Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Comparing Themes
The tale of "Lon Po Po" is a Chinese story, very similar to the European tale of "Little Red Riding Hood." Learners make cross cultural comparisons between the two tales, focusing on themes common to both. They review story elements such...
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson plan on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
Curated OER
St. Patrick’s Day
Combine math, creative writing, and leprechauns in a fun St. Patrick's Day activity! Using a bag of gold coins and marshmallows, kids write a math story about a leprechaun that includes a multi-step equation to solve.
Baylor College
HIV/AIDS in the United States
In the final of five lessons about HIV/AIDS, groups create presentations to share data about the infection rates in the United States, examining demographic and geographic trends over the past ten years. Depending on how much time you...
Curated OER
Science NetLinks: Hollywood Dinosaurs
Students use relevant evidence and logical reasoning to construct theories for dinosaur behavior. They examine recent evidence that challenges a prevailing dinosaur theory.
Curated OER
Under the Sea
Tropical fish are a great subject for any art project, they are colorful, interesting, and can go along with under water themed stories read in class, learner written narratives, or Marine Biology units. This set of instructions will...
Curated OER
Graffitti
Here is a fun way to encourage a cooperative classroom, drawing skills, and creative expression. Each child draws a design or shape on his paper, then he rotates to the next child's paper where he adds to the previous design. When the...
Curated OER
A Great Beginning
Check out this detailed resource for some beginning of the year activities. After examining examples, class members uses the computer lab to create a personal brochure enhanced with clip art or photos to introduce themselves to the...
Curated OER
Sincerely Yours
Learners write a friendly letter. They write a friendly letter to author, Cynthia Rylant, after reading a number of her books, and watch a presentation by the teacher that describes how to write the letter. They word process their...
Curated OER
Fun Food Faces
Students create tasty faces. In this food instructional activity, students use rice cakes to make a funny face. Students follow directions and use creativity for this activity. Students make a list of things they need from the grocery...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Dinosaur Bones (Barner)
Dig into some prehistoric vocabulary in Bob Barner's informative book Dinosaur Bones. This works best if you introduce the primitive words before reading the story. These are the focus terms in the text: ancient, climate, extinct,...
EngageNY
Talking with My Peers: Carousel of Reading Superheroes Around the World
In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...
EngageNY
Understanding Themes in Esperanza Rising
Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...
EngageNY
Illustrating: Geography Icon
For the final step of the performance task for this unit, class members will create an illustration to go with the paragraph on their bookmark. After looking at models, guide pupils toward recognizing the criteria for an effective...
Novelinks
The Good Earth: Vocabulary Bingo Strategy
Endeavor. Qualm. Stolid. Fortitude. Filial. Bingo! As part of their study of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, class members engage in a vocabulary bingo game.
Curated OER
Mini-Lesson Planning for Inferences
Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...
Teach Engineering
Nanotechnology Grant Proposal Writing
Please, sir, can I have a few thousand dollars for my research? The last installment in a six-part lesson has the pupils develop a grant proposal. Class members apply their knowledge of skin cancer, ultraviolet radiation, human skin, and...
Curated OER
Invisible Life
By setting up an aquarium in the classroom, learners are able to describe some macroscopic and microscopic organisms that are found inside. This well-designed, and educationally rich lesson requires pupils to use microscopes to view...
Perkins School for the Blind
Counting in Tactile Journals
This is one of those great ideas I totally love. Youngsters with visual impairments practice counting and left-to -right sequencing by counting out a set number of edible objects from the left and putting them in a bag on the right. They...
Baylor College
What is Blood Pressure?
Find out how we describe the force created by the blood against the walls of the vessels in a heart-pumping lesson! As part of a unit on the heart and circulatory system, cardiology kids use a blood pressure monitor to find their...
Baylor College
Comparing Sizes of Microorganisms
Kids compare what printed text looks like with the naked eye and under magnification. They discuss the extremely small scale that must be used to measure the size. They learn about the micrometer unit, then draw scale models of a variety...
Curated OER
Be the Poet
Students work through a Haiku Organizer to determine the characteristics they use to write eight haiku poems on a theme that they choose. They design presentation folders of their completed work.
Curated OER
Clay Sand Castles
You can start off this sand castle art project by previewing the included architectural vocabulary. Learners explore images, the web, and books that show both sand castles and architectural design. They then get creative and make their...
Curated OER
3-D Texture Painting (Impasto)
A neat art project is on the horizon. Your class can experience impasto, or textured painting with this expressive art lesson. They design and then paint using the impasto technique. This is done by mixing toilet paper into the paint....