Learning Activities

The teacher will read Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman or use the digital tool to show the book being read aloud. As the book is being read aloud, students will use ribbon to create the different types of lines shown in the illustrations of the book. After reading the book, students will use art materials to create at least three different styles of lines.

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

The teacher will read When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor or use the digital tool to show the book being read aloud. After reading the book, the teacher will lead a discussion about the images that were shown in the illustrations of the book. Then, students will create three-dimensional clay art to show their personal interests.

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

This lesson looks at a valid print source, valid Internet source, and an example of fake news. Students will learn how to differentiate between real and fake news in preparation for research.

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

After students have had a lesson on the "Super 3!" research method and how to maneuver the Alabama Virtual Library site, students will complete a shared research activity answering the essential question: How do animals adapt to the area in which they live? The teacher will model how to research using the PebbleGo database from the Alabama Virtual Library.  Finally, students will complete an extension activity where they will research a specific animal and how it survives in its own habitat.

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

In this learning activity, students will participate in a partner guided “obstacle course” to simulate computer programming. Next, students will discuss how a common activity (making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) requires steps and how the steps can be written as an algorithm. Next, students will take the steps and put them in paragraph form using transition words in relation to sequencing. Last, students will complete a lesson on code.org that requires them to write an algorithm.

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

This lesson gives students the opportunity to explore volcanoes and their impact on our planet. Students will take a virtual field trip of a dormant volcano and answer research questions about its formation and its after-effects. Next, students will discover which volcanoes in the United States are currently active. Finally, students will use an interactive map activity to explore famous eruptions from around the world. They will be given clues about the date and consequences of the eruption. Once they locate the volcano, they will place a virtual pin in its location on the world map. This lesson aligns with 6th grade Alabama Science Course of Study.

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

Students will explore what life was like in the trenches on the Western Front for World War I soldiers in this interactive online activity. They will have to make choices about how they will handle different situations they are presented with. They have to make a series of decisions as they learn about the hardships these soldiers faced. Certain choices will lead to survival, others will not. They will see types of food, entertainment, and conditions of this horrific war as they navigate through the interactive site.

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

In this activity, students will use De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, a problem-solving process, to discuss and evaluate the United States’ decision to use atomic weapons on Japan during World War II. This activity will allow students to think critically about this big decision while looking at it through a multitude of perspectives. By the end of this activity, the students will come to a decision as to what they would have done if they were to make this difficult decision.

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

Before reading Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour, students practice annotating song lyrics that echo the short story's theme regarding gender inequality. Annotation is an effective way of having student engage with a text for close reading. By having students annotate song lyrics first, the task seems less daunting or overwhelming to students. Also, the pop culture aspect peaks student interest and makes the literature more relevant as students discover that contemporary songs and classic literature share common, universal themes.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This activity is for students to create a digital book review.  In their review, they will summarize a book and provide 2 - 3 reasons they recommend the book.  Students will use the Flipgrid platform to create this review.

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

Seesaw is an online portfolio that allows students to document their learning.  Students can use Seesaw to add artifacts throughout the year. This activity is to have students solve a word problem and explain it within Seesaw.

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

The teacher will show a video that provides entertaining examples of first- and third-person point of view, then lead a discussion about the differences between these two narration styles.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

In this activity, students will explore Artificial Intelligence, develop their own definitions of what AI is, and share examples with their classmates via Note.ly. 

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

Google Drawings is a tool that allows students to be creative in sharing what they know. Students will use Google Drawings to create a word cloud of words chosen by the teacher. These words will come from sight words and spelling words that follow a phonetic pattern. It is available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

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

In this activity, the teacher will introduce the Answer, Cite, Explain (A.C.E.) strategy to help students answer questions that require text evidence. The students will practice answering text evidence questions using a text of the teacher's choice.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

The teacher will use the digital tool to help students examine ways a text and a video version of a text may differ. The students will watch a movie version of a text they have read in class previously and complete a graphic organizer to compare and contrast each version.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Many people find the hardest part of composing music is getting started. This lesson will describe an engaging activity where students will use a die to select the rhythmic values of their next musical composition. First, rhythmic values of notes/rests are assigned to the six numbers of a typical six-sided die. Next, the students will access a virtual die (or use a real one) and roll it. Then, they will draw the note/rest value on staff paper (or use digital notation software) using standard notation. The student or teacher will then decide on a time signature and the student will add bar lines to the string of note/rest values. Finally, the student will perform the rhythm on an instrument (musical instrument or body percussion).

