Throughout the museum, American Indians kept mentioning that they were happy to have survived. American Indian culture is one we will never fully be able to recover, but with the foresight of people like Jim Schoppert we are able to enjoy and learn from some of the things that survive. I love this museum as a whole and really encourage people to visit. One video mentions that in creating the museum, they become a history like every other history...respect it...argue with it. That helped me to be aware of the significance of what I was experiencing. Excellent.

Our preschool students loved this resource as most of them have never visited a rainforest before. We had fun learning about the 'Great Kapok Tree' and its cultural significance.

This is a great resource filled with primary source documents!

Very adaptable to different authors if you choose not to do these two. Good resources within the resource :) User-friendly...will definitely use!

I thought this lesson would be a fun way to introduce two wonderful authors to students. It also incorporates art and writing and has great extension activities. Easy to use and very informative.

It’s all about food and family! Who cannot relate? Lots of food is prepared and people come together to share and celebrate. Showcasing multiculturalism in a broader context of world cultures is as important as understanding our differences. To be able to see past the differences and into the unifying factors of what makes us human is the basis of showcasing multiculturalism. This exhibit does that.
The wish of having children is central to most cultures. While this is a Yoruba ceremony, it is also representing a wider global celebration of life, family and children. Even though the students will be learning about this particular aspect of Yoruba culture, they will in many cases find traces of their own cultures in the celebration, particularly in the poem. As an educator, I would use the poem to look at cultural values of other peoples, what we wish for, what we find important, what we abhor or pray wont happen, particularly in other parts of the world and not just Africa.

I used much of this information to journal birds with 6th grade visual art students. Each chose a bird indigenous to Ohio to journal and sketch. We looked at John Jame Audubon and Genevieve Estelle Jones' work. Our art told a story of the bird, it's habitat, food and habits.

This resource is really well-designed for students of all ages who want to keep a nature journal as part of a class project. There are great ideas here on keeping a nature journal using Smithsonian archives, with topics ranging from birds to tigers. Experienced scientists and explorers share their ideas for how to enliven the journal (include found objects such as feathers). Although designed for middle schoolers, the idea can be implemented at all levels from Kindergarten through college with a little tweaking. Nicely done!

The Smithsonian's educational resources are such a joy to us. We began nature journaling not too long ago and my son and I have learned so much. We did a lesson on birds and my son and I can now spot different types of birds that we see. We added bird songs to the lesson, so now when we hear a bird, we can also identify it before we see it. What a wonderful resource! Thank you, Smithsonian!

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this lesson on Ben Franklin and is waiting for the next storm to move through. lol. But in all honesty, this not only explains his beliefs and ideas but him as a person. It makes children and/or adults realize that he was just a person too. To quote Mr. Franklin "One day Mr. Franklin was asked why he failed 2000 tries to make a light bulb? He told this gentleman that he hadn't failed, he had just learned 2000 ways not to make a light bulb." Ben Franklin is a very important and a highlight of American History and should be discussed more in a classroom setting to give him the character that he deserves.

I am always looking for ways to provide cross curricular activities, and this is one that provides great activities! I love the static electricity one, very simply to do with easy to find materials.

I have always been fascinated by Ben Franklin. This lesson illustrates the depth and breadth of his interests and accomplishments. I liked the lesson with the portraits of Franklin's friends. I would love to have the students draw a portrait of themselves and include objects that emphasize their interests. The lesson about static electricity is very effective, and I found it very effective to set up different stations in the room to show how electricity can be created. This is a lesson which I will continue to incorporate into my thematic unit on Franklin for many years.

This is a great source! Students are given the ability to connect with the authors they study in school in a different way that is sure to grab their attention. This program helps to make the writers' and their work more relevant to the students.

My 10th grade students read The Color of Water by James McBride and always find a deep connection with him and his mother. These authors and their stories bring more breadth and experience to them as growing readers.

This nifty website presents novel, expansive material on a more obscure historical topic. Expansive in breadth, but not so detailed that the student's eyes gloss over. However, more than enough detail and activities to form a solid basis for further research.
I withhold one star because the website turned out to be a tad confusing to navigate solo.
I often tutor students in the 3rd grade to high school range in creative writing and critical reading. One of my biggest challenges has always been simply sparking these kids' desire to read, think, imagine and write! This website is another tool that has been carefully bookmarked.

This was a great way to introduce ballads to my 6th grade students. They were able to hear the rhythm and beat within the music and poetry. The lesson using stressed and unstressed syllables was great and very relatable to my students!

I use this resource with university students enrolled in "Elementary Music for the Classroom Teacher." The students are familiar with meter in poetry -- stressed and unstressed syllables. Following the poetic patterns supplied in the Smithsonian lesson, the students write ballads about storybook characters/plots which can be then sung to the familiar tune "Amazing Grace."

This is such a great lesson because the majority of students do not enjoy poetry, but they love music. By incorporating these two elements together, it is very eye-opening (or should I say ear opening) for these students. They have a deeper understanding of poetry once they realize they can connect it to music.

This resource is a great way to get a game plan together for a family to visit the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Since there so many wonderful museums to visit, this resource really helps to make the most of your visit; narrowing it down so that all age groups get to enjoy what really interests them. I would highly recommend utilizing this resource before taking your family to this great educational and fun destination.

