Resources for Educators
Math & Science Connection
Whether you're using a collection of Dr. Seuss books to teach basic math skills like counting, adding, and subtracting, or exploring the different states of matter by melting a crayon with a hairdryer, a series of 11 fun activities...
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Activity Guide for Snow
Create a cross-curricular learning experience around a shared reading of Cynthia Rylant's book Snow. From writing poetry and a singing a song about snow, to creating paper snowflakes and solving math story problems, this resource uses...
American Institute of Architects
Architecture: It's Elementary!—First Grade
Build an interest and appreciation for architecture in your young learners with this fun 10-lesson art unit. Engaging children in using their five senses, the class first observes the environment around them, paying special attention to...
Curriculum Corner
Ice Cream Booklet
On the days leading up to summer, use a booklet of practice skill sheets in the classroom. Beginner pupils should be able to master the skills they've learned in math and reading before they head home for the summer, like counting to 30,...
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Comparing Light Bulbs
An average home produces twice as many emissions as an average car. Teach your class how to reduce energy consumption by replacing standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Perform an experiment to compare...
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Ho'opiha - Growing in Knowledge: Terrarium Project
Students explore environmental protection by conducting a research experiment in class. In this botany lesson, students identify the necessities for growing a plant indoors and create a small terrarium for their plant. Students observe...
North Carolina State University
Shapes
Expose youngsters to 3-D objects in a hands-on learning activity involving marshmallows and toothpicks. Engage your young mathematicians by introducing them to 3-D shapes by means of a story book. Explore 3-D shapes by manipulating...
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Graphing Memories
Mem Fox’s Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge provides the labels for a graphing activity. Class members create an illustration of a memory item brought from home, and place their illustration in the proper column of a graph. When the...
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Log Hotel
Students identify how the different plants and animals work together to cause the changes in the log. Students discuss the sequence of events in the life of the tree and log. Students plant a seed to take home and care for. Students...
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Music Education, The Blues
This lesson plan examines both the content and form of lyrics in blues songs. In addition to highlighting the basic musical form of a blues song, it also addresses the use of floating verses in blues music, both within the context of the...
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Money Smart children
Students elementary financial vocabulary words: spend, save, invest and donate. In this finance instructional activity, students respond to the story "Sam and the Lucky Moon." Students describe the concepts of wants and needs, resources,...
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Magician Squares
Elementary school learners investigate the attributes of a square. They discover that squares are polygons and examine squares found in everyday life. They concentrate on connecting the word, square, with the shape. As an extension,maybe...
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Geo Jammin' By Design: Listening for Patterns
Students listen to the teacher read a book and participate with guided questions. They discuss patterns and how they repeat, by looking at quilts. They design their own quilt block to create a class quilt.
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Making Good Money Choices
Student explore an economic-decision making model to decide where to donate money they have collected. In this philanthropic money lesson, students develop a plan for raising money and then decide how to best spend it for the most...
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Planting Phil's Garden
Students explore gardening. In this agriculture lesson plan, students plan and plant seeds according to the procedure modeled by a "master gardener." Flowers are distributed at a local retirement home.
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Graphing Trash Material
Students investigate recycling. In this reuse and recycle instructional activity, students examine the number and kinds of materials they discard. It also encourages them to think about taking action by reusing and recycling some of...
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How Do You Feel Today?
Students create a graph, then listen to Dr. Seuss' book, My Many Colored Days. After the story, they do a similar graph and then compare the two graphs.
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My Bank, My Budget, My Decisions
Young scholars create a personal budget. In this financial planning lesson, students create a budget using income data and identify ways to save a portion of money for donations.
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Lesson 3: Vary Your Veggies and Focus on Fruits
Students explore fruits and vegetables. In this nutrition instructional activity, students generate a list of all known fruits and vegetables. Students cut out and compile pages for a weekly fruits and vegetable journal. Students...
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Calendar Art
Students assemble and decorate a calendar. This is a lesson to be used at the beginning of each month to make a calendar for the month. Math concepts for this lesson consist of each student writing numbers on the calendar.
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Saving Makes Cents
Students identify ways families save money. In this financial lesson, students read the book A Chair for My Mother and discuss ways to save money. Students identify coin values and practice counting money.
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Grandfather Tang's Story
Students construct tangram patters. In this geometry lesson, students read the book Grandfather Tang's Story and visit various websites to practice covering figures with tangrams. Students attempt to construct animal shapes using puzzles.
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How Tall are Plants?
First graders measure a plant using unifix cubes and record their measurements on a class chart.
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Lu-Lu
First graders play a Hawaiian counting game. They use a worksheet to play a game of Lu-Lu at school and then take home a sheet to play with their families.