New York City Department of Education
Myself and Others
Self reflection is an important skill to reinforce in our children, and it's especially helpful to help them realize who they are in the context of their environment. A collection of lessons about self image and community encourage...
Smithsonian Institution
Dia de los Muertos: Honoring our Ancestors Through Community Celebration
Oral storytelling has been an important part of every culture. The time-honored practice uses stories as a conduit for a culture's values and customs from one generation to the next. Keep the tradition going with a family interview...
National Woman's History Museum
Wilma Mankiller: Cherokee Leader
Middle and high schoolers consider the characteristics that make for a great leader. For example, they investigate Wilma Mankiller, the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Researchers read a short biography, watch a...
Curated OER
The Community of Fun
Students participate in a parachute activity. In this physical education lesson, students use teamwork to lift a parachute and keep soft balls on top of it. Students demonstrate how working together can accomplish a goal.
Curated OER
Charting the Course
Students list and describe the characteristics of a good citizen relative to democracy. They see that philanthropy is part of good citizenship and exemplify philanthropy through random acts of kindness. Each group will be responsible for...
Curated OER
Using the Tools in Your Community
Third graders research a profession in their community that uses tools to help the community. In this professions lesson plan, 3rd graders complete computer research to research the profession and present it to the class.
Curated OER
Families and Neighborhoods
Students investigate the characteristics of a neighborhood. In this communities instructional activity, students read the book Franklin's Neighborhood and list people and places in their community. Students create a neighborhood mural.
Curated OER
How Typical or Atypical is Your Community?
Students analyze and answer specific questions posed by the teacher about their community. They assess how typical a community is by comparing its characteristics to those of the whole nation. They determine how typical or atypical...
Curated OER
Community Bus Tour
Second graders take a bus tour to discover different businesses, schools, and other buildings located in the community. They then learn about the different types of technology that is used in the community.
Curated OER
Community Quilt
Second graders use prior knowledge about the community to create a quilt. They use complete sentences to explain their block and also use oral language skills to tell about their caption for their quilt piece.
Curated OER
Around Your Town
Students use web sites to find information. In this geography lesson, students brainstorm a list of places in their community, talk about the way zoos are organized and explore the uniqueness of the fifty states in the United States of...
Curated OER
Beef (Advanced)
In this beef worksheet, students participate in a variety of activities including completing a digestion dilemma, identifying best meat cuts and selecting a service project to complete.
Curated OER
Ecology Lessons
Students examine the relationship between animal adaptations, habitats and community interactions. In this ecology lesson plan students complete a skull detective worksheet then use their knowledge to analyze a skull.
Curated OER
An Apple A Day
Third graders brainstorm a list of how they can tell if someone feels bad about themselves. As a class, they describe three different apples shown to them. Individually, they cut out shapes of apples and color them to place them on a...
Curated OER
Walking the Five Themes - Your Community to Ours
Students in two classrooms share information about their communities in classrooms throughout the year. In groups, they identify the physical and human characteristics of each area and how they change through time. They also discover the...
Special Olympics
A World of Difference
Kids engage in a series of activities that ask them to consider differences and similarities in characteristics, both visible and invisible. With this new understanding, the class investigates the Special Olympics program and develops...
Curated OER
What's in That Cake?
Cooperative groups research trip logs from deep-sea expeditions and explore characteristics of deepwater habitats. Using a cake as the ocean floor, they work together to decorate it as a model of such habitats. They also prepare a...
Curated OER
Philanthropy Framework
Students become community philanthropists. In this social studies lesson, students learn the definition of philanthropy and apply it to Martin Luther King, Jr. The next day, students complete 3 T-charts for 3 historical figures. Finally,...
Curated OER
Inquiring Minds: News and Philanthropy
Students study newspaper articles and rewrite events from literature into news stories about kindness. In this news article lesson, students read sentences from newspaper articles and identify the purpose of the article. Students...
English is a Piece of Cake
Emotional Intelligence
How would you describe a great leader? Explore the theme of leadership with a unit that focuses on emotional intelligence, and how great leaders have a strong sense of emotional intelligence.
Macmillan Education
Sine and Cosine Graphs
Learners compare and contrast sine and cosine graphs in order to describe their characteristics in a collaborative activity. As they explain their reasoning, learners strengthen their writing and vocabulary skills associated with sine...
Curated OER
A Contract on Bullying
If you want to stop bullying, you need to understand it. A four-part lesson guides learners through defining characteristics of a bully, identifying instances of bullying in the media and in their lives, and signing a contract to become...
Curated OER
Take a Walk in Their Shoes: Great Leaders of Our Time
Research the characteristics of leaders who have used nonviolence to change society. The class then applies this information to their own community to find leaders with these same characteristics, creating a wall collage of pictures and...
Curated OER
Italian Fascism
By first defining the characteristics and ideology of fascism, this presentation makes it easy for viewers to contextualize the rise of Mussolini in post-WWI Italy. Not only thorough and informative, the pictures and concepts featured in...