Curated OER
All the World's a Stage
Enhance your teaching of plays with strategies for pre-teaching, engagement, and culminating projects.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Character in Place: Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” for the Common Core
How do writers use the interaction between elements like characterization and setting to create meaning? Readers of "A Worn Path" create a series of comic book-style graphics of Eudora Welty's short story and reflect on how Welty...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Folktales
Following a reading and thorough discussion of books—Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott and The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons—scholars complete three activities. First, they use playdough or cookie dough to create...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Bees
A Reading Adventure pack explores the busy life of bees. After reading a fiction and nonfiction text, scholars complete three hands-on activities. Participants invent a robot that can do the work of bees, cheers to hardworking bees with...
Curated OER
Imitating a Peer
Imitation of a peer is what your autistic learners will focus on today. You'll prompt them to imitate a selected peer, either their actions, emotions, or facial expressions. This is done through repetitive trails and positive...
Curated OER
Online Math Facts Games
Pupils use online games to reinforce math-facts knowledge, engage in a game the way they might be engaged in an arcade game, and try to be one of the class's top-scorers each week. A good filler or extension activity.
Curated OER
Delayed Gratification
Word problems are great for engaging critical thinking skills, and word problems involving money increase a child's financial literacy. Boost your critical and financial thinkers with a multi-step word problem involving money and problem...
Curated OER
A Clue For Keyboarding
Clever clues provide an entertaining way to help learners memorize the location of each letter and symbol on a keyboard. No computers, keyboards, or charts are needed, yet this game reinforces keyboarding skills. Your class will beg to...
Curated OER
Candy Heart Stories
Learners will write stories using the words that are found on candy conversation hearts. They show the proper use of quotation marks while writing the stories with modifications. Randomly, hearts will be selected to start a conversation...
Curated OER
Penguin Writing
After discussing the main events in Mr. Popper’s Penguins, young writers describe in sequence what they would do if they had 12 penguins living in their house. The narratives are then glued onto a penguin cut-out, mounted on construction...
Curated OER
"Weighing the Elephant"
Can your class solve the problem presented in the Chinese folktale, "Weighing the Elephant?" Read your class the description before having them attempt to solve the problem. After they've come up with an answer (or attempted to!), finish...
Curated OER
Writing a Television Advertisement
Pupils choose their favorite television show, craft and illustrate an advertisement for this show, and then write a short paragraph about why the show appeals to them. No provisions are made for children with limited or no viewing...
Curated OER
Spell, Shoot, Score!
Games are great ways to motivate. The class is split into two teams; each team earns points by correctly spelling given words. To score bonus points, teams get to shoot baskets with a small ball. Tip: This game could be used to reinforce...
Kenan Fellows
Designing a Water Treatment Plant
How does dirty water get clean enough to drink? After viewing a PowerPoint that outlines the process water goes through at a water treatment plant, groups work together to design a chlorination chamber for a treatment plant.
Curated OER
Rushing to Succeed
Pressure to cover standards may lead to less time spent on important critical thinking skills.
Michigan State University
Wanted Dead or Alive
Wanted! Pests are on the loose! Here, class members create a wanted poster highlighting one pest. Posters includes a picture, description, and signs of pest activity.
Curated OER
Debate on China's One Child Policy
High schoolers learn about China's One Child Policy. They read an article about a specific family's experience under the policy (not included) and research and explain the key points of the policy. They assess the pros and cons in a...
Curated OER
Mountain Biking - Riding Uphill
Mountain biking sounds like a lot of fun, but it also sounds like a lot of hard work! You have to get uphill to enjoy the ride downhill. Learn about shifting gears to go uphill and to keep your weight balanced properly. This is one...
Curated OER
United States History Pretest
Have your U.S. history class engage in pre-assessment activities at the beginning of the school year. They activate prior knowledge to answer questions. They also use information about particular topics to fill in a graphic organizer....
Curated OER
Storytelling: Writers' Workshop Learning Center
Evaluating a variety of narrative texts can help build strong writers. Pupils identify plot elements and their relation to personal experience, then apply what they gleaned from the class discussion to create their own narratives.
Curated OER
The King's Chessboard
Middle schoolers speculate on the better rate of pay: a dollar a day for 10 days, or a penny the first day, two pennies the second, doubling each day for 10 days. Start by listening to the story The King's Chessboard, by David Birch....
Curated OER
Irregular Word Accuracy, Class Challenge
Irregular words are so...irregular! Participate in an activity to reinforce the reading of these tricky words. They take turns reading an irregular word card and then attempt to read the word in their head and say it out...
Curated OER
Types of Entrepreneurs
What does it take to be an entrepreneur? What traits does a person need? Find out as you and your class brainstorm along with this presentation. The traits of inventors, types of entrepreneurs, and their role in the economy are...
Curated OER
Articles and Article Check-Up
Help your learners practice proper article usage with this informational handout and brief exercise. After reading information about articles and their uses, including details about when to omit articles, scholars complete fourteen...