Education Development Center
Word Problem with Rational Numbers—Balancing Bars of Soap
Here's a resource teachers won't want to wash their hands of. Given a task where a full bar of soap is on one side of a balance and 3/4 of a bar of soup and a 3/4-ounce weight is on the other side, young mathematicians must determine the...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 11
Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining
To understand the impact coal mining has on the environment, pupils will extract chocolate chips from a cookie. Imagine the cookie is the environment and the chips are the coal. Instruct them to mine as many chips as they can, then have...
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You've Got to Have Heart
After reading an excellent description of the human heart, fifth graders look at a drawing of a human body, and choose the circle they think represents where the human heart is found. There are four circles inside the character's chest....
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The Gender of Nouns
A great handout for middle-schoolers learning nouns and their genders, this resource is comprehensive and easy to read. Consider providing some practice opportunities for your learners while you review the information.
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What's Your Opinion
Students complete a questionnaire, formulating opinions on issues that be addressed in the novel, Sing Down the Moon. They make predictions about events that might occur in the novel based on the group discussion.
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Making a Rainstick
Students construct a rainstick. In this music instructional activity, students investigate the history of the rainstick by reading the book Bringing the Rain to the Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. Students express their feelings about the...
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Cinderella Trilogy
Young scholars look at three different versions of the Cinderella story. In this comparative literature lesson plan, students read the Chinese version "Yeh-Shen", the Egyptian version "Rhodopis," and the Native American version "The...
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Counting Crows
Students discuss the fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. For this literature lesson, students read the fable and create a crow sock puppet. Students use their puppets to dramatize the fable.
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Writing Folktales
Students consider the structure of folktales. In this writing skills lesson plan, students list the attributes of folktales that they read in class. Students then complete handouts based on the elements of the tales as well as types of...
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Percussion Instruments and Pitch
Students play string instruments to discover how the pitch changes on various string instruments. In this pitch lesson, students listen to video clips and play an online music game. Students become familiar with music...
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Communication Skills Center Ideas for the Early Finisher
When students finish work early, there are easy ways to keep them focused and learning with independent activities.
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The Dust Bowl
Young scholars discover the causes of droughts. In this Dust Bowl instructional activity, students follow the provided steps to complete a hands-on activity that demonstrates drought conditions. Young scholars write summaries about the...
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Freedom Summer
Students brainstorm and discuss what the concept of "fairness" is and how to identify examples of "fairness." They pull from historical fiction and the Civil Rights Movement to explain how individual are affected by, cope with, and...
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Explore the Ocean
Students explore the oceans from their origin. In this oceans lesson, students read and discuss excerpts from the Book of Genesis regarding the creation of the ocean. Students then clean up a mock oil spill, measure the volume and area...
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Playing with Puns
Students examine the wit of characters in two plays. In this drama lesson, students read The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary L. Blackwood and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. Students analyze the puns used in both plays and write essays that...
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One Story, Many Tales
Students compare and contrast various versions of the fairytale Cinderella. In this folktale lesson, students read The Korean Cinderella and The Egyptian Cinderella and analyze the differences between the two stories. Students identify...
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Day 5 - Bible - Ideology and Christian Perspective
Eighth graders compare and contrast liberals and conservatives. In this Christian lesson plan, 8th graders discuss the definitions and views of liberals and conservatives. They read statements to find which side they would belong to and...
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Medieval Celebration
Students celebrate the completion of a unit of study about Medieval times. In this Medieval celebration lesson, students showcase their work from a unit of study by creating a wax museum. They complete KWL charts and read over their...
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Bible: Christian Responsibility
Students read The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark and view A Debt to Honor to identify ways that Christians helped the Jewish people during the Holocaust. In this Holocaust lesson, students discuss...
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Corridos About the Mexican Revolution
Students explore the meaning behind Mexican corridos. In this Mexican Revolution lesson, students discover details about the war and its leaders as they read, analyze, and write their own corridos.
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Surviving the Social Jungle
Students explore and recognize social structures. In this social standards lesson, students discuss social problems and cliques. Students role play and search for bible verses that reflect how God wants them to handle social situations....
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One Story, Many Tales
Students compare and contrast Cinderella stories. In this folktale lesson, students discuss the attributes of the genre and then read and research different cultural versions of the tale. Students present their findings to their classmates.
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Measurement and Paper Airplanes
Sixth graders investigate physics by creating paper airplanes. In this flight experiment lesson, 6th graders utilize stationary tools to create elaborate paper airplanes which they fly on their school grounds. Students complete...