Curated OER
Dance: Personal Soundtracks
Students create a musical autobiography. In this fine arts activity, students explore the emotions that music can express by listening to and discussing a variety of music. Students construct a personal timeline and a collection of music...
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What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Light
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate whether plants need light to survive and grow. They observe and gather data about plant responses to different growth regimes, analyze the data, and make conclusions about basic plant needs.
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Through the Lens of Robert Capa
Students use Guided Reading techniques to learn about Capa's style and to discover the techniques that made him a great photographer. Students examine the basics of telling compelling stories through photos and each student creates a...
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Look Before You Think: How To Appreciate a Painting
Young scholars develop an elementary understanding of the history of art. They study the basic elements of a painting including perspective, composition, color, light and symbolism. They look at each selected painting and analyze it,...
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The Notorious Hope Diamond: What Makes an American Legend?
Students view and discuss a video on the legend of the Hope Diamond then compare and contrast other tales such as Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed. They analyze basic characteristics of these legends then use descriptive...
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What is Diabetes?
Students examine basic information about diabetes and related vocabulary words. They explore various health websites, complete a worksheet, discuss the worksheet answers and discuss diabetes myths vs. facts.
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The Anaconda
Students examine basic facts about the anaconda. They discuss the length of an anaconda, estimate the length of 33 feet, compare their estimate to the actual length, and decorate the paper snake with colored scales.
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ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, OLIVIA'S FRIEND
Students study Eleanor Roosevelt the person. They explore how she cared about people. They examine what she looked like and some basic good qualities about her.
They study three historical facts about ER, such as: Eleanor Roosevelt...
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Building a Better Argument
Students create good arguments by exploring the basic structure of an arguments. They determine premises and conclusions for analyzing the effectiveness of arguments. In addition, they explore the differences between arguments and...
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The Poetry of Chinoiserie
Students study Asian works of art and Japanese haiku. They then take this knowledge and create an original haiku in response to other works of art.
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Capturing Watershed Experiences
Young scholars observe organisms found in the water. In this lesson plan on organisms, students collect water from local streams and tributaries in order to study the organisms found in the water. As a culminating activity, young...
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Happy in My Habitat
Fourth graders create animal habitats and explain the biomes they live in. In this habitat lesson, 4th graders recognize the basic needs of animals, characteristics of animals differences and places where they live. Students...
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Fishing
Students explore the techniques and basic needs of the fisherman. In this fishing lesson, students view a demonstration of the use of fishing equipment. Students research Iowa farm ponds and design a class mural from their...
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The Barn Owl Pellet
Seventh graders examine the factors that affect the number and types of organisms that an ecosystem can support. In this ecosystem lesson students study the barn owl and where it is on the food chain, then dissect an owl pellet.
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What Is It?
Play the game of Tag and differentiate between plants and animals. Explore the characteristics of plants. Identify the major parts of plants (e.g., seeds, stem, pistil) and describe their basic functions. Compare the requirements of some...
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Portrait of the Artist - Georgia O'Keeffe
Students study the work of Georgia O'Keefe. They use a digital camera or scanned images from a regular camera and the PhotoShop application to create a landscape of their own which reflects the important shapes or objects in their...
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Breaking the Code: Actions and Songs of Protest
Students listen to and discuss the purpose of protest music. They analyze an editorial cartoon related to Jim Crow and read questions from the literacy tests given to African-Americans. They work together to write a song about the...
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The Forest Community And Ethnobotany Past And Present
Students describe a forest as a living community. They determine members interact, and in many cases, depend on each other for their basic survival needs. They investigate how dependent the Native Americans were on the forest...
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Hands Poem
Students create a "Hands" poem for the author/character in a reading selection.They make inferences for reading selection and back up inference by citing specific lines in text. They relate author's or main character's experiences to...
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Martin Luther King Jr. Layered
Students identify African American and their contributions to American Society. They describe what African Americans did and explain how it positively changed our way of life. In essence, this lesson plan increases children's self-esteem...
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Learning about Native Americans through Artifact Analysis and Artwork
Sixth graders assess how a Native American's environment and the geographic region where they lived influenced their food, clothing, shelter and the overall culture of a tribe. They study the impact of conservation, family, rural life,...
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POLLINATION DEMONSTRATION
Third graders study the terms pollen and pollination. They use appropriate vocabulary in describing their investigations, explorations, and observations (e.g., stem, pistil, stamen, flower). They describe, using their observations,...
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Wind, What Causes It?
Young scholars explore what causes wind, why wind behaves as it does, early cultural beliefs about wind, high and low pressure systems, basic fluid dynamics, units of measurement for wind, and how lift is caused; students create and fly...
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Hopping For Candy
Students explore recipes online for different types of candy, and simulate process of making candy to explain how candy makers rely on varied temperatures and basic chemistry to produce perfect sweets.