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Classroom Resource with Activities for all subjects

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Classroom Resource with Activities for all subjects

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Connect mathematics and social studies with activities for Do You Know What Time It Is? by Robert E. Wells (about telling time) and Alice Yazzie's Year by Ramona Maher (about a Navajo girl's life). Students will explore facts about the Navajo people and develop skills estimating, predicting, and measuring time.

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* Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies

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* Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies

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Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Art Lesson

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Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Art Lesson

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Digging Deeper into Cross-Curricular Instruction

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If the goal is to immerse children in authentic learning-the type that excites and inspires-you must deliver instruction that allows students to make real-world connections. Cross-curricular instruction allows you to open the door to meaningful multi-dimensional learning opportunities. To investigate a topic deeply, you must use more than one lens. It's time to break out of the constraints of compartmentalized instruction and explore the advantages of integrating content to build deeper understanding.

What Is Cross-Curricular Instruction?

Cross-curricular instruction is teaching more than one academic discipline at a time. It is a conscious effort to make connections that bring meaning to learning by speaking, listening, reading, writing, solving problems, exploring math, making scientific discoveries, surveying history, and promoting cultural awareness. Instruction is often delivered with a theme-supporting goals that encourage children to think, reason, solve problems, and reflect. These themes move away from isolated skill instruction toward connected real-world learning.

What Are the Advantages of Cross-Curricular Instruction?

Connections - Students see subjects as connected rather than separated. They can draw on schema (their prior knowledge) and make meaningful connections. Children can tie what they know to what they are learning, and this deepens understanding.

Quality Time on Task - With topic integration, you use time more efficiently to accomplish learning tasks. You can link reading, writing, and math tasks by having students research charts in a text and write about their findings. You can link a social studies objective to a math objective by having students graph the information they collect. Students use reading strategies as they investigate science texts, and you can assess their speech and language goals as they share with the class the information they gained.

Application - Students do not simply sit and listen as you deliver instruction. They apply the information they are learning in a variety of authentic hands-on learning opportunities.

Engagement - Learners are engaged and have active roles-regardless of ability levels. Lessons are flexible, open-ended, and based on students' needs so that everyone can take part and experience growth.

Collaboration and Cooperation - Students explore topics as a whole class, in small skill groups, and on their own. They investigate real-world tasks and work together to research, solve problems, and explore topics. By collaborating with your peers, you can share your ideas with other educators and build upon our best practices too.

Communication - Active exploration of a theme promotes dialog, and this develops speaking and listening skills. Students have the opportunity to share their strategies and learn from each other.

Integration - Integrating a topic through multiple disciplines makes for more authentic learning. Students do not have to change gears just because the schedule dictates it is time to move from math to reading. When teachable moments appear, the learning can flow.

Authentic Learning and Assessment - Cross-curricular instruction is more authentic learning-not isolated and segmented-more like real-world problem solving. You can assess students as you interact and observe them while they show what they know. You will observe growth over time in a variety of ways.

Carson-Dellosa Is Here to Help!

As thought leaders in education, Carson-Dellosa strives to provide you with the quality materials that support exemplary teaching and enhance student learning. Here are a few tools that can help with planning and implementation of cross-curricular instruction:

These quality tools were created to deepen students' understanding and improve performance with cross-curricular practice. Appealing visuals present interesting topics that deepen students' understanding of math, literacy, social studies, and science.

These high-interest passages improve comprehension skills while exploring science, social studies, poetry, narrative writing, and much more. These workbooks are designed to engage students while strengthening their understanding and higher level thinking skills.

These workbooks deliver standards-aligned practice activities that cover important skills across the curriculum. Goal specific materials allow you to review, reinforce, and assess important skills in an interesting and time effective way.

Linking Learning and Inspiring Learners

Cross-curricular instruction is a way to provide relevant and engaging curriculum to students. It provides an active and creative format through which students think, reason, apply, and deepen their understanding. Connecting information helps to link learning and make information clearer to students-just like learning in life. If you want to prepare your children to be college- and career-ready, you must provide the type of authentic instruction that unites lifelong learning and learners.

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Cross-Curricular Instruction: Digging deeper into authentic learning

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If the goal is to immerse children in authentic learning-the type that excites and inspires-you must deliver instruction that allows students to make real-world connections. Cross-curricular instruction allows you to open the door to meaningful multi-dimensional learning opportunities. To investigate a topic deeply, you must use more than one lens.

