Curated OER
Historical Fiction - Based on facts or purely fiction?
Students, after reading an Accelerated Reader historical fiction book, research the actual historical time period portrayed in the book. Then, working in a cooperative learning group, they create a HyperStudio presentation.
Curated OER
Call It a Hunch
Give young scholars a chance to practice making inferences after reading the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges. They confirm whether or not their conclusions are true, have a class discussion, and then independently complete an...
National First Ladies' Library
Writing (and Rewriting!) History
Middle schoolers differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, discuss historical fiction, which combines both genres, choose historical novel from list and read independently, and write original short stories that combine elements of...
Curated OER
Organizing Main Ideas and Supporting Details
Students read given information and identify the main ideas and specific detail of the story. In groups, they read a historical title and create a "book talk" for each one, summarizing the story. In addition, students create a...
Curated OER
Trivia Books: Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration
Students detrmine the importance of point of view. They use a well-known fairy tale to explore how changing the point of view changes the whole story. They generate questions from the text they want answered during the unit and construct...
Curated OER
Story Scrapbook
Learners develop a comparison worksheet using one non fiction book and one fiction book they have read to be put into a class scrapbook. In their comparison students must have title, author, point of view, setting, characters, and other...
Curated OER
Middle Ages Timeline
Students research a historical figure from the Middle Ages. In this Middle Ages lesson, students present important events of their characters life and of the time. Students write a time card for each significant event. Students must...
Curated OER
Postcards from the Past
Students create postcards from the past by summarizing a historical event. Then they design illustrations for their postcards and send them off to another teacher at their school.
Curated OER
European Exploration, Trade and Colonization
Students complete many activities including mapping, reading books, and Internet research to learn about European exploration. In this European lesson plan, students study geographical mapping, trade, and colonization.
Curated OER
Connection Stems
Learners connect their lives to a story or nonfiction text. In this reading connections instructional activity, students make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections as they complete connections stems based on a story.
Curated OER
If These Walls Could Talk: Seeing a Culture Through Human Features
Students read Talking Walls and discuss the walls presented and their importance to the culture. In this geography instructional activity, students locate and label each country/continent discussed in the book on a world map. Students...
Curated OER
Foods and Languages of the World
Students review Mexico's location and language and learn to pronouns 10 new Spanish food words. Students listen as the book, Corn is Maize is read, touching and passing around an ear of Indian corn. Students discuss the contribution of...
Curated OER
Exploring Life in Jamestown Settlement
Third graders locate Jamestown settlement on a historical timeline and research colonial life. They name a restaurant, identify who their potential customers might be and prepare a typical colonial menu.
Curated OER
The Envelope Please
Students research an animal of the rainforest. They create a computerized claymation to present their research.
Curated OER
Rural Voices Through Photography
Learners research the history of the Depression particularly in the ways it was documented by photography. Then they take their own pictures in the style of one of the best documentarians, Dorothea Lange.