Curated OER
Playing with Prepositions of Place
Transform the way you teach prepositions of place with Harry the Hiker, the age-friendly, easy-to-understand model.
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Whose Manifest Destiny?
Students examine the Westward expansion. In this North American settlers lesson, students will view a PowerPoint presentation and answer critical thinking questions. Students will write an essay that analyzes the impact of westward...
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Rave Reviews
A fun instructional activity that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers....
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Picture Dictionary
Students create picture dictionaries to encourage the development of letter-sound recognition. For this alphabet project, students cut out pictures from magazines and glue them onto tagboard, and then write the name of the picture below...
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My Wet Robot
After hearing about the 2006 PHAEDRA mission that explored the Aegean Sea, middle schoolers work in groups to create a robotic vehicle. They must consider power, propulsion, and other vital systems. Use the multitude of external...
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Conflict - Part Two
Middle schoolers engage in a discussion about bullying. They list the many forms bullying can take, and how much of a problem bullying is at their own school. Then, learners plan their own campaign to eliminate bullying at their school....
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"Zebra" by Chaim Potok
Combine art and literature to teach greater themes and symbolic meaning. Using the plan outlined in this resource, expose your class to the story "Zebra" by Chaim Potok, conduct discussions about social issues and nicknames, and ask...
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Connotation: Three Lessons for Effective Word Choice
Over the course of three days, middle schoolers explore the concept of connotation. They differentiate between the connotative and denotative meanings of sports team names, develop their own team names, logos, and text, and revise a news...
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Who Am I?
Middle schoolers use a graphic organizer to brainstorm information about their lives. They utilize brainstorming techniques in a writing exercise, and create a graphic organizer describing their lives. They set personal goals for the...
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Cargoes from Three Continents Ancient Mediterranean Trade
Sixth graders begin the activity by researching the different types of ships and shipbuilding techniques used to help trade in the Mediterranean Sea. Using different objects, they determine what one can tell about a society and discuss...
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Things That Make Us Want To Scream
Learners create a drawing of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and draw items that make them want to scream in this creative Art lesson for the Middle or High School classroom. The lesson includes resource links for artwork and background...
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What is a Treaty?
Students examine the notion of terra nullius, the idea under which Australia was settled. Then they compare the economic and social outcomes for Australia's indigenous people under terra nullius with those of other indigenous peoples...
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Chinese Dynasties & Mongol Invasions
Seventh graders define dynasty and examine through research how Chinese dynasties functioned politically and militarily. They examine the effects that the Mongols had on China and describe how Mongul rule and strict social hierarchy...
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Female Adolescent Identity Formation: Am I Powerful or Powerless?
Students explore the "coming of age" process experienced by adolescent girls on their journey from children to adulthood. They focus on the middle years or limbo period in which girls decide who they want to become as women or rather,...
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Winter Survival
Students create a list of the five most important things they need to survive a winter night. In this survival lesson, students work in groups to list things they would need to survive a night outside in winter. Students remove items...
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Scarecrow Recycled
Students create their own scarecrows. In this recycling instructional activity, students discuss the purpose of scarecrows and discuss how they are constructed. Students make their own scarecrows out of recycled materials.
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Tracking the Weather
Students use satellite imagery and forecasting maps as a storm moves through the United States. In this weather lesson students track storm systems and chart the systems on a map.
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Juggling Fact and Opinion in Today's Information Overload
Teaching children to evaluate information is critical to differentiate between fact and opinion.
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Multimedia Storytelling
Experiment with multimedia storytelling. After watching a segment of American Family, first, middle and high schoolers tell a story about their families, clarifying the setting, characters, and script. They work on setting...
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Homophobia: What is It? What Can We Do About It?
A two-part lesson focuses on the sensitive issues of homophobia, discrimination, sexuality, and gender. Middle schoolers discuss individual and institutional discrimination, personal rights, homosexuality, and bullying.
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The Teaching of Biology and Difference
Seventh graders pretend they were Anton looking through the microscope for the first time. They describe the way he felt when he observed tiny moving objects in the sample of pond water. They look at their own samples of pond water,...
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Changes and the Individual
Pupils evaluate the social effects of inventions and other developments on the lives of ordinary individuals. They create a profile of an individual who might have lived at that time and whose life would have been affected by those changes.
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All aboard the "Quiet Train"
Students identify and define that an orderly line means straight, one student behind the next, and facing forward. Then they practice boarding the quiet train where the teacher is the train captain and that if he/she hears anyone...
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The Buddha And His Many Different Forms
Students examine the historical Buddha and Buddhism through in-class discussions, visual artifacts, and the practice and performance of the play "The Enlightened One". Evaluation occurs after performance of the play.