Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Watching Crystals Grow

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Amazing science can sometimes happen right before your eyes! The class gets cozy as they watch crystals grow. They use Epsom salts, rocks, and food coloring to create crystals. They'll observe the entire process, documenting every step...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions instructional activity, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This instructional...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Pupils, by drawing on their own experiences, discuss and examine the basic physics of flight. They participate in a variety of activities regarding flight.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring an Atlas

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students explore global geography by participating in an atlas activity. In this countries of the world instructional activity, students collaborate in small groups and analyze an atlas while researching continents, countries and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students bring rocks and minerals from home to investigate in the classroom. In this rocks and minerals lesson plan, students observe all the rocks and minerals brought into the class and answer 7 questions about the features of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mineral Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students complete a scavenger hunt worksheet as they find examples in their classroom, at home, etc., of minerals. Excellent worksheet!
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Westward Movement

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students study the westward movement through examining stamps. In this westward movement lesson plan, students draw conclusions, determine cause and effect relationships and examine the westward movement of the United States by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Letters from the Japanese American Internment

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students examine letters of Japanese-American children during internment in World War II. They discover what it was like in the camps and how they were treated once they were released. They also view photographs of the camps.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students participate in multiple hands-on activities to explore reproduction and pollination. In groups, using a cotton swab and powder, students simulate being pollinators and plants. They name the parts of the flowers and the function...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils Footprints Across Time

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine fossils to understand how they are formed and how they give information about geological history. In this fossil lesson, students research and write about fossils and make models of different fossil types.The PDF...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

India: Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Students research India and Indian culture. In this Indian research lesson plan, students research and report on the lives of Indian children. The report will be in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and an Indian child....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creatures from Planet X: Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students are given a description of some fascinating animals from "Planet X". They follow the descriptions given to illustrate one of these animals paying careful attention to introduced vocabulary such as 'appendages', 'receptors', and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Japan and Art

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Young scholars discuss the art of Japan as it relates to Japanese culture and geography and then create individual postcards reflecting the information learned from the lesson. This lesson includes possible enrichments.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rocky Shore

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students compare a realistic landscape painting with a photograph of the same place.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Baga Drum

For Teachers K - 6th
Students examine a Baga Drum in order to explore the history of the Baga people of West Africa. For this art history lesson, students recognize figures used in Baga Drum design that represent aspects of Baga culture. They also design and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Pupils observe photographs of selected twentieth-century aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum and note differences in the design of aircraft wings, fuselages, and engines.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spy on a Spider

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Young scholars view slides or live specimens to name and describe the distinguishing features of groups of arthropods, especially spiders and insects. They complete worksheets, observe webs and then search for and record where spiders...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Classroom Exhibit: Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Young scholars bring in rocks and minerals from home. They observe them and describe them carefully, completing a worksheet. Finally, a classroom exhibit is created.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where In the World Am I?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners identify their location in the world after studying latitude, longitude, relative location, and absolute location. They use assigned web site to find information to make a flipbook that answers questions about their location in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars analyze the story Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain geographically, and explain the term climate and discuss its relevance in the story as well as to their own lives.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Minerals, Crystals, and Gems

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students discover the relationships between minerals, crystals and gems. They bring in rocks that they find at home, in the schoolyard, etc. and examine them and attempt to identify them. They set up a classroom exhibit that includes all...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History Close to Home: Creating Your Own Special Museum

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students create their own museum exhibit. In this museum creation lesson plan, students research their local history so they can decide on a theme for their exhibit and what objects they will use in order to design a museum exhibit. A...