This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Gr. 2 Lesson 2-Everglades Seasons: | Students will act out an "alligator hole ecodrama" occurring during the dry season. Each student will play a role of an animal that depends on the alligator hole. |
| Fundraising on a Budget: | This Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA) is designed for a second grade level. Students will be working in small groups to figure out what companies to hire for the art gallery to have a successful charity event. The students will be evaluating criteria such as bands for the event, caterers, and artists. Students will need to add money to stay within a budget. They will write their procedure for making their selections.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Table Top Problem: | The Junior League needs the students' help to determine which table rental company to use for their Charity Auction. With a tight budget, limited time, and a mistake in the order, students must create a procedure for determining the best rental company, write an explanation about their procedure, and present their recommendations to the class. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Give A Cheer MEA!: | The Give A Cheer Yearbook Committee needs the students' assistance to determine the best company to purchase the school yearbooks. Students will need to consider the cost , shipping, tax, and delivery time in their decision. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Oh Goodie!: | Collaboration is key! In this MEA lesson, students will have the opportunity to work in collaborative groups to decide what items to include inside a guest goodie bag. The students will be able to interpret data from a table chart, create a bar graph, present their decisions orally in teams, and write an extension letter.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Sweet Donut Shop: | Everyone loves donuts. It is the students' task to help the Sweet Donut Shop determine what will be their newest donut shape- square, circle, or triangle. Based on the criteria provided, students will use their mathematical skills to determine what the donut will be. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| A Close Look at A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams: | A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams is a delightful story of a family who faces the hardships of life together. The focus of these reading lessons is to identify story structure and discuss how the characters responded to challenges. After students complete several learning centers about the book, they will retell the story through writing using grade-appropriate conventions. |
| A Closer Look at Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: | Introduce your primary students to the rhythmic story of the African plains, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. This story is filled with rich vocabulary and rhyming patterns that allow students to interact with context clues and and answer questions about the story elements. |
| Visualizing: Using Drawings to Enhance Writing: | This lesson will allow students to practice enhancing their writing through drawing and illustrations. Students will begin by practicing visualizing short stories and explain how the drawings can add meaning to the stories. Students will then write a short story, use drawings to help readers understand their story, and provide and receive feedback on their writing from a peer. |
| Charlie Anderson: Who Cat is This?: | During this lesson, the students will become highly involved with the text Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie. The students will identify and describe the story elements with a focus on the character of Elizabeth. Students will write an expository paragraph about how she felt at the end of the story when she learned the truth. |
| Ace High Flying Writers!: | In this lesson, students will work with teacher and peer support on an informational text about whales to study the text features and determine the central idea. Students will use information from the text to complete a brainstorming organizer to prepare to write an expository paragraph. In the end, through this scaffolded practice, students will become Ace High Flying Writers! |
| Choosing a Host City for the Olympic Games: | In this model eliciting activity, students are asked to help the International Olympic Committee rank prospective host cities for upcoming Summer Olympic Games. Students are provided with data about a list of applicant cities and then must rank the cities and write a proposal to the IOC explaining their rankings. At the end of the MEA, the students will write an opinion piece for the International Olympic Committee that tells their final decision about which city should be the next host of the Summer Olympic Games. |
| Learning about Theme with Brave Irene: | Who doesn't love a theme! Students will use the book Brave Irene by William Steig to learn about themes. They will create a story map for the text and look closely at the problem and solution and how the main character changed throughout the story to determine the big idea. Students will demonstrate their understanding by writing about the theme and identifying parts of the story that support that thinking. |
