Curated OER
What's Proper?
Learners practice using capital letters for proper nouns and adjectives. They play a matching game with word cards and correct paragraphs with incorrect capitalization, and edit their work with a partner.
Curated OER
Putting It All Together: Revision
Use the revision process to polish your writing. Writers prepare works for job portfolios that include cover letters, job applications, resumes, and letters of recommendation. Prepare them for the future!
Curated OER
Comparing and Contrasting
Analyze historical biographies. Young scholars compare and contrast the biographies of Susan B. Anthony and Pat Nixon. They construct graphic organizers, answer critical thinking questions, complete a formative assessment.
Novelinks
The Book Thief: Cubing Strategy
Whether used to review prior to a reading assessment or as a way to generate ideas for an essay, this activity is sure to encourage critical thinking about Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Kids create a six-sided question cube with each...
Illustrative Mathematics
Adding Tenths and Hundredths
Learning to add fractions with different denominators presents a big hurdle for many young mathematicians. Simplify the process for learners with this series of practice problems involving the friendly fractions tenths and hundredths....
American Chemical Society
Forming a Precipitate
Can you mix two liquids to make a solid that is insoluble? Yes, you can, and pupils see this as the lesson uses more than one combination of liquids to form a solid. Through two teacher demonstrations and a hands-on activity,...
American Chemical Society
Temperature and the Rate of a Chemical Reaction
Putting glow sticks in the freezer makes them last longer, but why is that? Lesson focuses on how temperature impacts the rate of a chemical reaction. It begins with a teacher demonstration, then scholars design their own experiments...
American Chemical Society
Finding Volume: The Water Displacement Method
We have formulas for finding the volume of geometric shapes, but what if the shape is irregular? Lesson describes how to find volume through water displacement. After a demonstration, scholars practice in small groups. Then analysis...
American Chemical Society
Heat, Temperature, and Conduction
How does heat move from one item to another, even when the items are in different states of matter? Pupils experiment with adding washers to hot water and adding hot washers to room temperature water to observe the heat transfer.
American Chemical Society
Changing State: Freezing
There are five types of frost: ground frost, air frost, hoar frost, glaze, and rime. Scholars mix ice and salt in a metal container to observe frost forming on the outside of the can. Animations and videos enhance the learning.
American Chemical Society
What is Density?
Density: the reason a giant pumpkin will float, but a tiny cranberry won't. Lesson begins with a demonstration of two of the same-sized cubes having different densities. Then pupils take eight cubes, each of the same size, and have to...
American Chemical Society
Density of Water
We know solids have a density we can measure, but what about liquids? Lesson explores this concept and allows scholars to explore the relationship between volume and density. Graphing and analysis questions round out the activity.
American Chemical Society
Density: Sink and Float for Solids
Steal cubes sink, but steal ships float. Lesson explores the density of solids as well as the density of water in determining what will sink and what will float. A hands-on group activity helps pupils see that weight and volume are...
American Chemical Society
Can Gases Dissolve in Water?
Why does soda fizz when opened? Learners discuss the appearance of bubbles in soda bottles when opened. In groups, they design and complete an experiment comparing the amount of carbon dioxide dissolving in cold versus hot liquids.
American Chemical Society
Using Chemical Change to Identify an Unknown
If you discover an unknown powder, how do you determine if it is safe? Lesson uses four different tests to identify the properties of various powders that appear the same. Then scholars get an unknown powder and have to determine which...
American Chemical Society
Density: Sink and Float for Liquids
We don't think of liquids as floating typically, but a quick look at any oil spill tells a different story. Lesson explores various densities of liquids and why this fact is important. After observing the density variation, scholars...
American Chemical Society
Temperature Affects Density
Different substances can have different densities, but can the same substance have different densities? Lesson explores the effect of temperature on the density of water. Extension idea connects the concept of how melting ice in lakes...
American Chemical Society
Curious Crystals
Crystals are more than meets the eye! Can learners tell them apart simply by observation? As they examine five samples with a magnifier, they find that appearance alone is not enough. This serves as an introduction to a mini unit on...
American Chemical Society
Condensation
It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...
American Chemical Society
Temperature Affects Dissolving
Stir chocolate drink mix into hot and cold water to see if there is a difference in how quickly it dissolves. Number three in a six-lesson plan unit on dissolving, this installment investigates the effect of temperature. If you consult...
American Chemical Society
Evaporation
This is one in several lessons that explore the relationship between temperature and phase changes of water. After some discussion, elementary physical scientists place wet paper toweling on a hot and a room-temperature water bag...
American Chemical Society
Dissolving a Substance in Different Liquids
Second of six lessons in a unit on dissolving, this one focuses on how sugar behaves in different liquids. Learners stir it into water, alcohol, and oil and make observations. This lesson can stand alone, but is best used as part of the...
American Chemical Society
Defining Dissolving
Physical science investigators mix sugar and food coloring into different cups of water and cooking oil to compare how the solid and liquid behave in each. As the introduction to this unit on dissolving, it is relevant.
American Chemical Society
Dissolving Different Liquids in Water
Not many youngsters realize that solids aren't the only materials that can possibly be dissolved in water. During this investigation, they find out that some liquids can dissolve in water as well. This is part of a unit on solubility,...