Classroom Resources

This video resource from Shakespeare Uncovered explores the character of Puck (also known as Robin Goodfellow) and how he impacts the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Using video, graphic organizers, and text-dependent discussion questions, students will learn the origins of Puck while examining different interpretations of the character and how he moves the plot forward.

This resource guides students as they analyze the character of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In this video segment from Eureeka!, the CyberSquad pulls up the flat sides of a 2-dimensional net to make a 3-dimensional building.

Visualize a proof to the Pythagorean Theorem at the National Museum of Mathematics. This video focuses on modeling the concepts behind the Pythagorean Theorem with manipulatives. This video was submitted through the Innovation Math Challenge, a contest open to professional and nonprofessional producers.

Learn why the Pythagorean theorem works for finding side lengths of right triangles. This video focuses on modeling what the Pythagorean theorem actually means and why it will find the missing side of a right triangle. This video was submitted through the Innovation Math Challenge, a contest open to professional and nonprofessional producers.

This video lesson serves two main purposes: to reiterate that some solutions to quadratic equations are irrational, and to give students the tools to express those solutions exactly and succinctly. Students recall that the radical symbol (√) can be used to denote the positive square root of a number. Many quadratic equations have a positive and a negative solution, and up until this point, students have been writing them separately. Here, students are introduced to the plus-minus symbol (±) as a way to express both solutions. Students also briefly recall the meanings of rational and irrational numbers. They see that sometimes the solutions are expressions that involve a rational number and an irrational number—for example, x = ±√8 + 3. Students make sense of these solutions by finding their decimal approximations and by solving the equations by graphing. The work here gives students opportunities to reason quantitatively and abstractly (MP2).

This excerpt from the PBS series, "Looking for Lincoln," features clips of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama quoting Lincoln's oratory- not always accurately- to lend his historical weight to their speeches.

This resource provides a perspective from which students may begin to analyze rhetorical choices. Be sure to read the Discussion Questions found under the Support Materials for Use with Students section.

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will review the components of and practice reading bar graphs. Included are simple teacher-led activities for students.

After watching a video about garden spiders, students will read a chart that reflects the information in the segment. They will then answer a series of questions using the information from the chart.

Why is this an important concept?
It is important for students to learn how to read the information in formats other than narrative texts. Learning to read charts and tables is another way for students to understand how information is collected and organized. It also helps students become skilled in gathering information quickly as well as categorizing information to develop their own charts and tables in a variety of subject areas.

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will review the components of and practice reading picture graphs. Included are simple teacher-led activities for students.

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will practice reading analog and digital clocks. Included are simple teacher-led activities for students.

In this video lesson, students see that scaling a recipe up (or down) requires multiplying the amount of each ingredient by the same factor, e.g., doubling a recipe means doubling the amount of each ingredient (MP7). They also gain more experience using a discrete diagram as a tool to represent a situation. Additionally, they work with equivalent ratios more abstractly, both in the context of recipes and in the context of abstract ratios of numbers. They understand and articulate that all ratios that are equivalent to a:b can be generated by multiplying both a and b by the same number (MP6).

By connecting concrete quantitative experiences to abstract representations that are independent of a context, students develop their skills in reasoning abstractly and quantitatively (MP2). They continue to use diagrams, words, or a combination of both for their explanations.

Grade 6, Episode 1: Unit 2, Lessons 3 & 5 | Illustrative Math

In this Cyberchase media gallery, learn about ratio and proportion and how to use an algebraic shortcut to solve proportion problems. In the accompanying classroom activity, students play a game called the "Pom-Pom Nose Push," in which they collect data and determine the ratio of time to distance. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.

In this video from Cyberchase, Harry describes ratio as a fixed relationship between two quantities and then provides examples to explain the concept further.

Save the Earth from all kinds of waste and trash. Rap with Mister C, read charts with a landfill rat, break the code for recycling symbols, then share this dirty, rotten, self-paced lesson with your friends.

This resource guides students as they identify the main idea and support details of a text.

This lesson explores reflexive pronouns through a short, fun video and activity.  Reflexive pronouns reflect the subject of the sentence. A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded or followed by the noun, adjective, adverb, or pronoun to which it refers within the same clause. This resource includes an activity that allows students to practice using reflexive pronouns. 

