Overcoming Obstacles
Cooperation and Teamwork
One of Aesop's fables begins with a lesson about cooperation and teamwork. Scholars listen carefully, taking note of the moral of the story. The class discusses their findings and why working with others makes work easier. Learners share...
Overcoming Obstacles
Resolving Conflicts
Assist scholars in resolving conflicts with a lesson plan that starts with defining the terms, conflicts, and resolutions. Learners take their newfound knowledge to identify a conflict and list strategies to resolve it. Partners work...
Overcoming Obstacles
Handling Peer Pressure
Class members participate in a discussion to identify all types of positive and negative peer pressure and brainstorm strategies to not give in to negative peer pressure. Scholars create a T-chart to record their observations. Pupils...
Overcoming Obstacles
Becoming a Good Friend
A lesson puts a spotlight on becoming a good friend. After pointing out TV friendships, scholars listen to several scenarios and discuss whether the characters exhibit good or bad friendly behaviors. Learners reflect on the friendships...
Overcoming Obstacles
Good Citizenship
An individual's background and experiences affect their worldview and interaction. In this lesson, scholars draw a pair of glasses with pictures of experiences they've been through, relate the responsibility to social media and the...
Overcoming Obstacles
Being Responsible
Responsible-decision making is the focus of the social-emotional learning lessons. After reading, The Ant and the Grasshopper: An Aesop Fable, scholars come up with six steps to take responsibility for their actions and then practice the...
Orange County Department of Education
Poppa's New Pants
Angela Shelf Medearis' Poppa's New Pants provides third graders with an opportunity to stitch together their own narrative filled with sensory details. After reading the story and noting the sensory and concrete details in the tale that...
Scholastic
Stressed Out?
Provide tweens and teens with information they need to know about stress with an article that details how stress affects various organs in the body. The article also offers tips for healthy ways to cope with stress.
Cultures of Dignity
Equity and Equality Lesson
Equality does not equal equity and this lesson explains why. Class members compare two images--one labeled "Equality" and the other "Equity." Using the provided discussion questions, they then develop definitions that distinguish between...
Purdue University
Exploring Whirligigs
What's that silly thing spinning in the wind? It's a whirligig! Explore wonderful windy whirligigs with a STEM-based unit that teaches the science and concepts behind these gigs. Scholars discover how gravity and air resistance...
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Can Girls Do That?
Why be limited by stereotypes? Young scholars examine a series of works of art, list the different ways boys and girls are represented, and then discuss the common stereotypes found in the works. They then search for art that does not...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said" by Mahogany L. Browne
After watching an excerpt from a video of Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony before Congress, pupils do a close reading of Mahogany L. Browne's poem "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said," annotate words and phrases that draw their attention and list...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Alice Paul" by Katharine Rolston Fisher
Powerful women need not look like Wonder Woman. After writing a paragraph about a strong woman they know, young scholars examine images of Alice Paul and then do a close reading of Katharine Rolston Fisher's poem "Alice Paul." Finally,...
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Excuse Me, Is This the Way to the Drainpipe?
Elementary kids read and color the story of Willy Wetsworth, a drop of water, as he describes the journey that he and his friends take to provide fresh water to houses. He tells his story to Martha Merriweather, a little girl, and...
NASA
Heavy Lifting
Accept NASA's challenge to design heavy lifting vehicles. Groups of three design balloon-powered rockets to carry as much payload to the ceiling as possible. The teams are encouraged to launch several times while making improvements to...
NASA
3...2...1...Puff!
Which will make it fly better? Individuals build paper rockets with fins that are launched using straws. After determining an average flight distance, they make adjustments, such as size and location of fins, and try again. A second...
NASA
Rocket Races
And they are off! Using Styrofoam meat trays and balloons, individuals build racers that demonstrate Newton's Third Law of Motion. Pupils run their racers three times and make improvements between each trial. To conclude the activity,...
NASA
Water Rocket Construction
What are the basics for building a rocket out of a two-liter bottle? The procedures outline the basics to create an air- and water-powered bottle rocket. Prior to launching the rockets, teams perform safety checks to ensure their designs...
Memorial Hall Museum
Dedham Deed
Class members examine primary source documents that expose the contrasting views of land ownership between the Pocumtuck and English settlers.
Anti-Defamation League
Who is Malala Yousafzai?
Malala Yousafzai may be young, but she's mighty! Young scholars listen to a short lecture about Malala's background, read an article about her winning the Novel Peace Prize, and meet in groups to discuss statements she has made. Class...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "A New National Anthem" by Ada Limón
Ada Limon's poem, "A New National Anthem," offers young scholars an opportunity to reflect on the significance of the US national anthem and the extent to which Key's vision applies to all Americans. After watching a video of Whitney...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: “Making History” by Marilyn Nelson
What makes an event newsworthy, worth a reference in a news magazine or textbook? Who decides? These are questions Marilyn Nelson asks readers of her poem "Making History" to consider. To begin, class members list details they notice in...
Newseum
Civil War: Encoding the News
Young journalists learn to appreciate the advantages of how modern media technology enables rapid news delivery as they compare today's media revolution to how the telegraph and Morse Code revolutionized news coverage during the Civil...
NASA
Cloudy vs. Clear - Maps
Find out the science of how clouds keep Earth cooler on hot days. Using guided discussions, investigators analyze and interpret maps of how much solar energy Earth receives at different times of the year. Participants draw conclusions...