Overcoming Obstacles
Adapting to Change
Peter Pan doesn't want to grow up and doesn't want to change. Many middle schoolers feel the same way. The first instructional activity in the "Looking to the Future" module underscores the concept that change is a natural part of life...
Curated OER
Quilt Squares-Literature Reporting
Differentiate instruction with this crafty approach to demonstrating comprehension. Learners choose a fictional book at their reading level, and afterward create a quilt square. The square is "decorated" with words, illustrations, and...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss - Make Time for Rhymes
Read the story Green Eggs and Ham to practice phonemic awareness, rhyming, and writing skills with emerging readers. They will match oral words to printed words, create a graphic organizer, and the use rhyming words in an...
Curated OER
Road Map to Success
Using three different graphic organizers, learners create a road map describing how they'll meet their future career goals. They research the career they are interested in, then use their findings to construct a time line, road map, and...
Curated OER
The Lightning Thief: Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
Before diving into the engaging tale of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, conduct this directed reading and thinking activity. Assess your pupils' knowledge of Greek gods and mythology through a knowledge web,...
Google
Art: Paint with Tera
Here's a creative resource that definitely isn't paint by numbers. As the fourth in and eight-part Art series, learners create a paint program using the Scratch block code. By completing the activity, class members come to understand the...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Counting by 7s
Everyone takes a different journey through grief. A series of lesson plans for the novel Counting by 7s introduces readers to the main character who loses her parents in a car crash. Discussion questions and writing prompts combine...
Virginia Department of Education
Isotopes
Lead your class through the amazing world of isotopes as they investigate the various properties they contain and further understand their respective location on the periodic table. They explore half-lives and radioactivity as each...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Respect for All Kinds of People Inside and Outside the School
Why is it important to embrace diversity? Scholars explore the topic by learning about the CARE acronym: Collaboration, Acceptance, Respect, Empathy. They also complete a diversity puzzle worksheet and play a collaborative game that...
BW Walch
Solving Systems of Linear Inequalities
One thing that puzzles a lot of young algebrists is the factors in a word problem that are taken as "understood". This presentation on solving systems of linear inequalities does a great job walking the learner through how to tease those...
Ontario
Sample Guided Reading Lesson for Emergent Readers
Give your guided reading lesson plan a boost with a sample lesson plan designed to reinforce academic content covered in previous assessments. The sample plan describes how the story and activities were chosen and offers the...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Understanding the Food Web
Building on prior knowledge of the pervious instructional activity in the series, pupils explain the previous instructional activity to each other. Then they write a simple guide for a young child to read on the same topic.
Steered Straight
Marijuana Awareness
February is Marijuana Awareness Month, and a set of interdisciplinary activities can make your class aware of the social, medical, legal, and psychological effects of marijuana. With writing prompts, research opportunities, and...
Thoughtful Learning
Setting and Reaching Goals
An activity boosts self-management through goal setting and reflection. Scholars choose one goal they wish to obtain by the end of the week. Participants brainstorm ways to make their goal a reality then reflect on whether or not their...
Curated OER
A Beary Good Beginning
Students complete first day of school activities. Through instructor modeling and demonstration, they become acquainted with the rules and procedures for the classroom and school. Students create a book of their first day experience.
Curated OER
Our Town Store
Students purchase items in their classroom store. In this money lesson students create a classroom store. The students have a given amount of money and have to decide if they have enough to purchase the items that they would like to.
Curated OER
Back to School with Paper Quilts and Partnerships
Make a commitment to collaboration, and build classroom community by integrating art and classroom objectives to create a paper quilt.
Curated OER
Kindness Graffiti Wall
Students discuss acts of kindness. In this character education lesson, students use a large sheet of poster paper, tempera paint, and markers to create a graffiti wall. Students write down their ideas of kindness and share their wall...
Curated OER
The Great Migration
Students explore how migration to Harlem created a new life for African Americans. In this cross curricular lesson, students illustrate maps showing the migration, paint murals representing African American life in the South and...
Curated OER
Peace Doves
Students explore ways to obtain world peace. For this character education lesson, students read the book Peace Begins With Me and brainstorm a list of ways students can create a more peaceful world. Students use included dove patterns to...
Curated OER
Launching Writer's Workshop
Writer's Workshop can be a great way to create a community of writers.
PBS
Unemployment in Elkhart
Fifth to eighth graders explore reasons for and solutions to unemployment. They begin by making a list of luxury goods and discuss why sales of luxury goods would slump in times of unemployment. They then explore infrastructure and...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...
Curated OER
Settlers: Creating Family Trees & Historical Plays
Students discuss who the founding members of their community were. In this community family tree instructional activity, students learn how to read a family tree and discuss information about the founding families of their community.