Explore the connection between division and fractions while dividing up cookies. This video focuses on recognizing patterns when modeling dividing up cookies to share with people.

A relative adverb is a word that talks about a place, time, or reason for something. Remember the three "w's": where, when, and why.

This resource allows students to practice identifying relative adverbs.

In this video lesson, students encounter situations in which using a double number line poses challenges and for which a different representation would be helpful. Students learn to organize a set of equivalent ratios in a table, a more abstract but also a more flexible tool for solving problems.  Students see that a table accommodates different ways of reasoning about equivalent ratios. They notice (MP8) that to determine an unknown quantity, they can find the multiplier or find an equivalent ratio with one quantity having a value of 1. Allowing students to use any representation that accurately represents a situation and encouraging them to compare different methods will develop their ability to make strategic choices about representations (MP5).

The video lesson strengthens students’ understanding of the multiplicative relationships between equivalent ratios. It also builds students’ awareness of how a table can facilitate this reasoning to varying degrees of efficiency, depending on the approach.

Grade 6, Episode 4: Unit 2, Lessons 11 & 12 | Illustrative Math

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will review the meaning of each digit within a three-digit number and practice reading three-digit numbers. Included are simple teacher-led activities and hands-on exercises for students.

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will review standard units of measurement, investigate standard measurement tools, and be introduced to the use of nonstandard measurement tools. Included are simple teacher-led activities and hands-on exercises for students.

In this activity from The Electric Company, students will review the names of standard US coins and the value associated with each coin. Included are simple teacher-led activities for students.

Susanna Post, 2021 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, explains a strategy for remembering the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines. In addition, she demonstrates the meanings of parallel and perpendicular lines by showing real-world examples. A practice page with examples and vocabulary is included as a resource.

Explore how a robot keeps track of its position as it moves, and how to update that position with math using ranges to known landmarks, in this 14-minute episode. The goal of this video series is to teach the basics of Robotics: the what, why, and how—with examples—and to provide take-home problems to solve.

How do robots determine their location? In this lesson we will explore a three-step process to find the position by 1) finding at least 3 nearby landmarks with known positions 2) determine the robot's range to each landmark using onboard sensors and 3) calculate the intersection point of the 3 range circles to find the robot's position.

In this animated Math Shorts video from the Utah Education Network, learn about rotation, which describes how a geometric shape turns around a point, called the center of rotation. When a geometric shape rotates on a coordinate plane, it stays exactly the same distance from the center of rotation. In the accompanying classroom activity, students are given two rotations from a handout and work in pairs to try to determine whether one figure is a rotation of the other figure around the given point. If the figure is a rotation, the student pair must add one more rotation to the grid. If the figure is not a rotation, the student pair must add one accurate rotation to the grid. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.

In this video from KCPT, watch an animated demonstration of rotating and dilating a triangle on the coordinate plane. In the accompanying classroom activity, students watch the video; draw rotations and dilations of a triangle; and identify center of rotation, angle of rotation, and scale factors in classmates drawings. To get the most from the lesson, students should be comfortable graphing points on the coordinate plane and reproducing a drawing of a geometric shape at a different scale. Prior exposure to rotation and dilation is helpful.

Only numbers with tenths can get into the number line party, what's a decimal with hundredths to do? This interactive exercise focuses on using what you know about number lines and rounding to the tenths place and then asks you to think about what numbers could be rounded to get a certain decimal.

On some nights only certain numbers can get into the Number Line Party, what's a decimal to do? This interactive exercise combines activities here appear in two other Number-Line Party lessons and focuses on using what you know about number lines and rounding and then asks you to explain your reasoning and think about what numbers could be rounded to get a certain decimal.

As you watch this updated snippet of the story of Rumpelstiltskin, take note of the characters, setting, and what happens in the story.

After the video, check out the additional activities below for the classroom and for the home, and watch the “Guided Viewing” version for parents to get additional tips for helping your students understand the English Language Arts concepts in the video.

Designed to help students learn to describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

You can access a pdf of the story by clicking on the following link: Rumpelstiltskin Storybook Text

In this video, students take a quick trip through the history of drive-in theaters and are then asked to consider the question, "What is the relationship between the size of an object’s shadow and the object’s distance from a light source?" In the accompanying classroom activity, students do a hands-on experiment about the size of their own shadows at different distances from a projector or other light source. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.

