Missouri Department of Elementary
The Quest for Magic Minutes
A "Magic Minute" activity asks class groups to develop a commercial to advertise a way to turn a time-waster into a time-saver. Ad groups begin by brainstorming time-wasters and then problem-solve was to turn them into time-savers. After...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Survivors
Developing a positive self-concept can sometimes be a challenge. Seventh graders engage in an activity that helps them identify their individual strengths and helps them recognize how these strengths can contribute to being a successful...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Color Your Destiny
Class groups bring feeling words alive by creating a poster that illustrates with images and colors, but not words, the feeling conjured by the word. The posters are then combined into a mural for the classroom wall.
Curated OER
Stained Glass Art - Activity 1
Learners examine stained glass art techniques in this introductory lesson provided by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The unit emphasizes student created representations of stained glass art.
Curated OER
Acceleration Science
In collaborative groups, physics learners design and create a web portfolio of internet resoucres explaining poitive and negative acceleration, zero acceleration, and positive and negative velocity. This is a terrific assignment for...
Curated OER
The Personal Letter: The Outsiders
After completing S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, eighth graders compose a personal letter to their teacher detailing what they liked about the novel and the activities assigned during the course of the unit. A clever way to get feedback,...
Curated OER
SciPod Studies
Have fun preparing a science podcast. After reviewing vocabulary, learners record audio files to create science vocabulary podcasts for particular units of study. A clever way to incorporate technology.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
A Worse Death: War or Flu?
In a lesson plan that integrates history and mathematics, class members create graphs that compare military death statistics from World War I with those that resulted from the influenza pandemic of 1918.
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Health and the Whole Person
The first lesson of the unit introduces class members to the social, physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual constituent elements of health and the need for balance among these elements. Class members used the provided assessment...
Missouri Department of Elementary
What Does Respect Look Like in School?
What does it mean to be respectful? Scholars complete a self-assessment worksheet to determine just how respectful they are. Next, they choose three items from the survey and write plans for how to improve in those areas.
Missouri Department of Elementary
To Give In or Not to Give In—That Is the Question!
No! A very simple word that can be very hard to say. Seventh graders have an opportunity to practice this difficult skill as they engage in a series of role-playing scenarios. As an exit ticket, 7th graders write a reflection on the...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Opportunity Knocks, But It Costs, Too!
Sixth graders practice six steps to effective problem solving. Working with the school counselor, class members are presented with a scenario that requires them to make a decision. Individuals then write a reflection in which they...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Putting on Armor
Middle schoolers learn how to protect themselves from risky behaviors with a lesson that has them role play several scenarios and demonstrate ways that they might do to stay safe. Class members then use what they have learned to build a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Hope to Cope: Coping Skills
Making decisions can be stressful, even for sixth graders. And even students this young have developed coping skills, some positive and some negative, to help them deal with stress. Class members are asked to identify several of their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Fatal Accident
While there may not be any ghostbusters in the neighborhood, there are plenty of emergency response agencies ready to give support if something is amiss. To that end, instructors invite a member of an emergency response agency to address...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Safe and Healthy Life Choices (Part I)
As high schoolers seek to grow more and more independent, they must constantly make choices. Some options are healthy and some not so much. To begin the discussion, class members are asked to identify five safe and healthy (or...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Managing Conflicts
Conflicts happen. Learning how to manage conflicts in mature and positive ways is an important part of social-emotion growth. The lesson offers insight into behaviors that exacerbate conflicts as well as suggestions for how to resolve...
Missouri Department of Elementary
“Re-Solutioning”: Practice Brings Out Our Best
Seventh graders create and perform a skit that demonstrates their conflict resolution skills. They begin by examining the process of crafting a performance and review what they have learned about conflict resolution. Next, they...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Conflict Shield
As an exercise in self-awareness and improvement, class members create a Conflict Shield listing 12 skills they believe are the most useful in conflict resolution. They then color the ones they have mastered while leaving uncolored those...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Relationships…Going Up While Growing Up
The final lesson plan in a series of five that focus on developing the interpersonal skills required to develop and maintain positive relationships asks class members to identify their best friend-making skill. Individuals share these...
Missouri Department of Elementary
I Know What You Did This Summer
Developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships is difficult, especially as middle schoolers begin dating. A short activity permits eighth graders to practice their skills as they consider how they should respond to a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Using Negotiation to Settle Difficulties
Negotiating can be a win/win experience if the involved parties apply the skills and techniques offered in a lesson about negotiating to settle differences.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Listening Exercise
Active listening is key to interacting with others in a way that shows respect. To develop their skill as listeners, high schoolers first play the "Telephone Game" to demonstrate some of the problems that arise in communication. Pairs...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Clique
Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...