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Thematic Units and Lesson Plans for Free

Innovative Classroom offers Thematic Units, Lesson Plans and teaching tips for elementary grades. 

 
The Thematic Units are on the following subjects:

• Borneo
• Flight
• Peanuts

The Lesson Plans cover the following subjects:

• Social Studies
• History
• Physical Education
• Arts
• Language Arts
• Math
• Science

Interested in this free educational find?  Visit the Innovative Classroom.

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Thank you, Katherine, for sharing this high quality, 100% free, educational find with us!  Want to share something, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

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Free Unit Studies on Math, Science, History, Language Arts & More for Elementary

 
A 5th & 6th grade teacher at Mountain City ElementarySchool (Tennessee) created a site full of free unit studies on the following subjects:

• American History
• Book Units
• Social Studies
• Letter Writing
• Science
• Math
• Language Arts

There are also free unit studies based on themes:

• Apples
• Dogs
• Ancient Greece
• Survival
• Chocolate
• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Rome
• Plants

Here's a link to the homepage of these free online unit studies.

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Free College Courses!

Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is for the adult who wants to learn, for the college student who wants to take an online course, and for the instructor who wants to teach from a ready-made curriculum. 

For Students:  OLI's Open & Free courses are just that -- open and free.  They are open to anyone around the world who wants access to learning and they are 100% free.  Any catch?  You won't receive credit or a diploma from Carnegie Mellon, but you may arrange that with your local school*.  The current  Open & Free courses available at OLI are:

For Teachers: Go to the "Teach an Academic Course using OLI" page for more information on how to set up the courses for students.  NOTE:  The instructor account is free.  The students that you add under an instructor account are free for some courses, but a few courses charge $15-25 maintenance fee per student.  OLI suggests that you contact them if the amount of money suggested will prevent a student from taking the course.  All of the fees (free included) are listed in a blue sidebar box on the instructor's information page. 

What's the difference between an Open & Free Course or an Instructor Account?  This:

*Will I receive credit? Students will not receive credit from Carnegie Mellon for courses taken; however, students may convince a school to offer credit or diplomas for the courses taken at OLI.  See the FAQ page for more information on how to get credit for the courses. Many schools are already accepting OLI courses, so check with yours.

Here is another link to the Open Learning Initiative homepage.

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Free Resources for Teachers, Including Standards-Correlated Lessons for K-12

The quality of free educational finds seems to be improving each year.  Today's freebie is definitely one of those high quality resources. 

SMART Exchange offers free downloadable lessons* and lesson plans for teachers (including homeschoolers).  There is a teacher forum on the site, where you can bounce ideas off other teachers.  You may upload content you'd like to share. And, best of all, there is a search feature built into the site where you can find lessons specific to your state's standards and specific to the grade(s) you are teaching.

The free resources are available in a dozen or so subjects, ranging from Citizenship to Math, and from English as a Second Language to Special Education.  Here is a screenshot of the most downloaded subjects (as of March 18, 2010):

03/20/10 Update:  A FreelyEducate.com reader asked how to view the files.  Mark @ SmartTech replied, "If you don't have Notebook software installed, you can use a free web-based viewer at http://express.smarttech.com to open and edit them."~ Thanks, Mark!

Are you from a non-US country?  If so, click on the small flag in the top right corner of the SMART Exchange site to view the site in another language.

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Thank you, Katherine, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Want to share one, too?  Just email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com. ~ Lori

Free Lesson Plans from the US Census Bureau

We all know that children count.  We're educators, so of course we know that children count, right?  Unfortunately, children have been undercounted in every US Census survey since the first one in 1790.  April 1, 2010 is Census Day in America, when every household will be counted for the first time in ten years. 

The US Census Bureau has created a website for educators. Included in the site are these educational pages:

For Teachers:

free, easy-to-use, standards-based lesson plans, teaching ideas, facts and teaching kits

For Grades K-5th:

"Explore coloring pages, quizzes, word finds, and more! Students in grades K-5, have fun learning about the Census Bureau." (psst, this site looks especially fun!)

For 6th-12th Graders:

Take a quiz to test your census knowledge or learn facts about how going to college can affect your future salary. Students in grades 6-12, learn about the importance of census data and how it affects your world.

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For Preschool through 6th Grade: Free Curriculum in All Subjects

Today we have another one of those vast sites that offer something in many subject areas.  The Learning Site is primarily for preschool through about 6th grade.  You're going to have to visit it yourself to see all there is to offer you!

Here are a few screenshots of random pages within The Learning Site:

At least one area of the site (math) requires registration, including adding the author's name of a Harcourt textbook as a password.  Other than that area, and perhaps another that I haven't yet noticed, the site can be freely used, even without registration.

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Do you have a resource to share, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Here are a few screenshots of random pages within The Learning Site:

At least one area of the site (math) requires registration, including adding the author's name of a Harcourt textbook as a password.  Other than that area, and perhaps another that I haven't yet noticed, the site can be freely used, even without registration.

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Do you have a resource to share, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Free Lesson Plans and Educational Sites on Haiti (& Earthquakes)

I'm sure Haiti is on your mind lately, too, as well as on the minds of your students, whether you are educating in a homeschool or a school, in Haiti or America or, well, anywhere.  We're all thinking about Haiti this week!  This is a good time to educate our students about Haiti:

On Haiti's Earthquake:  a site for Teachers & Students

This site, by PBS, was created especially for teachers and students.  It contains news articles, video clips, earthquake history, and more.  If you go to only one site on this list, I think this one would be the most helpful.

Resources for Teachers and Learning About the Earthquake in Haiti

Lesson plans, links to photos and more from the New York Times

Haiti in Ruins After Huge Earthquake: a lesson plan

The lesson plan on this site, written following this week's earthquake, has some good, easy-to-implement ideas in it. 

Earthquake Science

Earthquakes for Kids

This site, created for children by the US Geological Society, contains games, history, today's quakes, facts, pictures, and an Ask a Geologist section

Pre-Earthquake Lesson Plans on Haiti

The Haitian Political Crisis:  What Role Should the U.S. Government Play?

for middle to high school students, from NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS

A Country Study: Haiti

a book of historical, cultural, political, and social facts about Haiti.  Would be a good supplement to your high school or middle school students' studies on Haiti.

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Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com