Although Inverse Proportions and Shadows in the Real World and the Inverse Proportions and Shadows in Practice interactive ("Shadow Puppets") can be used independently, they are deliberately designed to complement each other.

The video takes students to "Sky-Vue Drive-In" to explore what happens to the size of shadows as an object moves further away from a light source.

The matching interactive simulates three figures of different heights standing at various distances in front of a movie projector, allowing students to measure the corresponding shadows of the figures on the movie screen and to see how the relationship between the distance from the light source and the height of the shadow is represented graphically.

Be sure to use the Inverse Proportions and Shadows in the Real World Activity that can be found in the Support Materials for Teachers section for a great activity that teaches the standard(s).

In this video—through footage of the calliope aboard the Belle of Louisville, a church pipe organ, and various instruments at a recording studio—students are introduced to the mathematical concept that the length of a musical pipe or a string has a proportional relationship with the sound it produces.  In the accompanying activity, stringed instruments are used to demonstrate the concept presented in the video. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.

Although Proportions and Music in the Real World ("Belle of Louisville") and the Proportions and Music in Practice interactive ("Musical Scales") can be used independently, they are deliberately designed to complement each other.

The video introduces students to the relationship between music and mathematics, specifically how the length of a pipe or string is related to its frequency, as they learn about the calliope aboard the Belle of Louisville steamboat, a massive pipe organ, and a variety of instruments at a recording studio. 

The matching interactive allows students to play a virtual pan pipe, measure the length of its pipes, record their frequency, and understand the inverse proportional relationship between these frequencies and the instrument’s corresponding pipe lengths.

Be sure to use the Proportions and Music in the Real World Activity that can be found in the Support Materials for Teachers section for a great activity that teaches the standard(s).

In this video, students visit a small-town festival that features the world’s largest stainless steel skillet. In addition to a question about scaling recipes, they also are asked how increasing or decreasing the radius of a circle affects its area. The accompanying classroom activity requires students to compare the areas of the world’s largest skillet and a standard 12-inch skillet through reasoning and computation and to explore the meaning of pi through a hands-on activity. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School Collection.

Although the Scaling Up Recipes and Circles in Practice video ("Greetings from the World’s Chicken Festival") and the Scaling Up Recipes and Circles in the Real World interactive ("Sunnyside Up") can be used independently, they are deliberately designed to complement each other.

The video takes students to a small-town fall festival that features the world’s largest stainless steel skillet as well as food preparations for a crowd of 8,000 people. They are asked how they can use proportional reasoning to scale recipes and how increasing or decreasing the radius of a circle affects its area.

The interactive explores the questions asked in the video as students scale up recipes and food portions to feed a family reunion of 108 people and as they discover the mathematical relationship between the length of a circle’s radius and its area. To enhance classroom use, refer to the Interactive Guide handout and Questions worksheet that students can reference and complete as they work through the interactive.

Be sure to use the Scaling Up Recipes and Circles in the Real World Activity that can be found in the Support Materials for Teachers section for a great activity that teaches the standard(s).

Observe what happens to an image when the scale changes. This interactive exercise focuses on visually comparing multiplicative and additive relationships.

In this lesson, students learn about scaling an object, first smaller (1/10) and then larger (2x). This Cyberchase activity is motivated by two video clips in which the CyberSquad travels to Proporciona, where they visit a land of giants and a land of tiny people (similar to Gulliver's Travels).

In this lesson, students are asked to figure out the dimensions of enlargements of rectangular photographs (and some reductions), based on the percentage of the enlargement. This Cyberchase activity is motivated by a For Real segment in which Bianca, working at a new job, has the task of enlarging a photograph into a poster-sized wall decoration.

Help Cookie Monster and Prairie Dawn sort cookie boxes into equal piles. Use this video to reinforce addition and subtraction skills.

In this video, LL Cool J and Elmo are headed on an addition expedition. They count and add the different birds singing in the bushes. Then they find two frogs and two rabbits hopping, making four total animals hopping. This song focuses on addition and counting skills.