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Facebook

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Find a Lesson Plan | HotChalk Lesson Plans Page

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* Science, Math, Art, Music, Language Arts, P.E.

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* Science, Math, Art, Music, Language Arts, P.E.

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"On Wednesday in science class, Mr. Newton says, 'You know if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of I listen closely. On Thursday, I start hearing the poetry. In fact, I start hearing everything as a science poem. science in everything.'
Mr. Newton has zapped me with a curse of SCIENCE VERSE!"
~ The Science Verse by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith

It's easy to feel as if there aren't enough hours in the school day to properly address all the curriculum expectations that we must teach our students. The challenging part is addressing curriculum expectations in a meaningful way where students are engaged and motivated throughout the lesson.

One of the most powerful strategies that we have ever learned as teachers is taking a cross-curricular approach in planning lessons and units for the school year, as we are able to incorporate curriculum expectations from various subject areas to create an engaging activity.

By developing cross-curricular activities that are both fun and motivating, teachers can easily integrate science into different subject areas-it only requires a bit of planning and creativity!

We all know that Science and Math are easy to teach together, but did you know that Science can be creatively woven into other subject areas? Science can be integrated into English Language Arts, The Arts, Health & Physical Education and Social Studies to create engaging lessons and activities that your students will just love!

Here are some easy ways to integrate science across the curriculum.

Teaching Science with English / Language Arts

Science can be integrated into English Language Arts in order to touch upon curriculum expectations for reading, writing, oral communication, and media literacy.

Science poems!

Teachers can begin by sharing science poems with their students. There are so many excellent resources available.

Some great examples are:

Your students can then have their own Poet's Corner by writing various poems (e.g. haiku, tanka, free verse, sonnet) to reflect science concepts and then sharing them with the class!

Science Video Writing Activities

An excellent short movie to share with your class is The Story of Bottled Water. This lesson is a great way to incorporate media literacy into your science lessons (and vice versa!) and promote a healthy discussion with your students regarding the environmental implications of their daily actions. The Story of the Waterbottle Worksheet

Students can also watch the movie Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest (1992), which discusses how the rainforest is being destroyed and various animals and characters are losing their homes and natural habitat.

Students can write letters, journals, narratives, poems, or newspaper articles as one of the movie characters.

Organizing Science Info

Give your students a particular topic and have them use Venn Diagrams, T-Charts or other graphic organizers to compare and contrast the main ideas. This activity can then be extended if students prepare a written response, deliver a speech or participate in a classroom debate.

In the past, our students have taken part in a classroom debate where they act as characters determining whether a deposit should be mined in a fictional town. It is lots of fun and students really take their roles seriously!

Teaching Science & the Arts

By incorporating Science and the Arts together, students will be immersed in activities that allow them to experience and then express the natural world around them.

Teach the Elements with Mixed Media

Try to provide students with media related to the science unit they are studying.

For example, students learning about the water cycle can:

produce water color paintings,

use clay to discuss the earth's crust and the effect temperature and pressure have on materials, or

or sitting outside using oil pastels to depict the changes in the fall foliage.

Upcycle Art Projects

Have students bring in a variety of items from home that would have either been recycled or tossed in the trash and use these items in their artwork. Students can upcycle these items into interesting works of art.

Examples include:

painting jars,

using scraps of fabric to make braided bracelets, or

creating interesting 3-D/mixed media paintings.

The possibilities are endless and students will be able to express their creativity while learning about recycling, reusing, upcycling, and sustainability.

Demonstrate Science Concepts through Movement

Have students get up and out of their seats to move around! Not only will students be incorporating science concepts throughout their drama activities, but being able to get up to stretch and move around will help students release a bit of energy and help them refocus on the task at hand.

Students can act out changes of state by starting off as a frozen piece of ice, melting into a pool of water, and then evaporating into vapor. The same concept can be used to learn about the water cycle, particles, and the four layers of the Earth.

Science, Health & Physical Education

Students can take part in fun and lively physical education lessons that incorporate science concepts in a unique way.

Biology & Nature Walks

When learning about habitats, environmental awareness, ecosystems, or the diversity of life, have students go out on a hike in your area or to a nearby conservation area. Be on the lookout for various environmental programs offered by your state or province that would provide students with a science lesson while participating in physical activities; for example, students can plant trees, visit local parks to remove litter, or measure and inventory trees.
Science & Fitness Circuit Cards
Phys Ed Physics

What better way to learn about physics than to get students physically moving? In this invigorating activity, students can measure the amount of time it takes them to walk, jog, or sprint a particular distance and then calculate their speed and average speed. Students can alter the variables to determine what affects the speed of their performance.

