Curated OER
Beyond Pinch Pots: Art Lesson Plans with Clay
Students use creative problem solving as they construct with clay in art lesson plans.
Curated OER
Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical Rainforest,...
Curated OER
Rainy Day Games And Lessons
Bad weather can be a great reason to take a break from the regular curriculum and learn using the imagination, and games.
Curated OER
Shakespeare: The Nature of Writing and the Writing of Nature
This lesson plan uses Shakespeare's writing as a model for elementary students, encouraging them use their imaginations to explore to the evocative powers of language. It gives them a manageable piece of text which they can master and...
Curated OER
From Foreground to Background
Students examine the composition of landscape paintings with an emphasis on foreground, middle ground, and background. They view and analyze a painting by Poussin, and create an original imagined landscape.
Curated OER
Simple Machines and Modern Day Engineering Analogies
Young scholars apply the mechanical advantages and problem-solving capabilities of six types of simple machines (wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw, pulley) as they discuss modern structures in the spirit of the...
Curated OER
The Great Apes
Students prepare experiment plans for a peer review session to test the intelligence level of gorillas. They view and discuss a Discovery Channel video on the wild behaviors of gorillas then create three experiments that could test the...
Curated OER
Vanished Occupations: Life on an Iron Plantation
Learners analyze photographs to understand life on a plantation. In this vanished occupations lesson, students examine why iron plantations were created and what natural resources were needed to make iron. Learners compare the...
Curated OER
Shape Shifters- Trees and the Environment
Students make a tree sculpture. In this trees and the environment lesson plan, students learn about the parts of a tree, discuss what a tree needs in order to grow, find images of trees in art and nature, use various materials to create...
Curated OER
Finger Painting With a Purpose
With finger painting lessons and activities students can see their hands and fingers as tools for creativity.
Curated OER
Getting the Message Across
Students discover the emergence of e-mail as a popular communication tool and explore its impact on society. They consider the advantages and disadvantages of different types of communication tools in various creative contexts.
Curated OER
Sea-ing More Clearly
Learners explore historical importance of fish as food source, examine works of Robert Harris, create their own fish, and compose accompanying poetry. Students then explore dramatic tradition of Chorus inspired by Greek theatre,...
Curated OER
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
High schoolers work in groups to imagine, research and simulate a dinner party involving an author, a fictional character, and a significant historical figure as dinner guests. The activity uses Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and...
Curated OER
A Turkey's Last Plea-- Story Starter
In this writing worksheet, students imagine that they are a turkey who must convince the people not to serve him for Thanksgiving dinner. Students read the story starter and finish the story.
Curated OER
Inside an Atom
In this atom worksheet, students read about the history of the discovery of the atom. Students write a story, poem, song or other creative project in which they shrink to an incredibly small size and are trapped in a carbon atom.
Curated OER
Child Soldier
Young scholars identify the exploitations of child soldiers. In this global issues lesson, students listen to a story that puts them in the shoes a 16 year old child soldier. Young scholars discuss the plight of the teenager and then...
Curated OER
Write a Story Based on the Picture
In this creative writing learning exercise, students look at a picture and write a creative story based on what they imagine is happening.
Curated OER
Scripting the Past: Exploring Women's History Through Film
Explore women's history through films and filmmaking. An innovative research project prompts class members to create their own screenplay about a figure in women's history. After outlining their characters, settings, and plots, young...
Curated OER
My Antonia: Guided Imagery
Willa Cather's novel My Antonia is full of vivid imagery. Encourage your pupils to visualize and translate images from the text into original writing with this guided imagery activity. Learners listen to an excerpt, take a moment to...
EngageNY
Writing and Revising Our Texts: Using Peer Critique to Improve First Drafts
Mail me a postcard. Individuals design a postcard to show what Meg Lowman from The Most Beautiful Roof in the
World might have written to her friends at home. They then continue to work on writing a science journal entry.
School District No. 43
Writing a Greek Myth
Ask your learners to dream up a myth set in modern day. These mythology writing prompts require individuals take on the role of an ancient Greek citizen who just woke up to a totally different world. Through this lens, class members...
Teach Hub
Super Bowl Classroom Activities
Need some help getting young football fans to focus on something besides the Super Bowl? Use a list of football-themed activities for art, math, science, nutrition, language arts, and social studies to get their heads in the game!
Novelinks
Words by Heart: Guided Imagery
Sad, depressed, miserable, inconsolable, forlorn: so many synonyms have a lot of variety with their connotations. Through the guided imagery activity, writers explore the use of connotation and its influence on imagery and description by...
Teaching Tolerance
Act Up! Drama for Justice
A lesson turns young historians into playwrights to understand and speak out against social injustice. Pupils work individually or in groups to write and perform monologues that deliver personal messages on social justice. Writers then...