California Department of Education
Instruments of Change: Making a Simple Stringed Instrument (CTE)
What materials and skills does a person need to build a simple working instrument? With the first of four lessons from the Changing One's Tune: A Music Therapy STEM Integrated Project series, scholars learn about the basic structure of...
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Moccasins Are Made for Dancing
Students explore two Native American legends. In this cultural traditions activity, students read "The Legend of Blue Bonnet," and "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush." Students then study basic Native American dance movements prior to...
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Jazz Dance and Music
Fourth graders write a poem. In this jazz music lesson, 4th graders learn about the basics of jazz dance and practice basic movements. Students learn common terminology and listen to several recordings of jazz music. Students create a...
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Creating Characters
Learners identify simple pictographs and ideographs from Chinese writing. They create their own images, and combine characters to communicate ideas to one another, introducing basic foundations of how elements of the Chinese writing...
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Watching Wheatstacks
Young scholars explore basic shapes in Monet's paintings Wheatstacks, Snow Effect and Morning. They study about light and shadows through reading and experimenting with three-dimensional models and flashlights.
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The Notorious Hope Diamond: What Makes an American Legend?
Students view and discuss a video on the legend of the Hope Diamond then compare and contrast other tales such as Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed. They analyze basic characteristics of these legends then use descriptive...
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Come Visit My School
Students practice basic camera skills. They create several panoramic movies. They create a virtual tour of their school.
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Characteristics of Imaginative Stories
Third graders explore genre characteristics. In this genre literacy lesson, 3rd graders listen to a variety of fiction stories and classify them according to genre. Students identify common features in each genre and complete a chart by...
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"The Big Bridge Scheme": The Building and Impact of the Brooklyn Bridge
Students watch a video and examine archival newspaper articles to study the different points of view about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. They examine the impact the bridge had on those living in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
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You've Got Mail
First graders study the postal system and letter writing. They exchange class letters with another class in a different area and become pen pals with residents in a local nursing home.
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Working Together to Improve Our Community
Students from the fourth grade research a solution to a community problem and converse with eighth graders via email. Eighth graders study the political process and work with the fourth graders to present information to the public to...
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Holiday Card Grammar
Students examine variety of holiday cards to recognize and write basic parts of speech. They then write new greetings for the greeting cards.
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This Little Pig
First graders study basic information about swine. They write and identify vocabulary words relating to the subject. They write a recipe for "Pigs in a Blanket," using canned crescent rolls and small sausages. They trade recipes and...
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The Hunter Using Children's Literature to Teach the Geography of Africa
Students are able to answer basic questions about the region and the use of natural resources, sketch a mental map of the story's setting, and find their way through the thematic maze/map.
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Multi-cultural, The Butterfly
Sixth graders discuss The Butterfly. In this literacy lesson, 6th graders write two postcards about the issues of the Holocaust from the two different perspectives of the two girls from the text.
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What is Framing?
Students practice framing issues. In this writing skills instructional activity, students participate in a classroom activity that requires them to look at specific topical issues by framing them. Students then create collages on current...
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Making School a Better Place.
Young scholars study the problems in their school and work on solutions for those problems. In this writing process lesson, students analyze a problem and work as a team to find a solution. Young scholars present written and oral...
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Vowels Short And Long: Farmer Pete
Second graders study short and long vowel sounds. They hear each word or picture by clicking on it to hear each rhyme. There is also the option of letting some students type their own rhyming sentence in this program. They complete a...
Huntington Library
The Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes
Eleventh graders discover the poetry of Langston Hughes. In this social issues lesson plan, 11th graders experience the views of Langston Hughes. Students read Hughes' poetry and discuss the basic theme. Students evaluate the political,...
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fantastic Characters
Students study stories. In this writing lesson, students discuss the three aspects of a story, read stories focusing on the characters, write a story as a class about a character made up by the class, and write a story with an exciting...
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Food for Spaceflight
When astronauts get hungry in outer space, they can't just call and have a pizza delivered. In order to gain an appreciation for the challenges associated with space travel, young learners are given the task of selecting,...
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Narrative Writing
Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...
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Spring into Poetry
How many different types of poetry are there? Let me count them; list poems, haiku, and makes-me-think poems are only a few. Learners create their own poems accompanied by artistic projects such as haiku poems written on kites.
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Introduction to Canada
Ninth graders investigate the country of Canada by examining their media in this geography instructional activity. They use the Internet to research Canadian newspapers and analyze a topic covered by both US and Canadian media sources....