In this unit, students will understand where “fake news” comes from, why it exists and how they can think like fact checkers to become fluent consumers, evaluators, and creators of information. They will apply this knowledge by selecting a controversial topic to evaluate, synthesize, and analyze all aspects before sharing with a local audience.

After reviewing natural (physical) and human characteristics from Lesson 1, students use maps to identify and describe significant natural (physical) characteristics of Michigan including mountain ranges, sand dune areas, the Great Lakes, inland lakes and important rivers. In a connection to science students briefly explore how glaciers helped to create some of these natural (physical) characteristics. The lesson uses multiple resources including informational text, legends and photographs.

In this lesson students continue their study of the important natural (physical) characteristics of Michigan by exploring vegetation and climate. They begin by analyzing special purpose maps of forests and orchards. Next they are introduced to the concept of climate, connecting to science topics of weather and seasons from previous grades. In addition, they briefly explore the impact of the Great Lakes on climate. The lesson also includes a chart reading activity dealing with Michigan state symbols.

The Roadmap is a remix of the Michigan Open Book, MC3 and GIANTS all in one place. In this lesson students continue their study of the geographic theme of ‘place’ by exploring significant human characteristics of Michigan including bridges, cities, highways and lighthouses. In addition, students explore how people interact with natural (physical) characteristics by creating human characteristics (e.g. bridges are built over rivers, towns are built along bays.)

The Roadmap is a remix of Michigan Open Book, MC3 and GIANTS all in one place. This foundational lesson introduces students to historical reasoning through the analysis of primary sources, such as historical maps and photographs. They examine how historians are detectives of the past and use evidence from primary and secondary sources. Students then explore the chronology of the settlement of a village in Michigan and identify the causes and effects of the founding of the community.

This is an example of how teachers on a grade level can collaborate to create a Grade Level VI History Month Activity.

This is a cross-curricular activity that uses the story Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday to practice money and decimal skills in addition to reading and writing skills. After reading or hearing the story, students will complete the attached worksheet. (If it's read aloud, students would need a way to refer back to the story to answer the questions. The worksheet has a mixture of reading and math questions. It can be edited if you choose. It can be used for either 3rd or 4th grade. With slight modifications, it could also be used for middle school EL students to learn about currency.

In this unit students continue the exploration of factors that influence change by examining the events that led up to the American Revolution. Over the course of the unit, students will build a deeper understanding of the significant ideas and values at the heart of the American Revolution, what drove the colonists to seek independence, and how conflict between England and the colonists ultimately influenced change in our country. Students will see the American Revolution from multiple perspectives, starting with analyzing the difference in perspectives between the British and the colonists and how each side’s actions often instigated each other. Students will also explore how class structure influenced colonists perspectives. Later in the unit, students will think about the perspectives of black people, women and Native Americans who were forced to choose a side and why they may have had a different point of view of the events of the revolution.

An important part of this unit is pushing students to focus on seeing history from multiple different perspectives. The core text Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began offers one perspective on events, however, the prespective is limited to that held by white elite colonists. Therefore, students also read excerpts from A Young People's History of the United States in order to build a deeper understanding of all sides of the Revolution.

This particular roadmap features all of the COLLABORATIVE designed activities for the "Ancient Civilizations Roadmap Unit View (revised)" resource. You could distribute this roadmap to students for work that they complete synchronously with partner(s) as part of their learning path in the unit map.

In this unit students explore the rise and fall of the ancient Roman Empire. Over the course of the unit, students learn about different characteristics of the Roman Empire, what lead to the Empire’s growth and success, and what eventually lead to the Empire’s demise. Through learning about the daily routines, structures, and rituals of the Roman Empire, students will be challenged to draw conclusions about what the civilization valued and how those values compare to societal values today. This unit builds onto the 2nd grade nonfiction unit on ancient Greece, in which students began to think about how the daily routines, structures, and rituals of a civilization show what they value. This unit, in conjunction with the second grade unit on ancient Greece, will help students understand early influences in the world and the first republics.

The mentor texts for this unit, Ancient Rome and Pompeii: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House and Eye Wonder: Ancient Rome, allow students to practice multiple informational reading strategies in two very different text structures. In both texts, but predominately in Eye Wonder, students will practice using a multitude of text features and illustrations as a way of learning new information about a topic. Over the course of this unit, students will constantly be thinking about how the information from one text builds on and connects to the information in the other text. Then at the end of the unit, students will be asked to critically analyze the similarities and differences between the two texts.

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. In the introductory first lesson, they will see how animals are often used as symbols. In the second lesson, they will hear one of several versions of how the 12 animals were chosen. They will then focus upon a few of the animals in the story and see how they can be used as symbols of certain human characteristics. In the third lesson, they will be introduced to the other animals of the zodiac, and they will be given a chart on which they will assign traits to each animal. Then they will consult a number of websites to find the traits traditionally associated with the animals, which they will add to their list. Then, they will come up with a number of ways to compare and contrast the animals in the list. In the third lesson, they will focus upon the animal associated with the year of their birth, learning about its traits and discussing whether or not these apply to themselves and their peers. Finally, each student will make an acrostic, combining the letters of his or her first name with adjectives that relate to his or her zodiac sign.

You get the general idea of decimal is and what the digits in different places represent (place value). Now you're ready to do something with the decimals. Adding and subtracting is a good place to start. This will allow you to add your family's expenses to figure out if your little brother is laundering money (perhaps literally). Have fun! Common Core Standard: 5.NBT.B.7

You get the general idea of decimal is and what the digits in different places represent (place value). Now you're ready to do something with the decimals. Adding and subtracting is a good place to start. This will allow you to add your family's expenses to figure out if your little brother is laundering money (perhaps literally). Have fun! Common Core Standard: 5.NBT.B.7

You get the general idea of decimal is and what the digits in different places represent (place value). Now you're ready to do something with the decimals. Adding and subtracting is a good place to start. This will allow you to add your family's expenses to figure out if your little brother is laundering money (perhaps literally). Have fun! Common Core Standard: 5.NBT.B.7

In this tutorial, we'll extend our division skills to include decimals! Common Core Standard 5.NBT.B.7

In this tutorial, we'll extend our division skills to include decimals! Common Core Standard 5.NBT.B.9

In this tutorial, we'll extend our division skills to include decimals! Common Core Standard 5.NBT.B.10

In this tutorial, we'll extend our division skills to include decimals! Common Core Standard 5.NBT.B.11

Let's learn to divide any whole number by any other! Common Core Standard: 5.NBT.B.6