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Major Intervals
Learners listen to a recording of "Happy Birthday" and practice playing the first two notes of the song on the keyboard discovering that the two notes make up a major 2nd interval. They listen to "Mary Had a Little Lamb" to explain the...
NOAA
I Can't Breathe!
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone, an area of low oxygen that kills marine life, costs the United States $82 million every year. Young scientists research anoxic ocean environments then come up with a hypothesis for the cause of the Gulf of...
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Haring Inspired CD Covers
Students create CD covers from their music-inspired drawing sessions. They compare what they drew while listening to classical, punk and rap music. They scan their drawings into Adobe Photoshop and design their cover.
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Design a Book Cover
Students explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict for a book that they are reading. Sample book covers are provided and students apply what they have learned by designing a book cover.
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An Introduction to Islam and Muhammad
Students view a video regarding Islam and take notes on the video as they watch it. They complete a vocabulary sheet, timeline sheet, and worksheet regarding what they learned about Islam.
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Zen and the Work of Frank Lloyd Wright
Students experience Zen philosophies reflected in artwork, poetry, and architecture. Students will explore these connections and expand the discussion to include a professional author of their choice.
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Lots of Lines
Students see that artists make many different kinds of lines. They discuss how artists use line to show ideas such as motion, mood, or emphasis. They geet a "scribble" to transform into a picture using Colorific markers or erasable crayons.
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Where are We?
Fifth graders explore places visited by Lewis and Clark. In this geographical concepts lesson, 5th graders plot places on a map and put events in chronological order. Students find locations on a map using longitude and latitude....
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Truth and Advertising
Students view and analyze fragments of advertising images from magazines to become familiar with different techniques used to sell products, write captions for advertisements, and create their own advertisements from scratch based on...
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Literary Odyssey
Students read and compare excerpts from The Odyssey and The Adventures of Telemachus. They create an original story based on a secondary character from The Odyssey as well as a sketch of one of the pivotal scenes from the story.
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Scene Writing
Eighth graders create an original scene or short one-act play within specified guidelines. Assessment is based upon the performance of student-created scenes during class time. Rubrics for assessment and connection to state standards...
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The French in Texas
Fourth graders use Internet to examine early French exploration and settlement in Texas, and write journal entries from point of view of 17th Century French settler, French or Spanish explorer, or Native American whose land was taken.
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Bookmark It!
Students analyze piece of literature for symbolism and create a bookmark containing an illustration of the symbolism in it, a quote that shows the symbolism and an explanation of how this symbolism enhances the work.
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Spreading the Word
Students analyze the use of propaganda in the war against terrorism, focusing specifically on the attacks in Afghanistan, exploring the distinction between ideas spread to benefit a cause and those spread to damage an opposing cause.
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Singing The Blues with Garage Band
Students demonstrate writing lyrics for a twelve-bar blues pattern by writing two verses of a blues song and then recording themselves singing over a stock blues pattern using Apple's Garage Band. Requires a networked keyboard lab.
National First Ladies' Library
We're off to see the Wizard!
Students explore the process of play and movie making from books. They study the basic elements of drama and write and produce a play based on a chosen theme. Students explain the basic elements of a play by looking at "The Wonderful...
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PowerPoint Short Story Report
Students make a Microsoft PowerPoint report from a short story read in class. They summarize and paraphrase a short story identifying the six story elements: characters, setting, plot, conflict, solution, tone/mood.
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Teaching Intonation in a SoundTree Lab with Auralia
Students demonstrate intonation and their ability to discriminate between sharp and flat by responding to exercises within Auralia, and by creating their own examples for the class using the Tuning Function on the synthesizer. Requires a...
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Gotta Dance
Students share dance moves that reflect their personalities or depict how they are feeling, explore popularity of recreational and competitive social dancing by reading and discussing the article "Follow the Flying Feet,"
present...
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The Important Thing About Technology
Students assess the advantages of modern technology tools by creating a page in a class book utilizing pattern writing as well as the writing process. They organize and develop a composition on a selected topic after going through the...
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Harlem Renaissance and Toni Morrison's Jazz
Students study the historical time of the Harlem Renaissance, including key events and figures. They read literature that weaves fiction and history and survey some of the references to the Harlem Renaissance in the novel, Jazz, by Toni...
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Playing With Your Food
Students discover about the form and function of traditional musical instruments, then use this knowledge to create non-traditional instruments that replicate the sounds of traditional instruments. They use vegetables to create their...
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A Chorus For Us
Students examine "serious" choral music written for student choirs and the composers who write it. They reflect upon the notion of "serious" music, and examine the trend of concert composers writing pieces for student chorus
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It's an Ad Eats Ad World
Students explore the power and influence of television advertisements in presidential campaigns. They choose issues in the 2004 campaign and create promotional materials addressing these issues from varying points of view.