Great Resource. Allowing the group to use the field guide for classifying. We used binoculars for the first time with our 5th graders with this.

Excellent resource!
Allowed us to dig deeper in a subject that we greatly enjoyed! Thank you!

This is a great introduction to writing short notes, but I think that I'll have my first grade students write a postcard home at the end of each unit to tell their parents a little something about what they learned. They can even create their own artwork about what we are studying.

This activity can be integrated with any subject area. This was used with the ancient culture of Rome. Students created postcards using images from clip art and the web along with text crediting image if necessary. They "sent" their card to a friend telling of their travels within the Empire, which gave them lots of choices since the Roman Empire was so vast. Interesting images representing natural, capital and human resources came up as well as the contributions within architecture and science. Great activity. Preparation was minimal! I'm looking forward to expanding the post card concept to math (if they can tell about a concept they show they know it) and other areas not usually associated with post cards.

This is a versatile activity that can easily span multiple grades or subjects. The students can practice writing addresses and short notes while also studying geography (where cards are from or going to) or some kind of history or art by studying the pictures on the cards.

Excellent materials that can be adapted to grade levels 3-12.
Especially good material for 5-12 Social Studies. Students may use the ideas and materials for developing Washington State's Classroom-Based Assessment projects which require students to develop an idea with artifacts, primary and secondary documents as basis for their ideas.

My son loves to go camping and these campfire lessons will relate and hopefully he will learn and enjoy them.

This lesson provides students with the opportunity of seeing how different points of view can vary the same information. My students loved the activity because it went beyond reading about a time and place. I loved it because it allowed my students to understand bias and to actually think critically.

This was absolutely great. I used this to teach students about post offices, careers, jobs, post masters, and our federal mailing system.... WONDERFUL!!!!

This is fantastic fun - even if you don't know anything about the Postal Service. It is set up like the "Millionaire" game show with increasing points, 3 "life lines" - drops 2 of the 4 answers. The music is cool and when you lose, you always have the immediate option to play again. This is fun for all ages.

This interactive game is both informative and fun. Children are tested on their knowledge of postal history and facts about stamps. If they make a mistake they start over which encouraging them to keep trying and keep learning!

Nice.

I wish O Captain was one of the clips though. It would be very nice to use it at the end our study of the Civil War in this special year.

One problem in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd" the line:
O great star disappear’d! O the black murk that hides the star! is written incorrectly, according to other sources. I am not a Whitman scholar so for me to have found it is not a good sign. The reader reads it correctly on the audio.

This is an excellent resource for my adult learners for our poetry review. I usually bring in a sample of work from various poets and authors to read, analyze, and discuss with the learners. This page allows the students to hear Mr. Whitman's actual voice in the reading of America, a very relevant poem for my second language adult learners that have either become American citizens or desire to be.
I would like to see a little more information about his life and maybe a timeline of his life to share with my students.

I thought this was a bit tough for pre-k'ers. I tried it on the beginner level and had a difficult time with some of the things. Higher grades will benefit from the problem solving.

I thought this was a great way to explore stamps. We loved looking through the entire Postal Museum site and wish we were close enough to attend one of the great classes offered!

This pamphlet is a simple yet wonderful resource. As a Spanish teacher, I love that it is bilingual, so I can use it to introduce new terminology to my students, as well as teach them about the artists and styles that shaped Colonial Puerto Rican art and culture.

Students who enjoy using language (and a computer) to fill-in the missing vocabulary word will enjoy this.A couple of possible concerns: In paragraph 1 asking the question what shape? (is the correct answer provided in the word bank?) This is the only
problem I missed, but I didn't recognize an alternative answer. Paragraph 4, line 2. I think there is a typo. I think you meant oceans.

This was busywork for my kids. I guess we don't enjoy fill in the blank exercises.

I really like how this resource incorporates hands-on learning using manipulatives, wonderful picture books, and fine works of art. Students will be able to learn about how artists have used lines in their artwork and then explore lines using different materials. This resource is lots of fun for both the students and teacher!

As a special ed teacher I am going to try to use this piece of art to do some compare/contrast and counting of objects

This is a great idea. I am always looking for ways to make connections that engage my students. This can be modified to include many athletes, role models, etc. I plan to use this in my biography unit!

I enjoyed using this resource in class - the students were engaged and we were able to work together easily.

Thank you so much Smithsonian for creating this lesson! Being so close to the Natural History Museum allowed me to take my students into DC and enrich their learning of Rocks, Minerals and the Rock cycle with these excellent lessons that we were able to use before, during and after our trip to the exhibit! Thanks again!

I really enjoyed the information and user-friendliness of this website, and found it to be a useful resource for myself. I do think it would be a lot for one of my students (I work in an ED center) to use though, without careful planning and guiding. All around, beautifully done and informative!

Overall, it appears to be a good lesson plan for kids. However, because the project is based on an exhibit which ended several years ago, two of the three links included on the site are no longer active. Updating is a constant and labor-intensive process; I don’t know what kind of work-around you can do, but without current links, the lesson plan loses much of its value.