Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Drugs Awareness
Peer pressure can lead to dangerous activities for the eighth graders in your class. Prepare them for the tough conversations in the years ahead with a set of lessons about drugs and their consequences on users' lives.
BBC
Rights and Responsibilities - Part 2
Citizenship and basic human rights are the focus of the activity presented here. In it, learners compile a basic list of human rights, then access a website in order to complete some activities that are based on rights and...
BBC
EU, UN, and Commonwealth
Find out how international government organizations work to face global issues. Learners examine if major organizations like the EU, UN, and Commonwealth are effective at tackling big issues like animal protection. They think about...
Curated OER
Life On Board HMS Victory: Food and Drink
Students research the role of the cook on board HMS Victory. In groups, they create a multimedia presentation, explaining what it would have been like to be the ship's cook. They present their projects to the school cafeteria staff.
Curated OER
Monster Descriptions
Monsters take center stage! Elementary schoolers are assigned to write a descriptive paragraph by a toy company to help in designing a new monster for their toy line. One student composes the paragraph, another uses that to create a...
Smithsonian Institution
Autobiography through Objects
Show youngsters how objects can tell a story! Here your class will learn about Cuban salsa dancer Celia Cruz by analyzing pictures of her dress, her shoes, and her marriage certificate. After describing Cruz's items and imagining what...
Curated OER
Hamlet's Soliloquy
Everyone is familiar with the beginning of Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be..." While reading Hamlet, help your middle schoolers analyze the lines that follow, but how do you help them make personal connections to the text? Use...
Curated OER
Getting Ready for Kindergarten, Homeschool-Style!
Experience learning alongside your child as you begin your homeschooling journey.
Curated OER
Preparing for High School and Beyond
Eighth graders might be intimidated about going to high school and they may not think they'll ever go to college. Ease those fears while making college readiness an eighth grade reality. In teams, pupils fill out several worksheets while...
California Academy of Science
Plants: Hanging Tough
Learning about the rainforest can be more fun than you think. The class discusses vocabulary-in-context as they cut cardboard boxes, destined to become part of a rainforest model. Small groups of children color, cut, and construct...
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...
Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation
Did African American Lives Improve After Slavery?
The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...
Curated OER
Butterfly, Butterfly: Teaching Vocabulary
Kindergarteners practice new words through listening to and reading the science book Butterfly by Jenny Feely. The teacher will first choose words that are essential for understanding the text. Then, using pictures in the text,...
BBC
Dragon Land - Questions
The proper use of the question mark, and how to correctly construct a sentence that is a question, are the two focuses in a wonderful language arts lesson plan. There is a terrific interactive online game that your kids can utilize to...
Curated OER
Unidentified (Flying?) Arthropods
Beginning biologists learn the characteristics of the five classes in the arthropod phylum. A student handout lists characteristics to help them identify five specimens. You will need to collect an example of each: arachnida, crustacea,...
Curated OER
Modeling Mania Math Topic: Using Models
Learners examine problem solving techniques when working on spatial problems. They discover how models, sketches, and drawings can be used to understand on something works. They design a model of a bridge using given dimensions and...
Curated OER
Setting the Story: Techniques for Creating a Realistic Setting
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...
Curated OER
Mondrian - Primary/Secondary Color Study
Utilizing computer software, learners demonstrate the color spectrum. They investigate the life of the artist Piet Mondrian and define his style of artwork. Then they use Photoshop to recreate some of his designs while discovering the...
San Francisco Symphony
Washington Portrait
Fifth and second graders pair up to create mini dance scenes based on the image Washington Crossing the Delaware. Second graders create the movements while their fifth grade partners play the musical accompaniment. Leadership...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Relationships and Sexuality
Adolescence is a tumultuous time for the learners in your class. Guide them through the rocky world of friendships, risks, personal health, and emotional turmoil with a set of lessons about teenager relationships and sexuality.
Actis
Handling Data: Probability, Tree Diagrams
Clean, but captivating, two online simulations demonstrate probability for middle schoolers. They can choose the number of coins and tosses and watch as the results pile up. They can choose from a variety of spinner types and the number...
PBS
Robo Arm
Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second lesson of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.
University of North Carolina
Summary: Using it Wisely
Sometimes summarizing keeps a writer from going deeper into their analysis—don't fall into that trap. Learn the difference between summarizing and analyzing using an insightful resource. Focusing on introductions, the lesson shares...
Curated OER
Literary Comparison
Compare and contrast two pieces of literature with this lesson. With the use of a Venn diagram, pupils make connections between literature and real-life situations. They practice skills of surveying a text looking for important details,...