Curated OER
So Much Depends Upon...Sixteen-Word Imagery Poems Inspired by Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
After reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (and possibly shedding a few tears), middle schoolers work on their own sixteen-word poems with a Six Trait writing activity. They focus on word choice in this activity to capture an...
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Understanding the Complexities of Setting with Where the Lilies Bloom
After reading Where the Lilies Bloom and researching the wildflowers and herbs mentioned in the novel, class members create a mural that reflects the setting of the novel. Groups design the background, the houses of the characters, the...
Curated OER
Understanding Dialect as Used by Mark Twain
A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...
Curated OER
Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month
Motivate your class to acquire and utilize a library card all year long.
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Calling All Inventors: Celebrate National Inventors Month
Start off the school year by engaging learners in a creative study of inventors and their inventions.
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Talking Book Author Project
Students explore fiction, non-fiction, and autobiographies. They create their own stories using one of the categories. Students create a PowerPoint presentation to tell their story.
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World War Ii - Holocaust Oral History Project
Seventh graders conduct an interview with someone who lived through World War II. They watch a video of an interview, develop a list of interview questions, record their interview, and write and publish a summary and transcript of their...
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My Safe School
Students discuss what they can do to protect their school and make it safer for everyone to attend. They suggest ideas and try to implement them. They report back to the class after four weeks.
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Wahta (Maple) Project
Students increase their knowledge base of the maple syrup process and increase their skills of organization, technology, research, teamwork-cooperation, and oral presentation. Students use a team approach to choose a topic pertaining to...
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Mood In Art And Poetry
Seventh graders investigate the concept of mood and how it influences various types of art. They create an abstract painting and demonstrate how mood is present in the work. Also, 7th graders construct poems using word choices to set...
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Early Explorers Project
Students choose an explorer from a given list, create an original song or poem based on the life of their explorer, make puppets to represent their explorer and then present their original piece to the class while students take notes on...
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Project Assessing the Need
Students determine ways to serve the community. In this service learning lesson, students list human wants and human needs and repeat the activity for community wants and community needs. Students contact local agencies to conduct a...
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African Folktales
Learners study the elements of folktales. They write, perform and produce their own African folktales using camcorders and movie software.
American Bar Association
News Literacy Model Curriculum in Social Studies
Scholars investigate news literacy in the twenty-first century. They use technology, legal decisions, writings, and digital privacy to analyze the topic. Using what they learned, a group assignment looks into both the challenges and...
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition
Building Vocabulary: Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes
Word roots, prefixes, and suffixes can hold the key to determining the meaning of a host of different words. Included here are five pages of prefixes, roots, and suffixes paired with their meanings and example words.
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Lesson Mystery: The Game is Afoot
Students enter and experience the world of Sherlock Holmes and hard-boiled detectives in this unit on mysteries. They review and analyze the ""Whodunit Requirements" and the "Mystery Contract" that accompany this lesson. Each student...
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Library Orientation
Quidditch anyone? Here's a fun way to introduce your class to the resources available in the library as well as on the Internet. Researchers create an outline of the sources they locate about Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, quidditch, and...
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Short Story Commercials
Middle schoolers read short story selections, and work with classmates to produce commercials using digital video equipment.
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Social Studies Wonders: An Exploration
Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....
Discover Earth
Weather Stations
Transform your classroom into a fully functioning weather station with this series of hands-on investigations. Covering the topics of temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, and cloud formation, these activities engage young...
Curated OER
Poetry In Motion
Explore poetry with your class by having them film themselves reading different types of poems. They explore different elements in all types of poetry. They choose images to accompany their poems and learn to create video presentations...
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Stating Your Case: Writing Thesis Statements Effectively
As a writer, if you have a weak introductory paragraph or thesis statement, you might lose your audience! Have your middle and high schoolers practice writing introductory paragraphs that include clear thesis statements in response to...
National Park Service
Same Colors, Different Flavors
Who says getting to know your neighbors has to be difficult? The first resource in a three-part series creates an engaging project that teaches your scholars about Canadian culture. A question-and-answer format takes place via e-mail and...
Newspaper Association of America
By the Numbers: Mathematical Connections in Newspapers for Middle-Grade Students
A cross-curricular resource teaches and reinforces mathematical concepts with several activities that use parts of a newspaper. Scholars use scavenger hunts to find the different ways math is used in the paper along with using data...