...
Shakespeare in American Life
Tom Hanks and Caliban: Survivor Superstars
Here’s a clever way to combine language arts and social studies. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is believed to have been inspired by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. The class views a brief scene from Castaway in which Tom...
University of Chicago
Gender Roles in Ancient Egyptian Society
After reading about the legal status of women in the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt and doing some additional research, your young historians will work in groups to develop short skits that reflect a typical gender-role related scenario...
New York Public Library
What's for Lunch?: New York City Restaurant Menus
Do you remember the days when a cup of coffee cost five cents? At A.W. Dennett restaurant in 1894, you could buy a five-cent cup of coffee and as well as a five-cent slice of pie to accompany it. The menu from that year is a primary...
Mind Snacks
Learn German - MindSnacks
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Even if you can't speak German now, you'll be fairly accomplished after practicing with the games and words that make up the greater part of this app!
Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation
Did African American Lives Improve After Slavery?
The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to the Works of Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Middle school years can be tough. An educator's guide for the works of Lynda Mullaly Hunt introduces readers to two texts that discuss the struggles pre-teens face during middle school. Chapter-by-chapter questions and activities for two...