Learning Activities

The article from Britannica School Elementary provides information on human body systems for research. In this activity, students will use articles from this source to obtain and communicate information on one of the twelve human body systems. Human body systems for research include: cardiovascular, circulatory, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, skeletal, and urinary.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

This activity is a sorting game where students have to match multi-digit numbers to the appropriately rounded number.  Students must be able to round multi-digit numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand.  There is a recording sheet to track student progress.

Flipgrid is an online resource that allows students to produce a video recording in response to a particular topic and then share it with teachers and classmates.

This activity gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of metaphor in a personal way. Students will reflect on their personal traits/characteristics, brainstorm an animal, object, etc, that shares similar qualities and write a speech about their chosen metaphor. Then they will perform, record, and share their speeches with the teacher and classmates through the online tool, Flipgrid.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will collect and analyze data from the website, Broadband Now, to understand that not everyone has the same level of access to technology in the U.S. based on their geographic location. Data will be collected for each U.S. state and discussed with a partner and the whole class.

This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students will share their research with others on the places, events, concepts, and ideas of the Civil War. Students will be able to share their previously created Civil War books (see Alabama and the Civil War- Part Two) to help explain their research on the Civil War. 

Students will also utilize 4th-grade ELA standards to participate in an active listening activity while listening to others share their research with the class.

This resource was created in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

In this learning activity, students will use Cuisenaire rods to decompose fractions. Students will explore fractional decompositions using these concrete materials. Students will show how a whole can be broken into parts and use an equation to represent the decomposed fraction. 

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

This learning activity should be used as an engage activity to introduce a lesson or unit on how animals use their senses to process information and respond to it. The students will watch a humorous, wordless media arts clip of how a cat solves a problem. The students will discuss the meaning of the clip and how the cat used its senses to solve his problem.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

This activity is an excellent video for introducing a unit on waves. This is a video of a rubber duck being placed in a container of water. The question, "Why doesn't the duck move across the container?" is posed at the start and end of the video. The purpose of this activity is to get the students excited about waves and thinking about the movement of waves.  This activity can be used whole group or small group as a center activity.

This learning activity was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science University, GEMS-U Project.

Students will work to solve an open-ended multiplicative comparison task. They can use manipulatives as a hands-on introduction to the topic.  They will need to write equations and solve a word problem involving multiplicative comparison.

Students will use fraction cards to play a version of the card game “War.” They will compare fractions using models and benchmarks.  The students will have to justify their answers in order to win the match.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will draw a snowman and identify colors, clothing, and body parts of the snowman. Students will answer simple questions about the drawing.

This activity was created as a result of the World Language COS Resource Development Summit.

This learning activity should be done at the end of a lesson on factors and multiples. The teacher will pose a real-world problem that requires the students to create multiple designs for a tabletop using all the factors of 24.  Using virtual manipulatives, students will work individually to create multiple designs for a table using all the factors of 24.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

After researching and reading about Senator John Lewis, students will demonstrate their comprehension of the informational text, "John Lewis," by illustrating an important day or moment in the life of the senator. Then they will create a description of the illustration in 2-3 complete sentences to accompany the image with citations from the informational texts.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

Students will play a game to practice adding fractions with denominators of 10 and 100 by creating equivalent fractions.  For each question they get right, the students will get to choose a playing card from a deck.  At the end of the game, they can trade in their cards for a prize.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

This activity guides students through the process of creating a graph of a particular data set. Students can produce a bar graph that compares different categories, a line graph that shows a change in something over time, or a pie graph that shows percentages of a whole. Students will select the most appropriate graph choice, input data, create labels and titles, and make design choices to enhance the graphic representation of the data.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Through literature, students will identify and take notes on the design process Jack uses as he designs a car for specific purposes. With a partner, students will work through the design process to digitally develop, test, and refine the prototype of a car for a specific user’s needs. Students will use a digital resource such as Sketchup, Paint 3D, Tinkercad, or another free online resource to practice creating the design using points, lines, line segments, and angles.

This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.

In this activity, students will use their research materials to organize their information on a European ship. Each section of the ship is designed for different information on their Explorer. Ships can be displayed for students to learn from one another's research. 

