Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Clean the Beach!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students volunteer their time to clean a local park. They estimate the amount of debris they collect and make observations. They write a poem and draw an illustration about their experience.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Can Our Talents Be Used Together?

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students investigate their individual talents. In this togetherness lesson, students listen to the poem "Togetherness Chant" and change the final stanza from play to work. Students brainstorm how they can use their individual talents for...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Depression

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students work together to develop a survey to ask people who lived during the Great Depression. Using the information from the survey, they write an essay or a poem describing why it was bad for one of their family members to lose their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Heroes and Heroines in Science: Dispelling the Stereotype

For Teachers 7th - 12th
learners think of scientists as heroes and heroines by dispelling the stereotypes of persons in scientific careers. They work in cooperative groups to research the life and works of a scientist and (through the use of the library and the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Social Studies and Children's Literature

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students write a journal in response to literature. The story that is read is about prairies. The subject of prairies becomes an object for research. The culminating activity is the making of a map where prairies exist in the United States.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Looking through the Sands of Time: 80's Decade

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students view the comic "Time sliders" from the Celebrate the Stamp Unit from the 1980's. They discuss what the comic magazine contains. Students listen to a speaker from the post office discuss how stamps are selected. They use...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating Family Memories While Making Bread

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students work together to make fry bread. They measure out the correct amounts of each ingredient and reflect how it is part of their culture. Using the internet, they research recipes from different cultures and write about their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Just Learned About the Coolest Person

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners present information on the public lives and work of a chosen philanthropist. They write bio-poems highlighting the work of philantropists.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Window

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students read a story entitled, "The Window," and discover how some cultures are rejected by others. Students write a letter expressing feelings of rejection and keep a journal of significant events in the story. Using a graphic...
Organizer
School District No. 71

Adding Written Detail: Using Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon as a Mentor Text

For Students 1st - 4th Standards
Access your senses with a worksheet on sensory language. Based on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, the worksheet prompts kids to find examples of each of the five senses, as well as phrases for inner emotion. 
Worksheet
K5 Learning

The Wolf

For Students 4th Standards
Fourth graders have likely heard the expression to cry wolf, but they may not know the saying's origin. A short reading passage tells the story and includes four comprehension questions for pupils to demonstrate their...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Second Graders Create Their Own Social Studies Book

For Teachers 2nd
Students develop their own social studies textbook. Students gain knowledge of American immigration and Ellis Island. Students discover the process of becoming a naturalized citizen and what it means to be a citizen
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars examine the life and works of Theodor Seuss Geisel. In groups, they compare and contrast the stories, characters and illustrations he used. They complete a book review on one of the books and share them with other...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Traveling the Transcontinental from Yesterday to Today

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the impact of the train on the physical landscape and spatial organization of America. They read and analyze various poems, analyze maps, and develop a list of the positive and negative changes brought by the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Lowell Our Place

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate a community through different types of educational experiences. They use short field trips to experience the community in real life. they also conduct research using a variety of resources. Then students build the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Celebrating Saturn and Cassini

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students use their notes from previous lessons to write a paper on Saturn or Cassini. They share their writings with the class. They discover how everyone has a different learning style.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Follow Spring's Journey North Recording Highlights of the Season

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Learners scan headlines on the Journey North News Updates each day to track the changes that spring brings as it comes to different areas of the United States.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Art as Advocacy for Social Change

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“Humanscape No.65” by Melesia Casas and Ester Hernandez’s “Sun Maid Raisins” launch a study of how works of art can advocate for social change. After examining these two works and discussing the human rights issues raised, class members...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Gatsby

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders investigate the concept of the American Dream. They use the novel "The Great Gatsby" as an example from literature. Students brainstorm in order to define the American Dream.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History and Geography: Making a New Nation

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders examine the contributions of the different groups that built the American Nation. They identify the successive waves of new immigration, explain their attraction to America, and study the importance of Ellis Island.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students describe the Gettysburg Campaign and the major actions of the armies during each day of the battle. They analyze the motives, actions, and experiences of several participants in the battle and evaluate the Gettysburg Address.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Come Fly With Me...Aviation

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Young scholars conduct internet research on aviation and pioneer aviators. They create an alphabet book r with flight related terms, write a short biography of a pioneer aviator and take part in a paper plane flying contest.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geo Jammin'

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers compare and contrast related two- and three-dimensional shapes, and complete a Venn diagram illustrating the attributes of each. Using a poem pattern from another lesson, students use data from the diagram to write an...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sing Me a Story!

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore lyrics, phrases, and the beats in each phrase. They select a nursery rhyme, set it to a simple tune they already know, and match the tune with the same number of beats per phrase with a poem with the identical...