Curated OER
Eco-Healthy Lunch
Students plan healthy lunches and how to dispose of their lunch waste. In this pre-field trip lesson, students and teachers plan healthy, nutritious lunches to bring on a field trip. They also discuss how to sort their garbage into the...
K12 Reader
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
After reading a short passage about Japan's involvement in World War II and why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, readers are asked to analyze how the attack effected the attitudes of Americans who previously had not wanted to go...
Curated OER
Thanksgiving Day
What state consumes the most turkey per person? Who sponsors the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City? Use the Thanksgiving holiday as an opportunity for learners to develop their research skills with this fun Internet...
Curated OER
Walking in Their Shoes
Students explore the challenges of those who have "learning disabilities." They develop a storyboard and create a video which depicts learning disabled students coping with life. Special effects are added to the video scenes, as well as...
Curated OER
Run/Walk Across America
Walk, jog, or run across America. Maps of individual states, visual progress, competition, and rewards, seem to be great motivational ideas. Make sure that the distances that each class has to walk or run are the same, because getting...
Curated OER
New York English Language Arts Test: Grade 6
This comprehensive end-of-year language arts test requires that sixth-graders demonstrate their listening, writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. It includes 9 essay/short answer questions; however, the story, "A Winning...
Agriculture in the Classroom
Build it Better
If you think you can do better, feel free to give it a try. Pupils learn about the work on Temple Grandin and consider ways to improve animal handling facilities. They work in groups to build models to showcase their ideas.
Curated OER
The Greedy Dog
Teach young mathematicians the concepts of greater than, less than, and equal to with kinesthetic, visual, verbal, and numeric approaches. In a playful session that addresses multiple intelligences, your class will: dramatize a greedy...
Curated OER
The Food Guide Pyramid
Students examine each level of the food pyramid and how many servings they should consume during the day. They study the important nutrients associated with each category of the food pyramid.
Curated OER
Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Primary learners will embrace diversity and celebrate multiculturalism through these engaging activities. Which include reading the story Martin Luther King and singing the song "A Man Named King." They will also explore the...
Curated OER
Freestanding Structures: A Tech Museum Floor Activity
Students attempt to design the tallest structure that they can with the given materials which are wooden dowels and rubber bands. They discuss the physics of their structure and how they would improve it the next time they built a...
Curated OER
Chinese Landscape Painting
Third graders learn about Chinese poetry and landscape paintings, then create their own. They view several examples and discuss the elements of each, then paint their own landscape inspired by what they saw. They then listen to, read,...
Curated OER
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems
Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...
Curated OER
Commemorating Women's History
Lesson and project ideas to celebrate Women's History Month.
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 5: Creating a Supporting Character
As a class, young writers learn how to develop a strong supporting character. They think and discuss a good friend they know, they use that friend as a basis for a potential supporting character. They create a supporting character as a...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
Shodor Education Foundation
Pythagorean Theorem
Most adults remember learning about the Pythagorean theorem, but they don't all remember how to use it. The emphasis here is on developing an intuitive understanding of how and when to use the theorem. Young mathematicians explore...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Artificial Eye
Scientists in California developed a bionic eye that allows blind people to see edges of objects in black and white and costs $145,000. In the activity, groups of scholars discuss bioengineering, focusing on the human eye. They then...
Curated OER
Follow a Bill!
Students participate in an activity to discover how a bill becomes law in California. In groups, they create a school program based on their own ideas for change. They develop and conduct a survey within their community and present their...
Curated OER
Conflicts Between Cultures
Fourth graders examine the issue of discrimination against new immigrants to California. They develop a class word web, read and discuss text, create a poster, and write a picture poem.
Curated OER
Making A New Nation
Eighth graders read standard road maps and topographical maps, and examine the lives of pathfinders who opened the trails to the West. They develop Living History presentations, role-playing a character from the past.
Curated OER
Words In The News: Beverly Hills Smoking Ban
Young scholars read news articles about the proposed smoking ban in California restaurants. After discussing the news report, they role-play scenarios about nonsmoking situations. In groups, they brainstorm the pros and cons of smoking...
Curated OER
Figurin Somepin 'Bout the Great Depression
Students create a scrapbook based on their research of the lives of migrants in California during the Great Depression.
Curated OER
Seeing the Courtroom and Legal System Through the Eyes of a Child
Students understand that law is a tool that provides for the protection of our individual rights and at the same time makes it possible for groups to live together.