ReadWriteThink
Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes
What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Surprise!: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 2)
Surprise! is the theme of a unit covering such topics as consonants, blending, short vowels sounds, high frequency words, and number words. The unit's lessons also include teachable moments covering story structure, illustrations,...
Curated OER
Making a Connection
Students research why government community workers are important to us. They work in teams to identify and illustrate the jobs and services provided by these community workers. Assessment comes from their Student Concept Maps.
Curated OER
Lesson 2: Mapping Our Home
Students recognize the importance of community participation in the census. In this U. S. Census lesson plan, students use map-reading skills to find answers and learn the difference between senators and members of Congress.
Curated OER
How Can We Make Businesses Safe And Effective?
Fourth graders complete several lessons in order to gain an overview of various facets of business. They read books about business, identify business careers that are of interest to them, write letters to local business leaders, listen...
Curated OER
MALI TO MECCA, MANSA MUSA MAKES THE HAJJ
Learners explore the historical event when Mansa Musa, Ruler of Mali, made the Hajj (or holy pilgrimage) to Mecca in 1324 AD. They create Web pages or PowerPoint presentations maps, charts, posters, and oral presentations with...
Curated OER
Latitude
Students examine the theory of finding latitude and discuss the uses of an astrolabe, cross-staff and octant. They determine an Astronomical Table for their classroom.
Curated OER
Mapping the Border
Students create maps of the borderland region. They decorate their maps with colors, pictures, icons, scenes, words that reflect their understanding of the character and history of the borderland.
Curated OER
Mapping Animal Behavior
Learners discuss the value of sampling in science. They, in groups, map cricket movement in response to various stimuli and graph their results.
Curated OER
Bird's Eye View Map
Students explore seeing things from a bird's eye view. They listen to the book, "As the Crow Flies," view various objects from eye level views and standing on a chair, create a drawing of an object from both views, and read "Ben's...
Curated OER
Mapping My World
Pupils are introduced to simple maps and view a map of a classroom and compare distances of items shown.
Curated OER
Creating a Map
Third graders examine the process of creating an accurate map, and create a map of their playground. They identify what objects are on their playground, and discuss what is found on a map. Students then draw a map of their playground...
Curated OER
Creating a Map for Future Reference
Students use Web and other resources to create maps of either the site of their day trip, their final destination, the entire trip, or some combination of these.
Curated OER
Map It!
Fourth graders collect and explore different maps and their uses before using the program Pixie to create maps of geographic features, political features, and economic information for the state in which they live.
Curated OER
Cultural Maps
Fifth graders examine map elements. In small groups they create a map of an imaginary country that includes a title, legend, directional indicator, scale, boundaries, capital cities, country name, and icons of five natural resources. ...
Curated OER
Cooperative Classroom Text Features Activities
Fifth graders examine text features and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this text features lesson, 5th graders go over Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures and text features before they choose one to include in a book and...
Curated OER
Word Webs And Mind Maps
Students develop a simple understanding of the brain's two hemispheres and their separate yet connected functions. They explain that if they are to improve their drawing skills they should get into their right mind.
Prestwick House
The Grapes of Wrath
At over 450 pages, John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath can be a challenging choice for full-class, book circle, or independent reading. The activities in a 10-page sample The Grapes of Wrath...
Teaching Tolerance
Artistic Expression Showcase
No one is too young to create a masterpiece. Elementary artists delve into the topic of social justice with original artwork. Scholars keep journals to reflect on their experiences before putting paintbrush to paper. Final artwork is...
Annenberg Foundation
A Nation Divided
Can a presidential election cause a civil war? Learners research the events surrounding the presidential election of 1860 in a lesson that explores America's history. Using maps, videos, and primary sources, they uncover, brainstorm, and...
Reed Novel Studies
The Light in the Forest: Novel Study
"Make new friends but keep the old" is a wise saying. However, True Son, a main character in The Light in the Forest, struggles doing just that. Once living among the white people, he was taken into an Indian tribe for several years....
Curated OER
E-mailing the Chamber of Commerce
Encourage effective internet research and e-mail correspondence as scholars investigate a US capital city they've never visited to find pertinent and relevant information. They begin by picking a city, then visit that city's chamber of...
Curated OER
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Elementary learners identify the main elements of story structure and form questions to summarize their reading. They listen as the teacher reads a story and then write questions to determine (1) main characters, (2) setting, (3)...
The Alamo
A Teacher’s Guide to Antonio LóPez De Santa Anna
Who was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and how did he relate to the Texas Revolution? Use an informative resource to find out! By reading primary sources, viewing maps and graphs, and answering short-answer written prompts in handouts,...