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Ornithology and Real World Science
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...
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Using Old Maps as Tools to Explore Our World
Learners explore historical maps. In this primary source analysis instructional activity, students uncover the meanings in selected historical maps as they use them to enhance lessons on historical events. Samples for classroom use are...
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Salmon Homing Instincts
Students study the conditions of salmon imprinting as the fish returns to spawn in its native waters. Scented cards are used to mimic the imprinting process as the student fishes search for and identify obstacles to reaching their native...
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Bubble-ology and Bernoulli
Students explore aerodynamics and Bernoulli's principle by devising ways to keep bubbles aloft.
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Request
Students play a game of questioning with the teacher after reading silently a beginning passage of text. They and teacher request specific information from each other until students are able to summarize and predict the outcome of the...
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Random Acts of Kindness For Kids
Develop a world-wide, email chain on which class members can showcase their acts of kindness. After defining the meaning of random acts of kindness through discussion and through a reading of Random Acts of Kindness,...
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Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse: Kevin Henkes
Kevin Henkes has composed a series of books in which Lilly the mouse is a main character. Third graders use illustrations and key details as they compare and contrast the books, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and another story staring the...
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Maniac Magee: The Cloze Procedure
Fill in the blanks with a Cloze activity based on Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. After listening to a passage read out loud, kids complete the worksheet by using their memories and context clues.
Critical Thinking Cooperative
Doing Our Share
Whether at home or in the classroom, each member of a community has certain responsibilities they must tend to. With the help of the children's story Piggybook by Anthony Browne, kids learn how to assign jobs in a fair and safe manner...
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Fraction Decimal Challenge
Pupils explore the concept of fractions and decimals as they try to find as many fractions as possible that are equivalent to .25. Learners use their calculator to take screen shots and send them to the teacher via Ti-Navigator. They...
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Solar Energy Experiment
Students observe solar energy at work. In this science lesson, students watch two bottles, painted black and white, sit in the heat with balloons on the mouth of the bottles. They observe and discuss why the balloon of the black bottle...
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Sports Helmets and Impact Testing of Polymers
Students examine the importance of good quality safety gear. In this investigative instructional activity, students will tests various polymers, collect data, and analyze the data to determine which polymer is best for safety helmets....
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Lift Every Voice and Sing
Students analyze sculpture, poetry, and music to gain an understanding of historical events. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at African-American history as they examine "Lift Every Voice and Sing'"...
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Insects Are Helpful!
Students see that insects do lots good and are very valuable to humans and nature. This is part of an ongoing effort to dispel fears of insects. They rotate through a series of centers that have examples of how insects contribute to our...
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M&M Graphing and Probability
Students sort, classify, and graph M & M's. They create pictographs and bar graphs with the colors and numbers in each bag of M & M's. They calculate the ratio and probability based on class results.
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The Great Jellybean Hunt
Students explore natural selection and its influence on the populations to fine tune traits and characteristics. The acquisition of traits developed out of need is examined through a game played in class.
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The Earth's Landscape#156
Students define a word from the natural disaster list, find a location in the world where this type of disaster has occurred and discuss what they have identified. They design a crossword puzzle of natural disaster words or check a...
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"Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets"
Students examine the expressive and descriptive language used in the books "Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets" and "Planet of the Robots." In pairs they take notes about each other's physical appearance and conduct interviews, identify the...
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"Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters"
Fifth graders read and analyze the books "Snow White in New York" and "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughter." They analyze the characteristics of the characters in each story, write thoughts of characters in speech bubbles, and write a letter to...
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Visual Fractions
Leanrers observe models of fractions and use a calculator to represent numbers as decimals, fractions, and percents. They participate in calculator activities to view different representations of the same number.
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Divisibility Rules Using Scientific Calculators
Young learners apply divisibility rules to determine if a number is a factor of another number. They discuss what numbers are factors of another number and identify patterns using divisibility rules.
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The Bouncing Ball
Students use the scientific method to conduct an experiment to test how a ball bounces. For this inquiry-based physical science and scientific method lesson, students drop a ball from specified heights and record the rebound, then record...
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Globe Trotting Cinderella
Students explore the fairy tale genre of literature. In this Cinderella lesson, students read fairy tales and discuss their attributes and cultural background. Students examine and write their own fractured fairy tales.
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Sahara Special
Third graders read the book Sahara Special and participate in comprehension activities. In this realistic fiction instructional activity, 3rd graders create a brochure for where they live. Students have personal bags, a brown paper bag,...