Science Fitness Circuits

Set up various cardio, strength-training, and stretching circuits during your Phys Ed classes where students learn about the human body while visiting each station. During the fitness circuit, students could learn about the aorta while doing jumping jacks, triceps while completing push-ups, and Achilles tendons as they perform front leg raises.

Teaching Science with Social Studies

History and science fit together seamlessly. Scientific innovation has been a driving force in societal change.

To put it in perspective for students, have them consider what life would be like without the internet, phones or electricity. Or what it would be like to look up at the stars and not know what they are.

If you're teaching an historical time period, you can focus on scientific discoveries and technological advances during that time. Have students create a presentation that highlights one or more scientific innovations and how they effected society (both then and now).

To tie in current events, you can track the activities of the Mars Rover and its historic missing taking place right now. Check out video of Curiosity's landing on our neighboring planet.

Creating Activities Across ALL Subjects

The last cross-curricular suggestion can actually incorporate several subjects into one engaging lesson where students work together to develop commercials or public service announcements.
Share your lesson ideas for teaching science across the curriculum in the comments section!
This fun and motivating activity will allow teachers to cover expectations in reading, writing, oral communication, the arts (both visual arts and drama), media literacy, science, and, depending on the topic, even health & physical education.

Pollution PSAs

For example, students can create a public service announcement in small groups on the topic of pollution. As a cross-curricular activity, students would be gathering information, writing a script, acting out their roles, designing props and backgrounds, understanding the role of media, and delivering a powerful science and health message. Students can then present their public service announcements to other classes within the school to spread their message.

As a way to help you get started, we have included two resources for you to use with your students: first, the "Ban the Bottle" worksheet to be used when viewing "The Story of Bottled Water" and, second, three samples fitness activities to integrate the human body study with physical fitness. Good luck and start planning!

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Awesome Lesson Ideas to Integrate Science Across the Curriculum

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"On Wednesday in science class, Mr. Newton says, 'You know if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of I listen closely. On Thursday, I start hearing the poetry. In fact, I start hearing everything as a science poem. science in everything.' Mr. Newton has zapped me with a curse of SCIENCE VERSE!"

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P.E.

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PE Blog - Read & Discuss Current PE Topics

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What is the best way to support student learning taking place in the regular classroom? Add some cross-curricular activities to your PE lessons, of course! By reinforcing math concepts, spelling, vocabulary, geography, science and other curricular content in the gym, you are providing students with another avenue to "learn" the material. By combining these academic subjects with movement, we can reach all those "kinesthetic learners" in way that the traditional educational process may otherwise miss. Let's take a quick look at the brain-body connection and then I'll share a few different cross-curricular activities that I've used with my students.

The Brain-Body Connection

There are volumes of research out there that support the brain-body connection. We know that exercise increases circulation to brain, it increases connections between neurons in the brain, it increases the release of neurotransmitters, and increases the release of neurotrophic factors (BDNF) among the most notable benefits. When the brain chemistry is activated through movement, we are primed to learn and retain information better than if we were seated in a desk. As the saying goes, "If the bum is numb, the brain is the same."

Stroop Test

Still skeptical? Try this activity as an experiment with your students and compare the results of your pre- & post-tests. PE teacher, Jo Bailey from Wausau, Wisconsin created this assignment for her high school students to demonstrate the impact that activity has on the brain. She had her students take the Stroop Test at the beginning of class, then engage in physical activity, then take it again at the end of class. Jo's assignment can be found here, and the link to the actual test and scoring rubric is included on the top of the assignment. You can also view it separately here. Check out Becky Foellmer's post about the Stroop Test here.

Physical Education and Academic Standards and/or Common Core

Preparing students for the 21 st century requires all teachers from all subject areas to examine their teaching practices and take a more multidisciplinary approach to learning. Teaching Physical Education is the ONLY content area that educates students in all three of the learning domains - the cognitive, the affective, and the psychomotor. Teaching motor skills, cognitive concepts and social skills should be the foundation for every quality program. If, within that teaching, you can incorporate academic content (literacy & numeracy) without compromising the quality of your lesson, then it can be a welcome addition to bolster student learning.

