Perkins School for the Blind
Beanbag Toss
Why is learning how to catch and toss so important? If one has visual impairments, learning this basic skill will help him increase orientation and mobility, coordination, and cognitive development,. Mastery of this skill will also mean...
Perkins School for the Blind
I See Something Red
For learners with low vision, the ability to identify colors is an important skill that will help them identify people and places. Groups of brightly colored objects are placed around the room. The child is then given a colored paper and...
Curated OER
Let's Celebrate Kwanzaa!
Learn more about Kwanzaa with a celebratory lesson. As learners analyze My First Kwanzaa Book by Debbi Chocolate, they compare and contrast the celebration to other holiday traditions they know about. Next, they prepare and...
Skyscraper Museum
Building a Skyscraper
Creating buildings that reach hundreds of feet into the sky is no easy task. The third instructional activity in this series begins with four activities that engage young architects in exploring the major challenges that are faced when...
Perkins School for the Blind
Initial Consonant Activity
Bingo is a super fun game and can be used to reinforce a vast number of recognition skills. These bingo cards are prepared by constructing nine squares, each delineated with raised Wikki Stix or gluedyarn and containing a...
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...
Curated OER
Play Doh Map of Your State
Learners create a state map using Playdoh. In this hands-on state geography lesson, students work in groups to form a three-dimensional map of their state using Playdoh made at home following a (given) recipe. Learners use four...
Curated OER
Scooter Ships
Students explore simple physics concepts such as push/pull, friction, and speed. In this physics/physical education lesson, students work in co-operative groups to "build" a spaceship out of scooters and folded mats. Teams experiment...
Curated OER
Welcome to the First Day of School!
Classmates participate in a variety of getting-to-know-you activities for the first day of school. They make resolutions, become detectives about their fellow classmates, learn about each other by playing switch, and make...
Curated OER
Shamrock Spelling
Review spelling skills by learning about the history of shamrocks. Learners use a picture of a shamrock to practice spelling three letter words. One letter goes on each shamrock leaf. It is a way to engage your kinesthetic learners.
Curated OER
How Can We Improve Family Relationships? A Unit for 2nd Graders on Conflict Management and Family
Second graders examine the skills they need to have in order to function successfully in a family unit. They look at how families are different from one another and at the dynamics that exist in the families in this unit of lessons.
Curated OER
Harry Shows Us How
Students are provided an avenue to express his/her understanding of the life skills being taught and connect the life and times of Harry Truman to the life skills being taught for the purpose of adding relevance for each student.
Curated OER
Immigration For Grades K-2
Young scholars engage in a instructional activity about the concept of immigration. They conduct research using a variety of resources. The information is used in order to create context for class discussion or a class presentation...
Curated OER
What is Important to You?
Students examine the life of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist known for her self-portraits. After discussing her works and life as an artist, students use mirrors to examine their faces and begin drawing their own self-portraits.
Habits of Mind
Haileybury Habits of Mind Learning Resource Book
Imagine a learning community committed to using Costa and Kallick's Habits of Mind as the basis of curriculum design. The resource book is packed with lessons that are designed for and identify the standards and...
Curated OER
Map Exploration
Are you looking for a terrific lesson plan on map activities for your second graders? Then, this resource is for you! The activities range from decoding, to fill-in-the-blank, to read-and-search. There is a website activity related to...
Curated OER
Design a Coin
Young scholars research a state and then design a quarter for it. They use dough or foil to create the coin! students explore state quarters that have already been issued by the U.S. Mint. Their quarter is for a state that hasn't had one...
Manchester College
Underhand Toss
A great instructional activity to teach the fundamentals of the underhand toss. Begin with some warm-ups, review how to do the underhand roll, and then teach the new skill of the underhand toss. The teaching activity is scaffolded and...
University of New Mexico
Educating Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Three mini units make up one large unit designed to explore multiculturalism and encourage cultural identity. Each lesson sparks thoughtful discussion, critical thinking, and are equipped with activities and assignments geared to...
Curated OER
Audio Aesop: Listen to the Lesson!
Aesop's Fables are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young philosophers study and discuss the morals found in the most famous of Aesop's Fables. They write an original fable that teaches a common moral. A "Fable Listening Library"...
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...
Curated OER
Get in Shape with Geometry
Using geoboards, computer programs, and hands-on manipulative materials, elementary schoolers engage in a study of two and three-dimensional geometric shapes. This instructional activity is chock full of good teaching ideas on the...
Curated OER
Train Phonics - /an/ Words
Follow the phonics train and get your special needs class on the reading track. To promote the /an/ sound and phonemic awareness, each page contains an image of a train, and each car contains an item. The word representing that item...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for The Little Red Hen
Cultivate young performers while teaching them about helping one another with this interactive storytelling lesson. Elementary schoolers read or listen to the story The Little Red Hen by Mike Lockett and then act out the story while...