Curated OER
Finding Meaning in the Badge
Children who are three to five years old study two rank badges from the Qing dynasty to develop an understanding of social rank, language skills, and symbolism. The lesson is discussion-based and requires learners to compare and contrast...
Nemours KidsHealth
STDs: Grades 6-8
Many adults find it difficult to imagine that some middle schoolers are sexually active, and thus they shy away from discussing sexual activity with young people. However, misinformation and lack of information about such topics as STDs...
Nemours KidsHealth
Obesity: Grades 9-12
High schoolers take on the role of the nation's first Teen Nutrition and Fitness Czars and create tips that can be texted to other teens to remind them about healthy eating and exercising. Groups read articles to gather background...
Health Smart Virginia
Life Saver
Tweens and teens learn how to be a lifesaver and help a peer who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide. They identify risk factors and warning signs, and strategies to get an individual to seek help.
Facing History and Ourselves
Exit Cards
Everyone wants to feel heard and valued. Provide learners with an opportunity to share their thoughts and have them heard with this closing routine. Participants use an exit card to share their response to prompts that ask them to share...
Anti-Defamation League
Why are Children’s and Young Adult Books Challenged and Banned?
September's "Banned Books Week" brings attention to the number of books that are challenged, censored, or banned each year. After watching a video about banned book week, reading articles about the history of book banning, and examining...
Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the anchor text for a three week unit that focuses on responsibilities, ethics, and virtues. While specific lesson plans are not included in this overview, a focus and discussion...
Facing History and Ourselves
Three Good Things
A "Three Good Things" routine asks participants to sit quietly and reflect on three positive things in their world: family, school, community, or the world at large. After journaling about one that feels most important right now, writers...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Values
Being self-aware of personal wants, needs, and values is a big part of growing up. Here, you'll find seven different teaching options and two different introductions to a lesson on getting learners to think about their personal values....
Nemours KidsHealth
HIV and AIDS: Grades 6-8
Middle schoolers get the message out about HIV and AIDS by designing t-shirts with information about how the diseases are spread and how people can protect themselves from infection. Groups first gain background information by reading...
Health Smart Virginia
Social Awareness: Empathy
As part of the unit on social, emotional health, seventh-graders examine the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Pairs then engage in an activity that analyzes a scenario and role play resolution strategies that show...
Facing History and Ourselves
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Masks, a pandemic, remote learning, and isolation; scholars reflect on the past school year and consider what positive things they would like to see continued in the current school year and what negative things they would like to...
Facing History and Ourselves
Dual Identities
Many of us have multiple identities. There's who we are at home, school, friends, and strangers. And often these identities come with different names. The third activity in the First Days of School series examines how names reflect...
Facing History and Ourselves
Becoming Ourselves
Here's a great way to build community during the first days of the new school year. Participants read personal narratives, then craft and share their stories with others.
Anti-Defamation League
What Is Weight Bias?
After setting rules and expectations to create a safe place to share thoughts and feelings, scholars define the terms; stereotype, basis, and discrimination. Using a web brainstorm, learners list words associated with overweight and...
Curated OER
Understanding the Sociocultural Perspective
Enhance your understanding of basic principles and best teaching practices as they are viewed through a sociocultural lens.
Curated OER
Assertiveness/Self-Confidence
Students explore the concepts of assertiveness and self-confidence. They observe that is is all right to say no. Students discuss what it means to be assertive and how it takes inner strength and self-confidence to be assertive. They...
Curated OER
Describing Family - Lesson Plan
Pupils describe their family in their new language French. They use adjectives, and proper gender. Then they describe how the family is alike and different.
Curated OER
Finding the Positive
Fifth graders meet the "Famous Artist." They are introduced to the topic of self-concept. Students work in small groups and get organized to create collages. They create a collage that represents characteristics of positive self-concept.
Orange County Department of Education
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Fifth graders read Dear Mr. Henshaw and identify the character trait of self-respect as exhibited by Leigh throughout the story. They evaluate the author's use of letters to tell the story and discuss how the story would be different if...
Curated OER
It's a Wrap!
Students investigate symbols and colors on the Osage blanket. For this visual arts lesson, students examine a blanket from the Osage culture and identify symbols on the blanket. Students create a class blanket, including symbols which...
Curated OER
Memory & Song, Malagan Figures from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea
Students investigate the uses of images, shapes and colors in classic art sculptures. In this art analysis lesson, students observe Malagan Figures, a type of sculpture from New Guinea, and describe the different ideas and images...
Curated OER
A Symbol of Myself
Students explore their own uniqueness. In this "getting to know you" lesson plan, students create a clay symbol representing their own personality traits. Students write a short description of the symbol and why they chose it.
Curated OER
Exploring Our Cultural Heritage Through Art
Students research the art of selected cultures. In this visual arts lesson, students compose essays after they conduct independent research on the art of a culture. Students also create art proposals that feature the attributes of the...