Curated OER
Water, Water Everywhere
Students devise a system for watering classroom plants during school year and summer breaks. In this watering system lesson, students work in teams to investigate water needs of plants and develop systems that will keep the plants...
Curated OER
Bird Brilliance!
First graders explore natural resources and search outdoors to find materials to create a bird's nest. In this bird's natural resources lesson, 1st graders listen to a book about birds and reflect on the various things birds use to...
Curated OER
Let's Play British Bulldogs!
Play a wonderful, easy-to-set up, outdoor PE game that causes kids to get a daily dose of exercise!
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Investigating Evidence
Explore the scientific process through nature. Scholars become scientists as they develop a question, design an experiment, collect data, and analyze their results. A two-week lesson guides your classes through the process and provides...
Curated OER
Making a Chiminea
A chiminea is an outdoor fireplace usually made from terracotta. Your class will make miniature versions of this useful heating device to practice specific sculpting techniques. This lesson spans four days. It includes vocabulary...
Curated OER
Solar Car Series: during What Part of the Day Can the Most Sun Power Be Collected?
In preparation for solar car races, middle schoolers attempt to discover what time of day the most solar energy can be collected. Begin by demonstrating the use of a voltmeter for measuring solar cell output. Take them outdoors to take...
Curated OER
Does the Sidewalk Drink Puddles?
Young scholars participate in an experiment about evaporation. In this water cycle lesson plan, students use water, thermometers, and measuring tools to make a puddle and measure the size four times throughout the day. Young scholars...
Curated OER
Private & Public
Some disabled students have a difficulty understanding what is and what is not publicly appropriate behavior. Help them build healthy social skills by defining public and private behaviors, labeling public and private places, and...
Curated OER
Butterflies: Fly into Science
Engage young learners with these great interdisciplinary lesson ideas for teaching about butterflies!
Curated OER
Louisiana Crafts and Domestic Arts
Discuss with the class the reasons for identifying and defining the term material culture as refering to a vast array of objects and activities that people make and do traditionally. Your class can identify diverse crafts and decorative...
Curated OER
Sculpture in Balance
Young scholars discuss the difference betwen two-dimensional vs. three-dimensional art. In this art lesson, students discuss what symmetry or balance is in art and construct a symmetrical and an asymmetrical mobile.
Curated OER
"Snapshot" Exercises & Sensory Detail Word Bank
Read a sample of creative descriptive writing to your science class. Discuss how writing can be used to record and communicate observations that scientists make. Reading selections and thought-provoking questions are suggested. Also...
Curated OER
Our Poetic Planet - Writing Poems about the Earth
As a way to combine language arts and science, try this lesson on writing cloud poetry. Begin by showing a PowerPoint presentation and images of cloud types. Take meteorology masters outdoors to explore the sky using the provided "Cloud...
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Geocaching
Using GPS units, small groups participate in a scavenger hunt to find an object that you have hidden. They use coordinates for stopping points along a pre-planned path to get to the final cache. This is a terrific activity to include in...
Curated OER
Sound Walk: Discovering Data and Applying Range, Mode, and Mean
Elementary schoolers sharpen their listening skills as they use sound maps, tallies, and line plots to organize and interpret data. Everyone takes a "sound walk," and focuses on the sounds around them. They chart and tabulate the sounds...
Berkshire Museum
Backyard Rocks
You don't have to travel far to learn about rocks, just step outside, pick up a stone, and begin investigating. After taking a class walk around the school grounds collecting rocks, young scientists practice their skills of observation...
Curated OER
My Important Place
The story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians of Oregon is told here. Pupils are shown pictures of the ancestral lands of the Nez Perce, and they learn about how they were forced to leave it. Students complete an essay which...
Curated OER
Oh Deer!"
Students explore the essential components of a habitat, which is food, water, and shelter. They end the instructional activity by paying the Oh Deer! game.
Curated OER
Blending Best Buddies
Practice blending letters together to make the words learners are reading. They decode words familiarized with the concept of blending. This lesson utilizes the Body-Coda method of blending developed by Lloyd Eldredge. Each child...
Curated OER
Understanding Dialect as Used by Mark Twain
A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...
Curated OER
Language Arts Skills: Listening and Speaking Strategies
Your class can practice communicating clearly. They practice listening and speaking through games such asTelephone and a social scavenger hunt. This is a solid lesson that helps apply good communication skills.
Curated OER
Vitamin D and Me
Students create a graphic organizer showing the importance of Vitamin D intake. In this Vitamin D lesson, Students list problems with Vitamin D deficiency and create poster boards in small groups. Individually, students will create menus...
Curated OER
Alfonso Ball
Joey Alphonso made up this game, which is played using a gator skin ball and a tennis racket on a basketball court. The simple rules and strategy of the game are explained. This is a high-scoring, run around activity. Everyone can...
Curated OER
Tallying Local Species to Learn About Diversity
Using this thoroughly-written plan, you can have your junior ecologists exploring local biodiversity. They take a journal outdoors to tally the species that they see. An article is included along with comprehension questions. The author...