American Museum of Natural History
A Kid's Guide to Stargazing
Get kids interested in stargazing with a step-by-step guide. The guide begins with the do's and don'ts, what the defines a star, and introduces a journal. The page is linked to see stars if light pollution keeps stars away in your area.
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Our Sky Clock
Students explore space science by completing a worksheet in class. In this astronomy lesson, students discuss and identify star patterns in the night sky and relate these patterns to the approximate time they appear. Students complete an...
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Sky 2: Shadows
pupils will explore making shadows and tracking the movement of an object over the course of a day to look for patterns. It is best to couple this shadow activity with reading the book, Bear Shadow, and making a map of Bear's...
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The View From Up Here: The Language and Art of Clouds
A lesson on the water cycle can develop into an exploration of art, and much more.
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Three Bears and Three Goats in the Morning Sun
First graders listen to the story Three Bears from the book, Three Tales of Three, focusing on the one-to-one correspondence while counting various items in the story. They create pages for the number 3 for their counting books.
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On the Surface
Students draw and label the 15 major rivers in Texas. They then draw and label another map with the major lakes and reservioirs of Texas. Students use the maps and locate and label the location of the following major Texas cities:...
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Harriet Tubman: An Informative and Impressionistic Look
Learners examine artwork depicting Harriet Tubman. In this Harriet Tubman lesson, students review her life and how she impacted the Underground Railroad. Learners view impressionistic artwork showing her life. Students then create their...
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Water and Ice
Students explore water and ice. In this 3 states of matter lesson, students work with a partner to observe, illustrate, and describe the characteristics of an ice cube in a cup. The ice cube is observed again in 15 minutes and changes...
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Fast Fact-Finding
Ever wonder why the sky changes color so often? Readers examine an informational excerpt from John Farndon's How the Earth Works. They underline key points as they read and then answer five response questions. Prompts review main...
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Following Instructions
Get scholars thinking about the scientific process with this fun experiment they can do at home. Learners practice reading directions as they underline each instruction in a procedural paragraph. They create a flow chart and record...
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Themed Rhymes
Familiar sing-along rhymes about rain help scholars with phonemic awareness. They read the poems and write rhymes for four words. The clue here? Each of the words is out of one of the sing-along rhymes! Learners read a final poem about...
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Writing a Letter
Here are three well-thought-out tasks intended to build good note taking and letter writing skills. The class reads three short letters, determines who wrote them (based on context) and takes notes as a pre-writing activity. They...
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Try A Pizza Theme Week
Students explore all the things they could do with a pizza. They become aware of food groups and nutritional needs, make decorated cardboard pizzas, interact with pizza slices and fractions, create stories to go along with their...
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Water 1: Water and Ice
Students explore forms that water can take and examine the water cycle. In this hands-on science instructional activity, students participate in activities that require them to change water to a solid and back to a liquid again.
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Water and Ice
Students study the liquid and solid states of water. In this water states instructional activity, students complete three experiments to study water as it cycles from a liquid state to a solid state and back. Students finish with a Venn...
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Comparing Poems
Young literary analysts compare two poems by the same author. Readers look for slant rhyme, observe the beat and rhythm of each, and search for repeated vowel sounds. After re-reading, they observe the lack of punctuation and the stanza...
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Punctuating a Paragraph
Do your fourth graders need a little help with punctuation? Use this run-on paragraph to demonstrate proofreading for capitalization, punctuation, and separating ideas into separate paragraphs. At the end of the activity, learners...
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Surface Water Supplies And The Texas Settlements
Pupils engage in a lesson plan that is concerned with the allocation and finding of water resources. The location of different settlement areas is considered as one looks how the water is distributed. They map some of the early Spanish...
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The House that Dies Drear Built
Middle schoolers write a descriptive paragraph, in the style of Virginia Hamilton, describing the landscape around their house.
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Power Functions: A Question of Magnitude
In this power functions activity, students read about determining the brightness of stars using a magnitude scale. Students solve 4 problems including finding the magnitude differences of stars and determining equivalent magnitudes.
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Model Rockets
Students build a model rocket. In this model rocket lesson, students explore a rocket launch cycle. Students investigate the laws of physics for each part of the launch. Students build model rockets and launch at school.
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Water 1: Water and Ice
Students explore forms that water can take. In this science lesson, students participate in hands-on activities that require them to change water to a solid and back to a liquid again.
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Oodles of Noodles
Students practice various locomotor skills and creative movement. They find their self space with a noodle and follow the teacher's lead. They create stories to go along with the activities and use their imagination. i.e. "We are...
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Aquifer Model
Students, after researching and brainstorming about aquifers and locating aquifer maps of Texas, participate in the building of a model of an aquifer complete with a pumping station. They also answer a variety of questions at the...