Students will re-watch the video clip from “Landfill Harmonic” as watched in the first lesson and will re-evaluate their feelings regarding poverty in their music journals. Students will initially meet in pairs for the discussion, then they will gather in their small groups for discussion about how the story of the members of the Landfill Harmonic has affected their perspective on poverty around the world including the local community. Students will create a group observation statement from their journal entries and discussion which will be read during the presentation. This lesson was developed by Angela Windley as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Through the video clip from "Landfill Harmonic", students will learn about poverty in Paraguay and how their community used items from a landfill to create instruments. This provided opportunities for their children to be involved in an orchestra and rise above their poverty-stricken life.Students will also hear a story “My Visit to a Mexican Landfill” that will enlighten them to poverty in other parts of the world. They will answer four specific questions about living in poverty. They will review characteristics of instrument families (Strings, Percussion, Brass, and Woodwind) as well as brainstorm about creative ways instruments can be made with recycled materials and which items could be used. This lesson was developed by Angela Windley as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students read The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick. Students then follow the steps of the writing process to create a new ending for this book. Students gain experience brainstorming, drafting, editing, and polishing their writing. Because their story endings must flow well with the rest of the book, students must understand what the book is about. The goal is for them to understand what they’re reading and to demonstrate their knowledge of the book’s content and their own creativity through a writing piece.

In this lesson, students test a variety of insulators and relate their knowledge to energy conservation. With teacher guidance, students design their own investigation. After all experiments are completed, the class looks across the data and draws evidence-based conclusions.

Assess students' understanding of scientific inquiry including the following skills: observation, background research, scientific procedures (including investigation design, measurement techniques, and error analysis), data collection, data display, scientific questions, formulating an hypothesis. Students will design and carry out an investigation to test which material is the best insulator; they will predict which way heat energy will flow in a system and analyze the flow of energy in a system from one point to another and from one form to another.

This lesson is designed to explicitly teach the CS Standards for Computing Systems. Making sure students understand the parts and functions of the devices they are expected to use and master throughout the year in Specials classes and Standard Course of Study in General Ed classrooms.

Students will read a description of conclusions and a passage. Students will then write a conclusion to the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a description of a conclusion and a passage. Students will then write a conclusion for the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a description of a conclusion and a passage. Students will then write a conclusion for the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

In this lesson, students research the various types of clouds using print and online materials. Then students write haikus using the Haiku App or the Haiku Poem Interactive, but they do not include the names of the clouds. The students share their haikus and guess what type of cloud each haiku describes.

In this lesson using Ben’s Dream, a picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, students highlight ten major landmarks of the world: the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, the Sphinx, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Rushmore. After reading and discussing Ben’s Dream, students identify the landmarks shown in the book and examine photographs of them. Working in small groups, students select one landmark to research. Using their research skills, students locate these famous landmarks, conduct further research on them, publish their findings using an online tool, and share that information with the class.

The NC Kids' Exploration Journals are a fun educational tool to help youth explore their communities and natural surroundings! Each journal contains: 18 multidisciplinary activities with guided prompts, 6 lined journal pages for recording observations and reflections, and 4 blank pages for individual creativity.

The digital versions of the journal are designed to be printed out for students either as individual activities or in its entirety so that they can explore their school yard, local park, or own backyard. Though designed for 1st - 5th-graders, older audiences may enjoy them too! They are also available in both English and Spanish languages.

While supplies last, hard copies of the journals are currently available for free to teachers by contacting karen.ipock@ncdcr.gov.

In this lesson, students will compare John Smith's account of the Powhatan Indians with other primary source material about the Powhatans. They will then compare ideas and facts from each source to determine similarities and differerences.

Students work collaboratively to transform their experiences and understanding of plastic pollution into a product that encourages other community members to reduce their single plastic usage. Students work together to research the effects of single-use plastic on plants, animals, and the environment. Reading skills are strengthened by reading numerous nonfiction articles and websites about the effects of plastic; students then use these sources to write opinion pieces about plastic use. Students interview staff members, participate in Zero Waste Week, and create a sculpture from discarded materials.

Inclusion is an important concept in that it promotes equity and equality in the classroom. Students learn to work together despite their differences, capitalizing on their strengths and minimizing their deficits. Students within the school will be educated about the importance of inclusion, collaborating to complete activities and advocating for a school-wide inclusion program that involves all students, teachers and administrators.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 5th Grade ELA. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 5th Grade English Language Arts. 

This resource accompanies our Rethink 5th Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Per the ReadWriteThink website: In this collaborative inquiry unit, the real gold is the inquiry skills and content area knowledge that students develop. The class works in small groups, each focusing on one aspect of the same big topic, such as the Gold Rush. After skimming related texts, the class brainstorms people, places and things associated with the topic and develops a list of five or six main subtopics. Students then work in small groups to research one of the subtopics, practicing specific research skills as they work. Finally, students choose an activity, such as an oral report, trivia game, or newspaper, to teach what they have learned to the rest of the class. Group accountability and individual responsibility are built in to this lesson process. While this unit uses the Gold Rush as an example, any event or geographical area could be substituted.

Students will play the role of newspaper reporters in order to research, write, and publish an article about the history of the Star-Spangled Banner. This is connected with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.