Teacher Vision
Political Events and Summer Olympic Games
During an Olympics year, the world joins together to celebrate athleticism, patriotism, and history. Learn about the Olympiads of the 20th century with a research project in which groups research one year's Olympic Games. They note the...
Curated OER
Create a Board Game
Middle schoolers research, design, and create a game board based on information learned in ancient civilizations' social studies units. They utilize computer technology to research the project, as well as, textbooks, in-class library...
Curated OER
Making a Living and Leisure Activities
Students investigate the economic and daily activities in a typical African community. They design and construct a small scale house, play an African board game, create African money, discuss vocabulary, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Desert Fever: A Student-Centered Approach to Learning About the Middle East
Explore the exciting and diverse geography, people, history, governments, and economies of the Middle East. Curious minds develop a basic vocabulary of Arabic terms and work with various materials to create an aesthetically pleasing,...
Curated OER
Is Monopoly the Microsoft Board's Game?
Students first participate in an in-depth discussion about capitalism, monopolies, trusts, mergers, and the Sherman Antitrust Act. They work in groups to investigate past examples of corporations tried for antitrust act violations.
National First Ladies' Library
Opening the Olympic Games
Learners examine the history of the Olympic Games, including the opening ceremonies. In small groups, they create Olympic flags using symbols that represent their country and communities. In phase two of the instructional activity,...
Curated OER
What is the history of rice in the United States?
Fifth graders become familiar with the history of rice and create a board game. In this rice lesson, 5th graders understand the history of rice through the playing of a game. Students use vocabulary words related to the...
Curated OER
Let's Celebrate Kwanzaa!
Learn more about Kwanzaa with a celebratory lesson. As learners analyze My First Kwanzaa Book by Debbi Chocolate, they compare and contrast the celebration to other holiday traditions they know about. Next, they prepare and...
Weebly
Liberty Theme Park Project
Invite your young historians to demonstrate how the American Revolution truly was one crazy ride after another as they design a theme park! This unique and engaging project prompts learners to consider major events leading up to and...
Teacher Vision
The First Thanksgiving - Pilgrim Study Unit
Students explain the origins of Thanksgiving. As a class, they list all the meanings, stories, and images that come into their minds when they hear the word "Thanksgiving." After reading about Thanksgiving, pairs of students create 4...
Curated OER
Fair Game?
Students evaluate possible gender stereotypes perpetuated by computer games, particularly those designed for girls. They design a prototype for a gender bias-free computer game that would appeal to both males and females.
Curated OER
The Story of Kwanzaa
Celebrate Kwanzaa with a game of Kalah, also known as Mankala or Owara. Using an egg carton and a set of beans, players take all of the beans out of one of his or her cups and move to the right, dropping one bean into each of the...
Curated OER
Adjunct Materials
Students describe and evaluate adjunct educational materials for their usefulness in social studies classrooms. They identify means of randomly pairing students using social studies content and develop social studies-themed unit plans...
Curated OER
"Resourceful" Games and Toys
Students create a type of ball demonstrating how games reflect local resources. They observe photos of African children playing games with various items such as sand, shells or rocks. Then, working in teams, students make a ball from...
Curated OER
The Surreal Deal
Students examine the art-historical contexts used by Salvador Dali and identify examples of them. They explore surrealism by playing the game Exquisite Corpse, automatic writing or drawing, and dream illustration. They tour the Dali Museum.
NPR
Female Olympians Lesson Plan
For every strong and determined female Olympian, there are millions of young girls watching and becoming inspired. Middle and high schoolers learn more about record-breaking and history-making Olympian women with a presentation from the...
Curated OER
Costs of Living
Students consider the effects of rising oil and natural gas prices on family spending and saving habits. They design a board game intended to help people save.
Curated OER
The Sexton and the Compass
Students evaluate how movement patterns create and affect interdependence. They analyze the interactions within and between regions and engage in artistic inquiry, exploration, and discovery in collaboration with others. They design...
Curated OER
Election Baseball
Students play trivia baseball where they answer trivia questions about the Constitution and elections. In this social studies lesson plan, students research facts about the Constitution and elections while playing the game.
Curated OER
Where Do You Live?
Second graders study and compare rural, suburban, and urban communities. They play a board game, read books about communities, and complete several other activities regarding the different types of communities. Several extension and...
Curated OER
Game: Turkey Put Together
Students play a game using a symbol of Thanksgiving - the turkey. In this Thanksgiving game lesson, students divide into teams and participate in a relay race to create a turkey.
Curated OER
Virtual Realities of War
Students outline the major events, mat??riel, and setting of a war or conflict. They develop a computer game narrative that draws on these historically accurate details.
Curated OER
The constitution and Our Republic
Students record and interpret data. In this constitution lesson plan, students discuss voting and making bar graphs. Students practice voting and do a bar graph activity. Students make visual representations of votes on the board.
Curated OER
The Perfect President
Students advertise for the perfect president. In this presidential duties lesson, students determine the attributes that the ideal president should have and then write job descriptions for the role.