Tennessee State Museum
An Emancipation Proclamation Map Lesson
Did the Emancipation Proclamation free all slaves during the Civil War? Why was it written, and what were its immediate and long-term effects? After reading primary source materials, constructing political maps representing information...
Poetry Out Loud
The Tabloid Ballad
What do the theme song from Gilligan's Island, the nursery rhyme "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," and the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" all have in common? Why, they're ballads of course! Challenge your young balladeers to compose their...
Curated OER
Periodic Table of Fun
Are you looking to put the fun back in the fundamentals of chemistry? Why not have groups create their own periodic tables of something (animals, food, music groups, etc.) practicing the organizational strategies used in the periodic...
NASA
Observing Monsoon Weather Patterns with TRMM Data
Follow a fabulous slide show on how monsoons form and how satellite technology is being used to observe the phenomena, explaining why they occur. Afterward, visit the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) website to access actual...
Smarter Balanced
Importance of Nutrition
Prepare your class members for the performance task assessment on nutrition with an activity that asks class members to rank images of foods from least nutritious to most. Participants also offer reasons for why they ranked the foods the...
Smarter Balanced
Exploring the World
To prepare for the Exploring the World Performance Task, class groups generate a list of places they would like to explore, examine images of seven natural wonders of the world, and consider why these sites are wondrous. A map and images...
Pie Council
National π Day
Learners can enjoy pi with pie! A collection of short activities celebrates pi day with a word search, a maze, and real-world problemsn. Using pi in formulas for area, circumference, and volume as well as exploring simple fractions is...
Elementary School Counseling
My Animal's Name Is:
How can others help when we're feeling strong emotions? Help your learners express how they feel by naming and drawing an animal who feels a certain emotion. They write in the emotion and then describe why the animal feels that way, as...
Rural Science Education Program
Bees and Flowers – Partners in Pollination
Why are bees so important? After several activities where kids investigate the form and function of flowers, they learn about the different types of bees and label them. They then examine pollen under a microscope and decide which bees...
Student Handouts
The Five W's and How
Here is a great graphic organizer for ensuring that young researchers and writers cover all their bases when brainstorming a topic by considering the five W's (who, what, where, when, and why) and how.
Student Handouts
Blue Beard: A Fairy Tale for Children?
Make a study of the well-known fairy tale (in this case told by the Brothers Grimm), Bluebeard. Learners read the story, respond to several questions about the text, and practice vocabulary words from the text.
Illustrative Mathematics
Regular Tessellations of the Plane
Bringing together the young artists and the young organizers in your class, this lesson takes that popular topic of tessellations and gives it algebraic roots. After covering a few basic properties and definitions, learners attack the...
Positively Autism
"Saying "Hello" to People" Social Skills Story
Support learners who may be very shy or reserved in saying "hello" to new people with this set of story slides. The presentation begins with a few slides describing why it is good to greet others, and concludes with opportunities to...
University of Kentucky
The Successful Person's Guide to Time Management
"If you don't know where you are going, you might end up someplace else." Yogi Berra's wise words can also be applied to time-management. In order to be successful at time-management you need to know where you are going, what you want to...
Safe Drinking Water Foundation
Making a Difference
After learning about the effects of water pollution, your class will discuss ways to make people in their community aware of the importance of water conservation. Then, your young environmentalists will write a letter to the local...
Math Worksheets 4 Kids
Fractions into Decimal and Percent
Why was the fraction skeptical about marrying the decimal? Because he would have to convert! This worksheet provides much needed practice for young mathematicians to convert fractions into decimals and percents.
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Matching Quadratic Functions
Ever sigh when learners ask why they have to know so many different forms of the quadratic equation? Here is a lesson that comes in handy! Using hands-on matching activities, quadratic equations are explored through their graphical...
EngageNY
Adding and Subtracting Expressions with Radicals
I can multiply, so why can't I add these radicals? Mathematicians use the distributive property to explain addition of radical expressions. As they learn how to add radicals, they then apply that concept to find the perimeter of polygons.
It's About Time
Volcanic Landforms
Did you know the word volcano comes from the name of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan? During this activity, scholars make a topographic map, interpret topographic maps, and infer how lava will flow based on their analysis.
Chymist
Visualizing pH
Why are acids and bases important in our daily lives? Lead the class in answering this question, among others, as they experiment with pH paper and classify where various substances belong on the pH scale. They also taste common acids...
Willow Tree
Systems of Equations
Now that learners figured out how to solve for one variable, why not add another? The lesson demonstrates, through examples, how to solve a linear system using graphing, substitution, and elimination.
NOAA
Ground-truthing Satellite Imagery with Drifting Buoy Data
Ground-truthing ... is it even a word? The last installment of a five-part series analyzes how scientists collect sea surface temperature data. Scholars use government websites to compare temperature data collected directly from buoys...
Virginia Department of Education
A-Mazing Plants
Have your young scientists questioned why plants grow a particular way? Through this learning opportunity, scientists gain firsthand knowledge about how plants develop and various factors that affect rates of growth as they bring plants...
Virginia Department of Education
Evidence of Evolution
What an impression fossils make! In this activity, aspiring paleontologists view fossils and construct a timeline to further understand how the lack of natural adaptation caused historical organisms to become extinct. While they should...