Media Smarts
Advertising All Around Us
Here is a set of advertising lessons, explore language, techniques, representation, and target audiences. Discuss the impact ads have on our daily lives. What do we see and how do they make us feel? Observe ads from around the...
Curated OER
Earthquakes: First Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
First graders explore how earthquakes release energy in a set of hands-on activities. During the pre-lab, they discover how energy from an earthquake releases waves through the earth using a water-filled cup and...
Curated OER
Introduction to China
Compare and contrast the distinctive characteristics of art forms from various cultural, historical, and social contexts, and describe how the same subject matter is represented differently in works of art across cultures and time...
Curated OER
The Home Front
Young historians explore life on the home front during the Civil War with primary documents and a series of writing prompts. They also watch a presentation and use a worksheet to compare how communication methods have changed over time....
K20 LEARN
Monster Monday - The Good, the Bad, and the Sparkly: Vampire Tropes through History
Fangs, capes, pale skin, and beady eyes! High schoolers investigate the tropes associated with vampires by examining excerpts from stories and films. They then create a timeline that reveals how the depictions of vampires have evolved...
K20 LEARN
I Need A (Super)Hero: Literary Elements And Narrative Writing
Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.
K20 LEARN
The Power of Poetry: Perspectives in Poetry
What do Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Amanda Gordon have in common? They all believe in the power of words—the power of words to create change. After analyzing the rhetorical strategies in several poems and speeches,...
Curated OER
Gordon Parks:First Survival, Then Success
Have your class examine the work of Gordan Parks. They determine how Park's childhood in Kansas inspired his artwork as they analyze his writings and photographs. Students complete the provided worksheets as they compare, contrast, and...
Curated OER
Author Study: Cynthia Rylant
Explore the life's work of one of the great children's authors using this ten-lesson author study unit. After first performing some whole-group research into the life of Cynthia Rylant, the class goes on to read six different...
Curated OER
1864-1865: Bringing the War to an End
An interesting lesson plan explains the last battles of the war and the terms of the Articles of Surrender. It also analyzes the election of 1864 with copies of the Baltimore and Chicago platforms. To conclude the instructional activity,...
Newseum
Bias Through History: Analyzing Historical Sources
Young journalists use the E.S.C.A.P.E. (evidence, source, context, audience, purpose, and execution) strategy to evaluate historical and contemporary examples of bias in the news. The class then uses the provided discussion questions to...
Curated OER
Rain Forest Babies: comprehension skills
In this comprehension skills worksheet, 2nd graders read the book Rain Forest Babies and complete comprehension activities. Students complete 5 activities including note taking, compare and contrast, and personal opinion.
National Museum of the American Indian
Fritz Scholder: A Study Guide
In this engaging activity involving close analysis of abstract expressionist art, your class members will not only discover more about artist Friz Scholder's Native American art, but they will also have the opportunity to consider...
Annenberg Foundation
A Nation Divided
Can a presidential election cause a civil war? Learners research the events surrounding the presidential election of 1860 in a lesson that explores America's history. Using maps, videos, and primary sources, they uncover, brainstorm, and...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Sex Cells Have One Set of Chromosomes; Body Cells Have Two
What's the difference between body cells and sex cells? Learners explore the question and the process of meiosis using an interactive lesson. An animation describes the discovery of meiosis and describes its phases for a detailed and...
Smithsonian Institution
Borders within the United States: Indian Boarding Schools and Assimilation
Native American Nations ... sovereign entities or removable tribes? A thought-provoking lesson explores the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States, including forced assimilation and removal from their ancestral...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Characters
Third graders compare and contrast. In this compare and contrast lesson students find similarities and differences between two characters from a fiction book. Students use a graphic organizer.
Curated OER
At Play Long Ago and Today: comprehension skills
In this comprehension skills learning exercise, learners read the book At Play Long Ago and Today and complete comprehension activities. Students complete 5 activities including note taking, compare and contrast, predicting, and...
Curated OER
How the Environment Affects Our Health
Ninth graders explore how the environment affects health. In this infectious disease lesson, 9th graders investigate what environmental situations cause infections diseases. Students study the symptoms, treatments, prevention, and...
Curated OER
International Holidays
Second graders explore the holidays of different cultures. In this culture instructional activity, 2nd graders knowledge about various holidays. Students play a matching game with the name of the holiday and the description. Students...
EngageNY
Revising the Newspaper Article: Sentence Structure and Transitions
Take two. After a mini instructional activity covering sentence structure and transition words, scholars revise their End of Unit 3 Assessment based on feedback. Writers self-score their assessments against row three in the Newspaper...
Curated OER
Pancakes, Anyone?
First graders explore data collecting and graphing. In this data collecting and graping lesson, 1st graders watch a video about monster who sells pancakes. Students make a graph to record the most popular pancake. Students also play...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
I Need a Superhero
Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey...
Trinity University
I Didn’t Know that was Poetry
Poetry or prose? That is the question facing middle schoolers as they begin a month-long poetry unit by examining the characteristics that differentiate poetry and prose writing. Pupils learn about poetic devices and different types of...