Celebrate 100’s day with a bit of technology. These free online tools allow students extra enrichment when celebrating the 100th day of school.

In this unit, students will understand where “fake news” comes from, why it exists and how they can think like fact checkers to become fluent consumers, evaluators, and creators of information. They will apply this knowledge by selecting a controversial topic to evaluate, synthesize, and analyze all aspects before sharing with a local audience.

In this lesson each student will create a glyph (symbol or icon) which represents them and read the glyphs of others using a legend to understand the data on the glyphs.

This unit is focused on two classic fairy tales: The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. With each fairy tale, students are first exposed to a classic version, familiarizing themselves with the basic plot and lessons. Then students explore the ways authors change setting, characters, and plot while still maintaining the overall essence of the classic story. Some of the changes the authors make reflect the nuances of different cultures and environments, while others are made for entertainment and humor. Either way, students will explore the idea that different authors can use their own perspective and culture to shape the stories they write or retell. By reading multiple versions of the same classic fairy tale, students will also be able to grapple with the bigger lessons of each tale—the importance of not talking to strangers and the importance of respecting others’ property and privacy. Over the course of the unit, students will be challenged to think about how each of these unique themes is portrayed and how in each different version of the fairy tale the characters may learn the lesson in slightly different ways. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, will help students see the power of storytelling and how simple stories can be changed and improved based on an author’s ideas and preferences.

In this unit, students explore the concepts of fairness and justice by learning about many of the equal rights movements that have happened in the United States. Over the course of the unit, students study the fight for women’s rights, the civil rights movement, the fight for labor and workers’ rights, the LGBTQ+ movement, the disability rights movement, and the Indigenous Water Protectors movement. With each movement, students read biographies of people who are not in positions of power and analyze how they were able to fight for justice, equity, and change. This unit builds on work done in Kindergarten Unit 6, “What is Justice?” and pushes students to build a deeper understanding of discrimination, justice, and action beyond just the civil rights movement.

In this unit, students explore ancient Egypt. Over the course of the unit, students learn and explore different characteristics of ancient Egypt and what the ancient Egyptians valued. Through learning about the daily routines, structures, and rituals of ancient Egypt, students will be challenged to draw conclusions about what the civilization valued and how those values compare to society today. Students will also learn about the role that mummies and pyramids played in ancient Egyptian society and why archeologists and scientists have been intrigued by them ever since. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with the others in the sequence, will help students understand and appreciate early civilizations that have had a lasting impact on the world.

In this unit, students explore the power of books and reading. In the first part of the unit, students experience the joy that books and reading bring to people's lives, and learn about some of the different ways people access books, especially in places where books are hard to get. In the second part of the unit, students learn about a range of barriers people have faced when trying to learn how to read, both in the United States and around the world, and build an understanding of the steps people have taken individually and as part of a community to overcome the barriers. Students will discover that not all people have had equal access to education and that in many places, past and present, receiving a high-quality education has not been an easy feat. It is our hope that this unit will help open students' eyes to injustices connected with educational access and will inspire students to take action to help members of their community get access to books or education.

This description of this activity is a 2-day lesson: Day 1, Field Lab, Day 2, and Classroom Investigation.
In this field lab, children working in groups will collect 3 samples of soil from different locations. Each sample will be placed in a different Ziploc bag, the groups will label the bags and record in their notebooks the location of each sample, including 5 observations about the area near the location the sample was taken from. They will need to make a plan on how to record and label the bags and locations so when we return to the classroom they will have a system for knowing the location. Individually, each student will also include in his/her notebook a question about each area or the soil collected. Groups will discuss own observation/questions. Each group will share 2 observations they made and 1 question they are wondering. The groups will bring their soil samples back to the classroom. Once back in the classroom, the students will work to create a data recording system and develop an investigable question about the soil. The students will also have available other sample soils provided by the teacher. Students will use the materials and observe the soils and record their findings. The groups would share their data and create a class chart of the information. Ask: What can we notice from this information? What questions do you have about the information?

