ALEX Lesson Plans

Subject: Arts Education (K - 2), or Science (K - 3), or Social Studies (2 - 4)
Title: The Medicine Leaf Man
Description: The teacher will briefly discuss Mississippian time period medicine men. The teacher will read Leaf Man by Louis Elhert and discuss leaves of various trees that grow in Russell Cave National Monument and the surrounding North Alabama area that were used for medicinal purposes. Students will then create a medicine man using the discussed medicinal leaves and tree parts. This lesson plan is made possible through the ALEX and the U.S. National Park Service Partnership.

Subject: English Language Arts (2), or English Language Arts (2), or Social Studies (2), or Technology Education (K - 2)
Title: The Biography Project: Exploring the Past in 21st Century Ways
Description: Through this project-based lesson, students will do research on and create an oral presentation based on the life of an influential Famous American. Students will utilize various means to glean information, from online databases, various websites, and age-appropriate biographical literature to prepare for the final product: a "Living Wax Museum." Students will determine the most relevant information to write a script presented in the form of an oral presentation. The presentations will also be recorded and published as a podcast for sharing on the teacher's website.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Subject: Social Studies
Title: Then and Now: Life in Early America, 1740-1840 Add Bookmark
Description: In this unit of 12 lessons, from EDSITEment, students use archival materials, re-creations, and classroom activities in order to consider which aspects of everyday life have changed and which have stayed the same in the last 200 years. The lessons include many hands-on and interactive activities and games including dressing an eighteenth-century paper doll, creating an early American toy, and guessing the function of historical mystery objects.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Science, Social Studies
Title: Global Breakfast Add Bookmark
Description: The purpose of this Science NetLinks lesson is to look for evidence of global interdependence in the foods that we eat. Students recognize the fact that many of the foods that they eat, and the ingredients that go into making them, are produced in other countries. They speculate about why certain foods are produced in different regions of the world, and what might happen if the production and/or distribution of these goods was to stop.
Thinkfinity Partner: Science NetLinks
Grade Span: 3,4,5

Subject: Social Studies,Arts
Title: Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic in the One-Room Schoolhouse Add Bookmark
Description: In this unit of five lessons, from EDSITEment, students compare the experience of attending a one-room schoolhouse with going to school today. This unit focuses on the universal experience of going to school, using original photographs to give students a vivid impression of how American children received an education a hundred years ago. It encourages students to explore the similarities and differences of being a student in a one-room schoolhouse versus attending their own well-equipped, modern school.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Social Studies - Geography - Social Studies - United States History - Social Studies - World History
Title: Back in the Olden Days Add Bookmark
Description: In this Xpeditions lesson, students discuss what it might have been like when, and where, their parents and grandparents grew up. The students conduct interviews to see if their guesses were right. They conclude by drawing pictures of their relatives living in this time and place.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Social Studies - Geography
Title: Geo-Generations Add Bookmark
Description: In this Xpeditions student activity, students create a '' '' Geo-Generations Scrapbook'' '' that charts where members of their family have lived and tells what those places were like. They do this by interviewing relatives and collecting related memorabilia.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12