This resource was created in partnership with Dothan City Schools. 

This is a fun learning activity that connects math to the real-world of arcade games. In this learning activity, students collaborate to find a strategy to win 450 points and win the grand prize playing Skee Ball. The students will then have the opportunity to practice their strategy on a virtual Skee Ball game.

This alignment is a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students will discover how spider webs are made by watching a short video.  Students will compare photographs of spider webs and look for patterns.  Finally, students will create a 3-dimensional patterned spider web using geometric shapes and lines.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

In this activity, students will work in groups of four to construct a paper roller coaster that will test their knowledge of potential and kinetic energy. Groups will use a roller coaster cardstock template provided by the teacher, along with scissors, tape, etc. Students can add loops, hills, and curves in their designs to increase the speed of the falling marble. Once construction is complete, the groups will test their design by releasing a marble from the top of the roller coaster. This activity can be used as a culminating lesson to assess students’ understanding of the relationship between the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

This learning activity was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science (GEMS) Resource Development Project, in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

This resource is a performance task that allows students to apply their knowledge about place value and multiplication strategies to arrange digits to create multiplication problems. These problems must fall within a given product value.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will complete a division word problem activity that requires them to find whole-number quotients and quotients with remainders. This activity should be used after the students have been taught division strategies. This activity can be used as an assessment or extra practice for solving division word problems.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of human body systems by creating a work of art that displays the included organs and their functions.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students construct an instrument to demonstrate properties of sound. Students use their instrument to help model the transmission of sound.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will begin by playing a teacher-led "I Spy" game with something within the classroom which would be a concrete example. Using the Jamboard activity provided, students will review the concept of details by describing what is taking place in the photograph which would be an abstract example. Students will then work together as a class to come up with the photograph's main idea. 

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

This digital tool is a free animated video, Camp Quadrilaterals from Numberock. The video introduces students to quadrilaterals and teaches students how to classify quadrilaterals through a song with catchy lyrics describing properties of quadrilaterals.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will be introduced to the meaning of flowchart symbols. Students will then apply flowchart symbols to create a flowchart to demonstrate the process of weathering and/or erosion after studying weather and erosion.

This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.

This resource gives an overview of human body systems and how they interact with each other. This short video (2:43 minutes) can be will serve as a springboard for discussion regarding human body systems. In addition, students will record their learning from the video on a graphic organizer.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

This activity is a way to assess students' understanding of multiplicative comparison. In this activity, students must draw a picture, write a multiplicative comparison statement, and write a multiplication equation.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

In this activity, the students will use the “Anatomy of the Wave”  video to learn and answer questions about waves. In the video, students will look at the anatomy of waves and learn vocabulary words such as crests, troughs, wavelength, amplitude, frequency, period, and velocity. Finally, students will develop a model of waves through abstract visual art to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength. 

This resource was created as a part of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will be introduced to a technology tool that enables Neil Harbisson, who is color blind, to “see” colors by listening to an audio tone that is assigned to a color, which is sent to him via bone conductivity.

This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.

This activity can be done in partner pairs or in cooperative learning groups. The purpose of this activity is to teach students how to build circuits using everyday household and classroom items. The students will plan and carry out their investigation that explains the transference of energy from one place to the other by an electric current. The students will demonstrate that an electric current requires a complete loop so that the electric current can pass through it.

This resource was created in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

This learning activity introduces the concept of decomposing a whole into fractional parts. Using the book Whole-y Cow Fractions Are Fun by Taryn Souders, students will have fun exploring different fraction-based situations with a friendly little cow who helps guide readers through the story. Prompted by a poem and visual clue, students are encouraged to solve fraction-based problems on each page.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students will gather evidence that spiderwebs transmit vibrations. Students will investigate how a spider reacts to vibrations in its web using a tuning fork. Finally, students will construct their own spider web out of yarn to show the relationship between the vibrations on the web and the spider's reaction to its prey. 

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This activity is an excellent reinforcement activity for students to explore patterns using shapes, letters, and numbers. The activity can be used individually or in groups of 2 or 3 students. 

This learning activity was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science University, GEMS-U Project.