The 10 most popular TED-ed lessons of 2013

With 2013 winding to a close it's time to take a look back at some of the most popular lessons of 2013 from TED-ed.  Here are the 10 most viewed lesson plans for the year.  If you have any great lessons to share with the world and think you can pack them into 6 minutes or less of pure gold be sure to submit it to TED-ed.

 

50 PHYSICS LESSON PLANS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

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Here are a number of great science lessons plans for middle school students.  Enjoy

PHYSICS LESSONS FOR ELEMENTARY / PRIMARY STUDENTS

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I came accross this great collection of physical science lessons for elementary students.  The activities are really well planned and easy to follow.  I hope you can use them.

Lesson Ideas around Plankton

Well if you thought I haven't posted enough lesson plans about Plankton on Edgalaxy you are wrong.  Here is a great collection of sceince lessons aimed at students from grade 4 - 12 about the life and times of plankton. Download them here.

teach your students how to write a diamante poem

This handout is a great tool for teaching kids how to write a Diamante Poem.  Diamante poems are a great way to teach student about Synonyms and Antonyms and have a bit of fun in the process.  This lesson plan is suitable for students from years 3 - 10 and will easily fill one literacy session. 

You can download my handout here and also learn more about Diamante Poems at Readwritethink.orgnhere.

GREAT VIDEO THAT TEACHES ABOUT PERSONAL PRONOUNS

This video does a great job teaching kids how to use personal pronouns by giving them a song that will really get stuck in their heads.  It is reallly quite effective with primary / elementary students but will be effective on students of all ages.


PRESCHOOL LESSON PLANS FOR PETER RABBIT:

A very quick post for the weekend.  Thanks, Colleen from Devon in the UK for this link to a series of teaching ideas for younger students based on Beatrix Potter's famous series about the adventures of Peter Rabbit. Access them hereand have a good weekend.

USING WIKIPEDIA AS A READING AND WRITING TOOL

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Wikipediahas really cleaned up its act over the last couple of years to become a far more reputable site than it ever has been. As a teacher I now feel far more confident in letting my students use it for researching general information as long as they are aware of the model upon whichWikipediais built and recommend verifying a fact from a second source such as a .edusite.

I recently put this activity and worksheet  together for my students to use in our reading hour to give them a platform for generating ideas for the writing hour.  It works as follows usingWikipediaor any other great information sites you feel comfortable with.

Students have to spend 15 minutes researching something onWikipediathat personally interests them.  It can be absolutely anything.  This covers the text-to-self element of the activity.

Secondly students will look at the Text-to-World element of reading for fifteen minutes by researching and reading about events that affect our world.  This could both a recent event or an ongoing issue such as climate change.

Finally students will make a link to a book that they are currently reading by researching a person, place or event that is related to their text being read or maybe recently finished.

When Students have completed the 45 minutes of reading they bring their sheets back to the group to discuss what they have found and also outline one of the three writing ideas they generated by completing the attachedwikipediarecording sheet.

The next phase of the task is to begin putting those writing ideas into action.

I hope you find this reading activity useful.