There are dozens of ways that we can incorporate academic knowledge into a dynamic physical setting. Look at this graphic by Pete Charrette (aka Capt. Pete) which provide clear examples of how the things we can do in the gym or on the field relate to academic math content and can help extend learning from their classrooms.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Like anything, before you go jumping in headfirst, be aware of some of the common pitfalls with using cross-curricular activities. I would suggest you make sure your use of these types of activities have a clear purpose and are integrated as part of your regularly planned lesson and/or unit. I've seen too many teachers wanting to incorporate cross-curricular content to gain approval from an administrator on observation day. Or perhaps, they want to "validate" their teaching and see cross-curricular activities as a way to do that.

There is a time and place to use them, however, they should not become the main source of activity for your students. Use them as a supplemental activity to help reinforce the physical skills/concepts that you're already working on in class. Remember that sometimes these types of activities aren't always feasible due to space, large class sizes, equipment, or any number of other factors. There is so much physical education content to deliver in a given school year that just throwing in some cross-curricular activity "just because" isn't truly best practice.

Cross-Curricular PE Resources

Here are a few cross-curricular activities and games that I've compiled, with the help of other teachers:

Math Concepts

Magic Number Dribble Addition - a multi-number addition activity incorporating hand dribbling.

Set-Up: students divide up into 6 groups and go stand in a line at a hula hoop. Each group gets one ball. Numbered poly spots are spread out (number side up) in the center of the playing area.

Game Play: teacher calls out a "magic number" for the round. This is the number that groups are trying to create by adding the numbered poly spots together. Groups must use a minimum of 3 poly spots that add up to the magic number. When the music starts, the first student from each group dribbles out to the center area, picks up one spot, dribbles back to their group, gives the ball to the next student and places the numbered spot in the hoop. Play continues in this fashion until the group has at least 3 spots that (when added together) equal the magic number. See the full printable activity guide here.

Money

Bowling for Dollars - bowling activity using money as a reward for knocking down pins.

Set Up: 3-4 students per lane. Set up 10 pins & 1 ball per group. Each group starts with a scorecard.

Game Play: Students take turns rotating through the different positions. When they bowl, they get two shots. The total number of pins they knock down is the number they find on the "score card". The object of the game is to earn as much money as they can during the activity time.

Run for the Money by Gopher - features activity instructions for multiple money counting games that keep students moving.

Spelling and Language Literacy

ABC Soccer - a foot dribbling activity incorporating spelling and vocabulary

Set Up: Students scattered in personal space with a ball. Lettered poly spots scattered around the playing area.

Game Play: On the signal, students dribble with their feet around the gym to guide their ball to touch the letters that spell a given word. Use PE vocabulary, spelling lists from the classroom teacher, or reading sight words. Also try having students spell their name or find all 26 letters of the alphabet in ABC order.

Be sure to check out some of my other favorite sources for awesome cross-curricular activities!

What cross-curricular activities do you use in your physical education classes? Share below in the comments!

A passionate presenter and teacher, Mike Graham has taught Physical Education since 1996 and currently works at Williamsburg Elementary School in Geneva, Illinois. In addition to teaching full time, he coaches wrestling and serves on the Advisory Board for Gopher Sport. Mike uses his experience & knowledge to further his professional State organization (IAHPERD) as a member of the Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment committee, the social media committee, the technology committee, a co-moderator of the bi-monthy #iahperdchat on Twitter, and he is the current President of the Northern District of IAHPERD. You can connect with Mike and find out more about his #PhysEd program on his website, www.pe4everykid.weebly.com, or connect with him directly on Twitter @pe4everykid or Voxer at mikegraham.

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Elementary Cross-Curricular Activities and Games | Gopher PE Blog

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What is the best way to support student learning taking place in the regular classroom? Add some cross-curricular activities to your PE lessons, of course! By reinforcing math concepts, spelling, vocabulary, geography, science and other curricular content in the gym, you are providing students with another avenue to "learn" the material.

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* CROSS CURRICULAR Instruction Teachervision

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* CROSS CURRICULAR Instruction Teachervision

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Browse cross-curricular groupings of lessons and resources; they're sure to make it easier for you to cover seasonal and timely topics.

When students are able to connect what you teach with the world around them, learning becomes fun, easy, and inspirational. Our resources cover a wide variety of themes that will help to provide your students with a fun educational experience. Each theme holds hundreds of lesson plans and printables to integrate excitement into learning. Holidays, nature, history, sports, and more will help you inspire your students during class-time and impact their growth positively.

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Browse cross-curricular groupings of lessons and resources; they're sure to make it easier for you to cover seasonal and timely topics. When students are able to connect what you teach with the world around them, learning becomes fun, easy, and inspirational.