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...
Busy Teacher’s Café
"Smart" by Shel Silverstein
Find out just how smart your young mathematicians are with this cross-curricular math and language arts lesson. After first reading Shel Silverstein's poem "Smart", students draw pictures of coins to model the different exchanges...
Oklahoma State University
Math for Peanuts
Peanuts! Get your peanuts! Kids explore math, art, and agriculture concepts focused on peanuts. There is a brief informational text to get them started, and you'll find definitions of five in-text vocabulary words to address. Kids...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
Curated OER
Miss Nelson is Missing Lesson Plan
Second graders listen to the story Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall. In this literature activity, 2nd graders predict the story's ending with drawings and discussions within groups.
Curated OER
Weather or Not!
Young pupils will be sure to love this series of four lessons which deal with the winter season. These cross-curricular lessons cover visual art, science, math, writing, literature, and movement. Absolutely fantastic! The images of...
Have Fun Teaching
Common Core 1st Grade Workbook
You've found the first grade Common Core jackpot! English Language Arts and Math Common Core standards are addressed in a 74-page packet complete with standard text printables, activities, cut-outs for the classroom, and worksheets.
Curated OER
All About Money
Few topics engage young mathematicians as much as learning about money. Through a series of shared readings and hands-on activities, children explore the US currency system, learning how to count money and calculate change as they create...
Curated OER
"Weighing the Elephant"
Can your class solve the problem presented in the Chinese folktale, "Weighing the Elephant?" Read your class the description before having them attempt to solve the problem. After they've come up with an answer (or attempted to!), finish...
Baylor College
Gases Matter
As a demonstration or as a hands-on activity, your class watches as the combination of vinegar and baking soda produce carbon dioxide gas. The intent of the lesson is to help youngsters understand that gases occupy space. It is included...
Curated OER
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Students explore the 5 themes of geography. For this cross curriculum literacy and geography lesson, students listen to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, and make a list of the needs of the people in Chewandswallow....
Core Knowledge Foundation
A “Whole” Lot of Fraction Fun!
Young mathematicians are introduced to fractions in a unit that helps them to understand parts of a whole.
Curated OER
Geo Jammin' - Day 1, Lesson 3: Math Moments on My Mind
Second graders write a Math Moments journal.
Baylor College
There's Something in the Air
Clever! In order to compare indoor and outdoor dispersal rates for the movement of gases and particles through air, collaborators will participate in a classroom experiment. Set up a circular grid and set students on lines that are...
Curated OER
Geo Jammin' By DeSign - Day 3, Lesson 15: The Quiltmaker's Gift
Students listen to a read aloud of The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau finding examples of symmetry in the illustrations in the book.
Curated OER
A Turkey for Thanksgiving - Lesson #2
Second graders investigate realistic fiction, holiday celebrations, making tally charts. In this multi-disciplinary lesson, 2nd graders listen to a story about Thanksgiving and one about the Chinese New Year to develop an understanding...
Curated OER
Polar Express Lesson Plan
Students write and illustrate a wish for the first gift of Christmas. In this Christmas lesson plan, students read the book The Polar Express and then write what they wish could be the first gift of Christmas.
Curated OER
Frog and Toad are Friends
Students view a 30-minute video activity to discover information about the characteristics of frogs and toads. They then transform themselves into frogs and participate in a Jumping Frog Jubilee. They work in groups of three to measure...
Curated OER
The Literature Connection
Second graders read Cucumber Soup by Vickie Leigh. They make representations for the number of each kind of bug found in the book. This lesson plan is a terrific way to show students how fractions, decimals and percents are related.
Curated OER
Counting Crows
Young scholars discuss the fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. In this literature instructional activity, students read the fable and create a crow sock puppet. Young scholars use their puppets to dramatize the fable.
Curated OER
Going Graph-y
Second graders listen to and dicuss the story Where the Wild Things Are. They play a pantomime game and act out various feelings so their classmates can guess. They listen for the frequency of certain words, and record their findings on...
Denver Public Schools
Kung-hsi Fa-ts' ai! – A Chinese New Year Celebration
Looking for ideas for your Lunar New Year celebration? Check out an interdisciplinary unit of study that includes lessons in counting, calligraphy, culture, geography, literature, art, and music. Kung-hsi Fa-ts' ai! (May you...
Baylor College
Fungus Among Us
In order to learn that mold spores can be found in the air, observers grow bread mold and make observations for a few days. Afterward, they participate in a class discussion to arrive at the knowledge that bread spores are present in the...
Baylor College
Healthy Homes
Meant to follow a lesson about how concentrated air particles can be inside of a building, this resource gets individuals to assess the possible air pollutants in their own homes. They take home a worksheet and circle spots on it that...