In this first unit of second grade, students read multiple versions of a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Through reading various versions of the same story, students are not only exposed to a wide variety of cultures, but they are also challenged to think about how the culture, or setting, of the story influences the plot. In 1st grade Literature, students took a trip around the world, exploring a wide variety of themes and stories from all over in order to build a foundational understanding that our world is made up of many diverse and unique cultures. This unit builds on the exposure to new cultures students received in 1st grade and provides an opportunity for students to explore the idea that even though cultures may appear to be different, there are many things embedded within the unique characteristics of different cultures that make them similar. Storytelling, and the role of storytelling, is one of those similarities. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, helps students build empathy and understanding of people and cultures that might be different from them.

This tool is used for teachers to understand what the students are getting out of their learning by recording three things they learned, two questions and one main idea.

3D pens are an easy way to create a 3D object. You can design from scratch or use a template. The pens work like a glue gun, except that they use the same filament in a 3D printer. The objects that the students create can be used in project based learning projects.

In this lesson, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC (reduce, reuse, recycle and compost). They will look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Also, they will observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting).

This unit on American Indians: By studying the regions of the United States and the cultures that live in each region, students are able to compare/contrast within regions and across regions how tribes used their environments, and their cultural and other contributions to American life.

Note that the emphasis here is on broader groups of tribes for each region with some instruction on specific tribes representing each region. In no way is this case study approach to learning about one tribe meant to be generalized to all tribes of that region. We understand that each tribe was and continues to be unique in its culture, practices, lifeways, and traditions.

Google Docs is a great word processor, but is much more than just that. Although we can certainly use it to type up a report, take notes, or write a story, we can also get creative with the features and functions built into the program to make some fun learning activities.

Recently I did a video training webinar where I took a look at four creative ways to use regular Google Docs features in new fun ways to practice and develop literacy skills. These include:

The highlighting tool for the activity "Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs Black Out"

The special characters tool for the activity "Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs"

The word count tool for the activity "Have Students Write Better by Writing Less with Google Docs"

The header tool and hyperlink tool for the activity "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories with Google Docs"

See below for the full 1-hour training video, as well as resources, ideas, and templates for each of the four activities.

Session Resources

Session Agenda - Google Docs link

Training Video (1 hour)

1) Improve Reading Comprehension with Docs Black Out

Description: In this activity students use the highlighter tool to black out any text that is not critical, leaving behind just the main ideas.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs Black Out"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

2) Emoji Learning Activities

Description: In this activity students use special characters to insert emojis to summarize stories, write creatively, and explore character emotions.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "5 Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

3) Have Students Write Better by Writing Less

Description: In this activity students use the word count tool to write within a character limit or word limit.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Have Students Write Better by Writing Less with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

4) Choose Your Own Adventure Stories

Description: In this activity students use headings and hyperlinks to create interactive stories in Google Docs.

Resources: For full details and resources for doing this activity, see my original blog post "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories with Google Docs"

Below is the portion of the training video that covers this specific activity:

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

This unit includes a combination of fourth grade writing and social studies standards. It focuses on research and public discourse.

Students will learn the components of an informational essay. Through modeling, mini-lessons and multiple opportunities for practice and feedback, students will go through the writing process to produce an informational essay on the topic of their choice.

This unit addresses four 6th grade reading standards taught throughout the course of a trimester. These lessons are designed to be taught one day a week, while the other days in the trimester are focused on writing units. This unit is designed to be co-taught with a general education and special education teacher, but can be easily adapted if only one teacher is present.

In this part of the unit, students are exploring how global temperatures have changed over the past hundred years.  Students will examine tables and graphs about global temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, human consumption of food, and human consumption of natural resources.  They will find patterns in the graphs.  Based on this data, students will construct an argument about how human activities (increase in population and consumption of natural resources) cause global temperatures to increase.

Students will learn the components of a Narrative writing. Through mini-lessons (Ex: dialogue, story elements, figurative language, good introductions,genre study,  etc.),  daily writing and revising, students will go through the writing process to produce a narrative writing on a topic of their choice.