This unit consists of four lessons in which students explore several meanings and representations of multiplication, including number lines, sets, arrays, and balance beams. They also learn about the commutative property of multiplication, the results of multiplying by 1 and by 0, and the inverse property of multiplication. Students write story problems and create pictographs. The unit includes activity sheets, assessment ideas, links to related applets, reflective questions for students and teachers, extensions and a bibliography of children's literature with a multiplication focus.

In this 5-lesson unit primary students identify attributes of buttons and other objects in their classrooms. Throughout the unit students learn to collect data about objects, display the data (Venn diagrams, pictographs, and bar graphs), and analyze the data to determine what this tells us about buttons and/or other objects. Each of the five lesson plans includes necessary student/class worksheets, questions for students, extension ideas, and assessment ideas. Lessons 2 and 3 reference stories that are an important part of the skill development: "The Button Box" by Margarette Reid and "The Elves and the Shoemaker" story.

In this 8-lesson unit students use buttons to explore logical and numerical relationships that form the conceptual basis for understanding addition and subtraction operations. Topics include counting, ordinal numbers (and relative position), classification (attributes), relationships between numbers, addition of sets, commutativity of addition, sums to 10, fact families (including subtraction), three models of subtraction ("take away", comparative, missing addend), and bar graphs. Includes student activity sheets and a link to an online graphing applet.

In this 8-lesson unit students use buttons to explore logical and numerical relationships that form the conceptual basis for understanding addition and subtraction operations. Topics include counting, ordinal numbers (and relative position), classification (attributes), relationships between numbers, addition of sets, commutativity of addition, sums to 10, fact families (including subtraction), three models of subtraction ("take away", comparative, missing addend), and bar graphs. Includes student activity sheets and a link to an online graphing applet.

This site introduces students to archeology -- the study of material remains to learn about past human experiences. This lesson (Grades 3-8) discusses various challenges of an archaeologist: locating a site that will yield clues about the people who once lived there, conducting excavations, and more. Students identify artifacts from a contemporary setting, describe the function of each artifact, identify methods for dating soil layers, and interpret soil profiles.

This site offers geography and history activities showing how two years in history had an indelible impact on American politics and culture. Students interpret historical maps, identify territories acquired by the U.S., identify states later formed from these territories, examine the territorial status of Texas, and identify political, social, and economic issues related to the expansion of the U.S. in the 1840s.

The Figurative Language Terms worksheet was created for the CESA #1 EL OER Project. Having a deep understanding of figurative language is essential while acquiring the English language. For many EL students, understanding the different terms is overwhelming. This worksheet provides students with the opportunity to watch videos and listen to songs to increase their background knowledge of various figurative language terms. Students will have exposure to: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, alliteration, idiom, allusion, and personification. They will also have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the terms by writing definitions, drawing labeled pictures, and/or creating individual examples.

In this Illumination activity, students act as reporters at the Super Bowl. Students study four pictures of things that they would typically find at a football game: players, a scoreboard, a crowd, and a concession stand. Students are asked to create problem situations that correspond to their interpretation of each of the pictures. The lesson includes a student worksheet and extension questions.

In this math lesson, learners read the book "How Big Is a Foot?" by Rolf Myller to explore the need for a standard unit of measure. Students then create non-standard units (using their own footprints) and use the footprints to make "beds." This lesson guide includes a student activity sheet, questions for learners, assessment options, extensions, and reflection questions.

In this lesson, students use historical nonstandard units (digits, hand, cubit, yard, foot, pace, fathom) to estimate the lengths of common objects and then measure using modern standard units. They will discover the usefulness of standardized measurement units and tools. An activity sheet (pdf), assessment options and other commentary are provided.

The activities in this 6-lesson unit use fish-shaped crackers to help students develop their understanding of comparative subtraction by exploring five meanings of subtraction (counting, sets, number line, balance, and inverse of addition). Students investigate properties of subtraction, represent subtraction with objects and pictures, record subtraction with vertical notation and equations, create and solve problems, and carry out missing addend activities. Lessons include questions for student discussion and teacher reflection, extensions, printable student sheets, assessment options, and links to online applets.

This bilingual curriculum and resources guide and is designed to help elementary school teachers organize instruction to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade children whose first language is not English. The guide offers a curriculum plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student materials, and assessment procedures. Because language development is a fundamental co-requisite for learning mathematics and science concepts, processes and skills, the lessons in many instances begin with literature (e.g., stories, books) and discussion activities that set the stage for posing questions and presenting conflicting situations related to the Big Ideas in mathematics and science that are the focus of the lesson.

This lesson introduces students to the measurable attribute of length and provides practice in measuring length using non-standard units. The lesson is launched using the story Ladybug on the Move by Richard Fowler. Lesson objectives, teaching ideas, and handouts are included.

In this 5-lesson unit students make groups of zero through five objects and connect number words to the groups. They develop counting strategies and use numerals to record the size of a group. Lessons include familiar nursery rhymes and songs, links to interactive applets, and visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities. Also included are student activity sheets, questions for students and teachers, assessment and extension ideas.

In this 5-lesson unit, students engage in measurement activities involving length, area, volume, time, and weight, using objects, pictures and symbols. Students practice measuring using standard and nonstandard units. Some lessons are introduced using children's literature.

This subject traces the history of the European novel by studying texts that have been influential in connection with two interrelated ideas. 1) When serious fiction deals with matters of great consequence, it should not deal with the actions of persons of consequence--kings, princes, high elected officials and the like--but rather with the lives of apparently ordinary people and the everyday details of their social ambitions and desires. To use a phrase of Balzac's, serious fiction deals with "what happens everywhere". 2) This idea sometimes goes with another: that the most significant representations of the human condition are those dealing with persons who try to compel society to accept them as its destined agent, despite their absence of high birth or inheritance.

In this three-lesson unit, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children’s literature. Three pieces of literature are used to teach geometry and measurement topics in the mathematics curriculum, i.e. using and describing geometric figures, estimating the volume of an irregular solid, and exploring the need for a standard unit of length. Activity worksheets and ideas for extension are included.

" What is the history of popular reading in the Western world? How does widespread access to print relate to distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow culture, between good taste and bad judgment, and between men and women readers? This course will introduce students to the broad history of popular reading and to controversies about taste and gender that have characterized its development. Our grounding in historical material will help make sense of our main focus: recent developments in the theory and practice of reading, including fan-fiction, Oprah's book club, comics, hypertext, mass-market romance fiction, mega-chain bookstores, and reader response theory."

In this six lesson unit, students recognize and explore the relationships among pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. They estimate and count sets of mixed coins, create equivalent sets, write story problems that involve money, and use coins to make patterns. Within the unit there is a link to US Mint. http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/

This site features Louisa May Alcott and Samuel Clemens. See excerpts from Alcott's girlhood journal and Little Women. Read Clemens' explanation of his white suit in Mark Twain's Autobiography and the last chapter of Tom Sawyer, where Huck Finn has fled the Widow Douglas's civilizing influence. Help students see that their own lives and views can be a basis for creative writing.