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A Christmas Carol Chronology
Which comes first? The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future? What clues can readers use to establish the chronology of A Christmas Carol? The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Marley, and Tiny Tim provides the text for an activity that...
Teach Hub
New Year’s Resolution Classroom Activity
Create a sense of accountability among scholars with a lesson that focuses on making and keeping New Year's resolutions. Writers compose a five paragraph essay focused on three resolutions—promises to self improvement, to...
NPR
Suffrage Lesson Plan
Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...
Federal Reserve Bank
Bunny Money
Teach your class about saving, spending, and goal setting with a story about a couple of bunnies who went shopping and related activities. Learners keep track of the bunnies' spending, practice identifying long- and short-term savings...
Curated OER
Visualarticulation
Use photographs to teach young special education or speech students how good speech looks, as well as sounds. Kindergarteners are photographed making the F, TH, W, R L, and S sounds. They then use the images to identify each sound that...
Curated OER
Topical Discussions
Engaging in topical discussions can be a great way to teach kids how to build strong arguments and support their opinions with concrete evidence. High schoolers choose a controversial topic, build an argument for or against that topic,...
Curated OER
Oliver Twist Goes to Hollywood
How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...
Curated OER
Bridge to Terabithia
Learners explore scenes from Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia. In this visualization lesson, students listen to the story read aloud. The learners then choose words and phrases that paint a picture in their heads. Students...
Curated OER
The Giver: Lesson 1
Do “memories need to be shared?" Are “memories…forever?" Would you give up memory to live in a perfect world? Introduce a unit centered on Lois Lowry’s utopian/dystopian novel The Giver with a series of activities that has groups...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Newspaper
One photograph can represent so much more than the images on the film. Eighth graders select a photograph from the Civil War era and conduct additional research based on the subject matter from the picture. Once they complete the...
Curated OER
Reinforcing Alphabet Names/Sounds
Getting comfortable with the sounds associated with each letter is crucial in a young learner's path to becoming literate. This lesson plan provides a terrific way to reinforce this skill in an engaging and fun manner. It's a game that...
Curated OER
Guild Hall
Incorporate a research project into your study of Shakespeare and the Renaissance Period. Class members assume the role of an apprentice seeking membership in one of the various guilds that existed during the Renaissance period....
Curated OER
Creating Compassionate Communities
Have you ever lost someone? Middle and high school learners journal about a time they experienced the loss of someone through death, divorce, moving, or another type of change. They share their responses and discuss an article relating...
Curated OER
Postcards For Your Ears
Here is a great way to have your students make audio postcards to share by recording a message on the computer. They write and revise an appropriate message about an object from home, choose a background, and font colors for the...
Curated OER
Student-Designed Desks
Students research school room from the past. They create a design for a school desk that is tailored to the specific needs of today's students. They evaluate group work and create a presentation.
Curated OER
Social Studies Wonders: An Exploration
Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....
Curated OER
The Ancient Art of Shadow Puppet Plays
Shadow puppetry has an ancient past, it is also a great way to build oral expression and reading fluency. Young thespians research folk tales, compare and contrast reality and fantasy, then create and perform a shadow puppet play based...
John F. Kennedy Center
Folktale Theatre
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
Curated OER
Antonyms, synonyms and homophones
Shed light on what antonyms, synonyms, and homophones are. In this lesson, upper elementary schoolers create pairs using an antonym, a homophone, and/or a synonym. Then they play an antonym matching game.
Curated OER
Learning About Trees
After looking at pictures of trees, discussing tree growth, and identifying the parts of a tree, lead your class on a nature walk and have them collect samples and record their observations. They then work in pairs to polish the...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Soldier: Experiencing the Battle of Franklin
Fighting a war over home soil makes a living nightmare even more real. Class members describe the experience of a Civil War soldier during the Battle of Franklin, poised right at a major turning point of the war, after researching the...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing: Using Exact Words
Review the narrative writing process with your emerging story writers. They read a sample narrative and identify five vague verbs that could be replaced with a more exact, exciting verb. Then they write a personal narrative making sure...
Federal Reserve Bank
Less Than Zero
Perry the penguin wants to buy a new scooter, but he doesn't have any funds! Walk your kids through the short book Less Than Zero, and have them track his borrowing, spending, and saving on a line graph while you read. Pupils will learn...
Federal Reserve Bank
The Pickle Patch Bathtub
What do your pupils want to save up their money for? Based around the book The Pickle Patch Bathtub, this lesson covers opportunity cost, saving, and spending. Learners participate in a discussion and practice making their own...