Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animal Encounters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use their visualizing and interpreting skills to produce original writings and artwork.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students 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

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students, 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

Stories of the Wrights' Flight

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students examine and compare primary and secondary source accounts of the Wright brothers' first flights on December 17, 1903.
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

Spy on a Spider

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students 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 can be...
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

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

James Van Der Zee

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers recognize James Van Der Zee as an outstanding photographer who documented and reflected life in Harlem during the 1920s. They identify important aspects of Van Der Zee's life and artwork and compose and shoot their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lawson's Many Roles

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine the life of John Lawson and his many roles he took on during his life. Using their text, they discover the area in which he traveled and lived. They write an essay about his movements and identifying his contacts in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Axis and Allies World War II Simulation

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Learners investigate World War II through the computer game Axis and Allies. They discuss the basics of World War II before playing the game, spend eight weeks playing the game that is a simulation of World War II, and write a report...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Raising Cane: Building a Cane Flute From Scratch

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders create their own cane flute. They use a model flute to gain the correct measurements and use the scientific method to construct the flute to have sound quality and pitch accuracy.
Website
Other

Carnegie Hall: A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy

For Students 9th - 10th
Trace the history of African American music from 1600-2000 and examine the styles, influences, artists and listen to samples presented by Carnegie Hall.
Website
Other

The History Makers

For Students 9th - 10th
Thehistorymakers.com features the stories of African Americans who have succeeded and made achievements in the areas of art, business, education, law, politics, science, religion, and sports. There is a great timeline of African American...
Website
Indiana University

Archives of African American Music and Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
Contains resources on black culture and music from the early 1900s to the present.
Handout
Countries and Their Cultures

Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: South African Americans

For Students 9th - 10th
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of South African Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Website
PBS

Pbs: American Roots Music

For Students 9th - 10th
If teaching a unit about the history of popular music in America, this PBS web site supporting their four-part TV broadcast of a few years ago would make a great resource. Includes lesson plans and oral histories too.
Website
York University

York University: African Canadian Online: Music

For Students 9th - 10th
African-Canadian music encompasses the West Indies, Africa, the United States, South American and the Maritimes. This excellent reference resource provides information about the many kinds of music and the talented individuals who make it.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz

For Students 9th - 10th
Smithsonian Jazz is home to several online exhibits, an interactive "Duke Ellington class," recordings, publications, oral histories, and similar resources.
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition

For Students 9th - 10th
Article explores the influence of jazz on African American literature from the early history of jazz, noted jazz artists, the black-white tensions within jazz, to its literary influence after World War II.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Black List Project: Charley Pride

For Students 9th - 10th
A biography of famed country music singer Charley Pride, one of few African Americans in the industry to both perform at and be inducted to the Grand Ole Opry.
Website
South Carolina Educational Television

Etv: Gullah Net: Gullah Music

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore aspects of African music as reflected in the songs and music of slaves who lived in coastal South Carolina.
Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Blues Music: Overview

For Students 9th - 10th
Overview and definition of blues music that developed in the southern United States in the early nineteenth century. Performers from Georgia include Ray Charles, Ma Rainey, Little Richard, and the Allman Brothers.
Unit Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Blues Journey

For Students 9th - 10th
Trace the history of the blues in America through the play, Blues Journey, based on the book by Walter Dean Myers. You can see video clips of the stage play, listen to blues radio shows, and learn about different types of blues music.