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

This activity is for a virtual hundreds chart puzzle game.  Students can use the puzzle to explore number patterns within 100, finding 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, and 1 less of a given number. This activity will be best used after students are familiar with a hundreds chart.

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

While teaching a unit on WWII, the teacher will show two video clips to help students understand how the United States government's portrayal of Japanese American internment camps differed from the experience of the Japanese Americans living in these camps. The students will compare and contrast using a Venn diagram graphic organizer.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This Hyperdoc activity helps students understand the role of decomposers in the food chain and in the creation of soil. Students will create their own illustration modeling this process. Students will use the Hyperdoc to watch, view, and interact with information regarding these important decomposers. The students will watch an educational video clip about decomposers and answer a reflection question about their role in the food chain. Students will read and study an infographic on decomposers and draw conclusions about their role in plant growth. Students will explore an interactive website to learn how different composers affect soil creation and create a model of this process. This lesson aligns with 5th grade Alabama Science Course of Study.

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

In this learning activity, students will visit a website that introduces the concept of volume and cubic units. The website shows objects with different shapes, but the same cubic units in volume. Students must identify objects that have a specific cubic unit from choices given. They work their way through four levels as the number of cubic units they are asked to identify increases. This lesson aligns with 5th grade Alabama Math Course of Study.

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

Students will use the poem "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too" from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein to compare a silent reading of a poem to an animated audio version read by the author. They will compare their thoughts about which experience they enjoyed more and then discuss their conclusions with a seat partner. The teacher will then lead a whole class discussion comparing the two experiences. 

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

Many people find the hardest part of composing music is getting started. This lesson will describe an engaging activity where students will use dice to select the notes of a melody for their next musical composition. First, the teacher assigns the letter names of a pentatonic scale to the six numbers of a typical six-sided die (the sixth pitch should be the octave above the first pitch). Next, the students will access a virtual die (or use a real one) and roll it. Then, they will draw the corresponding pitch on staff paper (or use digital notation software) using standard notation. Finally, the student will perform the melody on any available instrument (including singing).

This lesson can be used on its own or build upon the lesson titled Composing with Dice - Rhythm.

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

Introduce students to bits and binary by using cards with dots representing the number value in each bit. This activity fits well as an introduction to a full lesson for standards 6.21 and 6.22.

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

This activity will allow students to explore and examine the efficiency of Henry Ford's assembly line in a way that is hands-on and interactive. Students will be competing against one another to see if it is more efficient to create paper airplanes individually or by using the assembly line method. 

After reading the Balcony Scene (Act II, Scene ii) of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, students view and analyze multiple interpretations of the key scene in different artistic mediums: a poem, a painting, and a movie clip. Students compare and contrast the various representations of Shakespeare's original scene by utilizing LucidChart's Venn Diagram tool. 

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will utilize the digital tool Google Slides to create a presentation about a technological advancement made in the United States since World War II and share their findings with their classmates.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Canva is a free graphic design tool where users can create cards, newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, and more. Canva projects can be printed or downloaded as a PDF document. Canva will be used to create a brochure for a Career Tech Parent Information Night. The brochure will be downloaded as a PDF document, printed, and uploaded to the class learning management system for the teacher to access and submitted to the students' digital portfolio. 

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

Google Keep is a note-taking tool within the Google apps where you can record a link to a web page,  an image, or a quote that you want to save for later. This tool can be used to collect website links when conducting research and notes from the research may be added.

Google Scholar is a search engine for locating research-based journal articles. Students will conduct Google searches for information related to careers that include technology.  Links to websites along with notes for research will be curated in Google Keep.

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

After reading William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, students study the lyrics and video of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" to analyze how she transformed the tragic Shakespearean drama into a love song with a happy ending.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

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.

Students will learn about Grace Hopper, who was a computer science pioneer that was one of the first programmers of the Mark I, invented one of the first compiler-related tools, and coined the term “debug.” They will practice their detection and debugging skills as they work through several algorithms created by the teacher.

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

In this activity, students will watch a video to introduce them to the Red Mason Bee.  During the video, they will gather evidence about the lifestyle, life cycle, growth, and reproduction of the Red Mason Bee. Students will then create a bee hotel to encourage Red Mason Bees to pollinate in their area.

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

This activity provides the students with a visual description of the four types of chemical reactions using cartoon illustrations and then allows them time to interact with their peers so they will understand the components of each reaction. Students will also create a flip-book for the following reactions: synthesis, decomposition, single, and double replacement in order to describe the conservation of mass. Finally, students will use a digital tool to produce a "Cartoon Chemistry" artifact which will allow them to demonstrate their understanding of chemical reactions.

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