Curated OER
The Box
Learners of any age can participate in this imagination and improve development activity. With the use of a small box, they work through a series of questions or situations posed by the teacher. Each group uses the box to create short...
Curated OER
How Would You Feel?
Sixth graders put themselves in the shoes of aborigines who were displaced from their homes in the 1800s by Europeans who came in and took their land from them. They discuss the social injustices suffered by these people, and write a...
Penguin Books
A Teacher’s Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
The dry Oklahoma landscape in America's Dust Bowl sent many farmers in search of the promised land. A teacher's guide to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath discusses the characters' desire for a better home along with other themes and...
Curated OER
Musical Moods
To celebrate diversity and the purpose of Harmony Day, the class examines culturally diverse music and expression through line drawing. They discuss that all cultures produce music and that music can convey mood just like art can. As the...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Buttons?
Bring the class into the probability by having everyone count buttons on their shirts. Organize the data into the chart provided and chose different possibilities such as "female with one button" or "all students with more than four...
Alberta Learning
Great City-states of the Renaissance
Acting as journalists on a team to determine the most influential city-state of Renaissance Italy, your young historians will research, discuss, and compare the rise of Venice, Florence, and Genoa, and their influence in shaping a...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Sharing Costs Equitably: Traveling to School
Drive or take the school bus? Class members determine the amount each student would have to pay in a carpool situation. They then evaluate the cost in a set of provided examples. I think I'd rather take the school bus!
Curated OER
During Reading Strategy: Literary Newspaper
Add some writing to your class's reading of Cold Sassy Tree! With this plan, readers assume the role of journalist and create a segment of a paper with their peers. Suggested segments are included, and a worksheet dividing the text into...
Scholastic
Frindle Lesson Plan
"Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?" Inspired by this quote from the award-winning novel written by Andrew Celements, this lesson allows children to invent their own terms for common classroom objects,...
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Interpreting Algebraic Expressions
The title of this lesson should be "Algebraic Expressions Four Ways." Not only will your class be translating verbal descriptions of algebraic expressions to symbols, but also working with their geometric interpretation via area as well...
Curated OER
Hopes and Dreams: A Spreadsheet Lesson Using Excel
Fourth graders read "The Far Away Drawer" by Harriet Diller and discuss the story as a class. After discussion, 4th graders create a t-shirt GLYPH about their hopes and dreams,share their information with the class and create spreadsheets.
Curated OER
Math: Fractions
Participate in a class lesson on ratio, rate, and unit rate. Successful usage of this lesson requires the pupils and the teacher have access to the Scott Foresman/Addison Wesley Middle School math text. However, the unit rate problems...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: K-W-L
What would your class like to learn about Japanese culture? Prepare them for a novel unit about Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with a KWL chart. After listing what they already know about Japanese culture, they write questions about...
Virginia Department of Education
Order Up!
Order in the math class! Scholars learn to evaluate expressions using the order of operations. A game has them rolling number cubes to determine numbers to use when evaluating.
Curated OER
Cookie Dough Equivalence
Who doesn't love cookies? In this lesson, learners follow a recipe to make cookies, practicing their ability to compare fractions as they go. This is a wonderful way to motivate your class to practice this important skill.
Tennessee State Museum
Deciphering the Document: Unlocking the Meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation
Help your learners truly understand the Emancipation Proclamation by asking them the put it into their own words. After reading the document out loud to the class, and briefly discussing the legal language, split your class into small...
Curated OER
Orienteering - Lesson 2 - Topographical Maps
One of the most important skills in orienteering is being able to read a topographical map. Understanding the contour lines and symbols and the scale of the map will make planning your route so much better. In this lesson, partners get...
Curated OER
Getting to Know You
Young scholars interview each other to find similarities and differences with their partner. They create a Venn diagram that displays their findings and then using hula hoops as a large scale model present their Venn diagram to the class...
Curated OER
Deciding Theme
Fifth graders explore the theme of a story by identifying the effects of a character's decision. In this theme study lesson, 5th graders refer to the events in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Students discuss as a whole class how...
Curated OER
Round to the Nearest Whole $
In this rounding money worksheet, learners identify the money amounts in each examples and round to the nearest dollar for the 10 examples.
Curated OER
Respect
Investigate "respect" with your class. They will participate in a think/share activity in which they complete sentence starters about their personal experience with "respect." Then they view a video clip in which Holocaust survivors...
The New York Times
Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core's Emphasis on Informational Text
Nothing aids in comprehension more than an explanation and understanding of why things are done. Address why the Common Core requires the reading percentages that it established and analyze how this affects your readers. Learners read...
Center Science Education
Torrents, Droughts, and Twisters - Oh My!
What is causing the extreme weather happening around the planet? Middle and high schoolers read about climate change as a possible link to such phenomena. Then they form groups to discuss and research one of the types of weather events....
Curated OER
Energy
Scientific terms can be difficult to remember. This resource suggests developing analogies as a way to make energy terms memorable. After listing new terms on the board, groups develop analogies based on restaurant words, and then share...