Curated OER
Growing Caterpillars
Explore multiplication through caterpillar study. Learners will view a caterpillar video clip and work with a group to determine how much they would weigh if they grew to be 3,000 times their size as does the caterpillar. They will...
Curated OER
Fraction Problem Solving Process
Help your charges solve a variety of fraction and skip counting problems using a problem solving process. As a class they work through a fraction problem step-by-step, and discuss a real-life connection to the problem. Students then play...
Curated OER
QAR - Jacob Have I Loved
What kinds of questions could be asked with different pieces of literature? Use QAR questions to help your middle schoolers develop the skills to find information in a text. Thorough directions, a text excerpt, and a set of reading...
Curated OER
What Was That All About?
Through direct instruction, the teacher demonstrates how to identify the main idea and supporting details of a text when creating a summary. As a class, read a paragraph, highlighting relevant information and crossing out extraneous...
Curated OER
George's Place
Here is another in the interesting series of lessons that uses money as a learning tool. This one is especially clever! During the instructional activity, pupils pretend they are eating at "George's Place" diner. Small groups are given...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: “Thanksgiving” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Victor Laredo's painting "On the Beach" and Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem "Thanksgiving" allow young scholars to use their noticing skills. Class members identify elements of the painting the artist uses to create the feeling of...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 4
Why is it important to use precise language? Participants explore this question in the fourth activity in a series of 15 on effective instruction. Perfect for all content areas, the activity promotes appropriate language choice through...
Idaho State Department of Education
Lessons for Social Studies Educators
Point of view, purpose, and tone: three concepts readers of primary and secondary source materials must take into account when examining documents. Class members view a PowerPoint presentation and use the SOAPS strategy to identify an...
Visa
Make It Happen: Saving for a Rainy Day
Every little penny counts, especially when it comes to saving for emergencies or long-term goals. Pupils evaluate different saving and investment strategies, such as a CD or money market account, through worksheets and by...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 5: The Tragic Hero
Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...
Federal Reserve Bank
Retirement Planning
It's never too early to start saving for retirement. In fact, the earlier one starts, the better! Use this retirement planning activity to teach the importance of a retirement strategy and why to start at a young age.
Historical Thinking Matters
Social Security: 5 Day Lesson
Did the New Deal fundamentally shift the role of the American government in the economy? Your class members will examine the interpretations of various historians in answering this question, and use a variety of primary and secondary...
Marilyn Burns Education Associates
Eighteen Flavors
Your learners will be tantalized by this inquiry-based, collaborative activity as they discover how to write an equation that represents the height of an ice cream cone. Given the scenario based on the poem, "Eighteen Flavors," and...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
It’s Greek to Me: Greek Mythology
It's no myth: this packet on Greek mythology is an excellent addition to your social studies curriculum. With writing activities, such as short answer responses and biopoems, and reading activities, which include creation stories and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Scottsboro Boys and "To Kill a Mockingbird": Two Trials for the Common Core
Here's a must-have resource for anyone reading To Kill A Mockingbird or using Harper Lee's award-winning novel in a classroom. The packet contains Miss Hollace Ransdall's first-hand, factual account of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys,...
Baylor College
Neurotransmitters Contain Chemicals
Human body systems young scholars play a card game, "Locks & Keys" in order to learn that neurotransmitters carry a message from one neuron to another by fitting into a receptor site on the receiving nerve cell. While this activity...
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Biopoem
As part of their reading of The Hobbit, readers create a biopoem for one of Tolkien's characters.
Curated OER
Making Connections
Fourth graders investigate visual imagery to aid reading comprehension. In this reading strategies instructional activity, 4th graders discover how visual imagery helps in comprehending a story. Students use a reader's notebook to record...
Curated OER
The Power of Mental Images: Visualizing Literature
Looking for a powerful reading comprehension method? Try visualization! Learners use this strategy to increase comprehension of a chapter book selected by the teacher. As an assessment, individuals or small groups draw pictures of the...
Curated OER
Anticipation Guide Heart of Darkness
The whys and wherefores of anticipation guides are detailed in a resource that models how to craft statements for this reading strategy.
Curated OER
Learning About Prediction
The skill of prediction as a reading strategy is explored. Learners are shown how to use clues within a story, along with pictures, to make predictions as to what's going to happen in the story. A clever in-class game which uses objects...
Curated OER
Apply Post-Reading Skills and Discuss Persuasive Text
Students put their reading comprehension skills to practice. In this interpreting text lesson, students read "Chief Red Jacket's Reply," and then respond to questions that require them to reason, infer, and analyze the selection.
Curated OER
Scaffolding a Reading/Writing Lesson
Students explore pre-reading activities. Through looking at titles, and observing pictures, students predict what will happen in a story. They listen to a part of the story and then write their own conclusion. Students complete the story...
Curated OER
Problem Solving: Steps and Strategies
Students explore the concept of problem solving strategies. In this problem solving strategies lesson, students discuss methods for solving problems such as re-reading a problem, stating the facts, drawing a picture and so on. Students...