National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 4 James Madison: Internal Improvements Balancing Act—Federal/State and Executive/Legislative
Who has the power? The founding fathers asked the same question when the United States was formed. Learners explore issues that arose during Madison’s presidency that raised constitutional questions. Through discovery, discussion, and...
Curated OER
How Does a Friend Act?
Students brainstorm a list of characteristics that friends should and should not have. In groups, they are given a set of hand puppets in which they role-play different scenerios in front of the class. To end the lesson, they are shown...
Curated OER
"Clean Water Act"
Read the short reading passage entitled "Clean Water Act" to help your class build reading fluency and comprehension. While most questions focus on recall, learners are asked to use the context to define select vocabulary words. This...
Curated OER
Fantasy Baseball
Check out this thematic unit, based on the game of baseball. Learners investigate numbers and number relations as they become familiar with some of the basic terminology associated with the game. They focus their attention on actual...
California Academy of Science
Carbon Cycle Role Play
Anytime you make concepts clear with role playing or hands-on experience, it's a win for the whole class. Ping-Pong balls are used to represent carbon in a carbon cycle role-play activity. In small groups, children first discuss what...
101 Questions
Ants Marching
Your classroom will be rockin' during an toe-tapping lesson! Dave Matthews inspires a lesson on proportions as youth listen to a song and predict its length. Lesson materials provide learners with ordered pairs that mark the time slider...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Character Clovers
Build a classroom community with a lesson that uses character clovers to examine scholars' roles. Following a whole-class discussion, participants list four roles they play and accompany it with the character traits that go along with...
Missouri Department of Elementary
How We Are Alike And Different
Scholars develop social awareness by exploring the concept of similarities and differences. Learners examine two beverages and use a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences. They tally each item to identify if they are more...
National Woman's History Museum
Getting with the Program
A seven-step lesson introduces the emergence of computer sciences and the contributions women made to the profession after World War II. Several science experiments offer pupils a hands-on learning experience that showcases parabolas,...
Scholastic
Hopes and Dreams
A lesson encourages mini scholars in setting goals. Peers share their hopes and dreams and discuss how each one adds to everyone's unique character. Class members draw themselves in a scene achieving a goal. A follow-up meeting allows...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 2, Lesson 7
One sentence, so much meaning. Scholars analyze a quote from Act 2.3 of Shakespeare's Macbeth and explore the plot in a jigsaw discussion.
Curated OER
ZIP: A One-Act Play
Students review amendments of the Constitution relating to due process. They discuss the Constitution in the case of Eberhard "Zip" Fuhr. They research the provisions of the WWII Alien Enemy Control Program. They determine how national...
Curated OER
Give Respect
Young learners explore what it means to be respectful. This resource includes a two page chart depicting rules for different settings at school such, as the cafeteria and the playground. What does following the rules look like? What does...
Curated OER
Narrow it Down: Numbers
Elementary learners of all ages utilize their number knowledge by playing a 20 questions style game. They participate in a game in which they ask yes or no questions to a group leader in order to discover which number the leader has...
Curated OER
Civil War Play Lesson Plan
Students act out the Civil War through reader's theater. In this performing arts lesson, students research the Civil War and find costumes, props and scenery appropriate to the time period. They become characters from the Civil War time...
National First Ladies' Library
The Play's the Thing...or Two
Students explore melodram as a form of theatre. They write about lucid and factual news accounts and about sensationalism. Students gain experience in relating one time period with another and with doing historical research.
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Mathematicus Dramaticus
The best part about this resource is that you've got four wonderful activities to choose from. Each of the projects can work together or on its own to help learners understand the history of math and how it can be seen every day. In...
Curated OER
Ancient Rome
Students investigate information about the leaders of Rome. In this ancient Rome lesson, students research Roman warfare and military leaders in order to write and present their own one-act plays based on Scipio, Hannibal, Julius Caesar,...
Curated OER
Ecology
Pupils personify ecology vocabulary and write a one-act play using their knowledge of ecology as the basis for characters, conflict, setting and plot.
Curated OER
Fear, Civil Rights and Personal Freedoms
Students write and perform a one-act play. They present constitutional, personal and cultural issues of the internment camps of the 1940's. They research and present a historical examine internernment camps.
Curated OER
What Really Happened?
Sixth graders recreate scenes from the theories about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. In this history and theatre lesson plan, 6th graders review the story of Earhart using a flip chart. Students work on one act plays to depict one...
Curated OER
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Reader's Theatre
Plays are meant to be performed! After reading the entire play, invite your learners to choose a scene from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead that relates to earlier class discussion about characters, motifs, and themes to interpret...
PBS
From Selma to Montgomery: An Introduction to the 1965 Marches
The 1965 Civil Rights marches from Selma to Montgomery and the resulting Voting Rights Act of 1965 are the focus of a social studies lesson. The resource uses film clips to inform viewers not only about the discrimination that gave rise...
Generation Nation
Propaganda
How does propaganda influence our vote? Through grand conversation, scholars gain information about what is and how to identify the different ways propaganda is used in a presidential election. Using their new-found knowledge, citizens...