| Water Parks Galore!: | The focus of this lesson is to devise a plan, and justify it, in order to determine the best features of a water park. Students will use problem-solving skills, data sets presented in a chart, two digit addition and writing skills. Students will also need to check their procedure to determine if it will work when given additional data. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| To Squish or Not to Squish the Ant: | This MEA teaches students how to collaborate with their classmates to solve the problem of removing ants from their playground. They have the opportunity to analyze and compare data sets to clarify, explain and defend their findings in a written letter to the client. In addition, the lesson provides an opportunity to reinforce respect for all living things. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Class Pets: | The focus of this lesson is to devise a plan, and justify it, in order to choose the best class pet. Students will use problem-solving skills, data sets presented in a chart, two and three digit addition, writing skills. Students will complete bar graphs using data from their data set sheets and answer questions about the graphs. Students will also need to check their procedure to determine if it will work when given additional data. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Crazy Crayons!: | In teams, students will make a decision on how to select the best crayons for a school supply store based on various crayon characteristics such as cost, transfer to paper, vibrancy of color, color residue, and breakage. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Cookie Contest: | This MEA asks students to decide which factors are important in choosing the best cookie in a cookie contest. Students will take on the role of cookie critics to provide feedback to a teacher whose grade level is deciding which cookie to use for a fundraiser. They will rank order their choices from the best to worst cookie. Students will provide a detailed written explanation for how they decided to rank factors and their solution. They will show their work while adding up to 4 two-digit numbers to calculate the total number of votes. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Better Building Blocks: | Students will help choose the best value of connecting blocks by developing a procedure based on the following criteria: color, ease of use, variety of blocks, and number of blocks per set. They will reassess these blocks during the twist incorporating a new type of block. They will need to calculate the total costs of each set of blocks.
Students may arrange the criteria based on their teams’ interpretation of most important to least important. Students may have to make trade-offs based on these interpretations (i.e., price versus the other criteria in the data sets). Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Mac-N-Chz Please!!: | This MEA (Model Eliciting Activity) is written at a second grade level. In teams of 3-4, students will help determine which Mac-N-Chz Carrot Grocery should stock on their shelves by reviewing sets of data provided on taste, healthiness, cost and cheese content. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Big Beach Travels: | Big Beach Travels has selected the students to help them choose the best month for their client to visit Daytona Beach. Students will use rainfall and temperature information to inform their decisions and to rank the other months from best time to visit to worst time to visit. In a twist, they will be told that the clients changed their minds and, instead, would like to travel to Ft. Lauderdale and see a concert on the beach while they are there. Students must use the same data for Ft. Lauderdale as well as event information to determine the best month to visit and rank the other months in order from best time to visit to worst. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Kelly's Jelly: | Students use problem solving skills, data sets presented in a chart, two and three digit addition, writing skills and money skills to determine which brand of jelly beans they would like to purchase. The jelly beans differ in taste, quantity, and cost. The students must then check their procedure to determine if it will work when given an additional piece of data. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Restaurant Rankings: Which meal would you want to add to your cafeteria menu?: | The students have been selected by the cafeteria manager to help rank healthy meal options that have been proposed to be added to the school cafeteria. The students will use information about the food and drink included in the meal, total calories, sodium content, calories from saturated fat, and calories from sugar to come up with a procedure for ranking the meal options. Then students will have to use or adapt their original procedures to include two more meal options in the rankings. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Learning About Text Features: | In this lesson, students will use nonfiction texts to learn about how text features help readers. Groups will be assigned a text feature to become an expert on. They will create a poster about their text feature and teach the class about what they have learned. Students will be given a group presentation self-assessment to think about what the group did well together and what could be done differently the next time. |
| Best Classroom Pet: | In this 2nd grade MEA, the students will work in teams to use data to determine which classroom pet teachers should get for their classrooms based on several characteristics. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Family Vacation: | In this 2nd grade MEA, students will analyze weather conditions in a team to determine which time of the year and which city would be the best to visit based on weather patterns from season to season and day to day in Florida. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Hamming It Up with Character: | Students will learn about characters in narrative text through group collaboration, the creation of character trading cards and an oral presentation of original dialogue. Students will work in collaboarative groups to think of adjectives that would best describe how the characters look, behave, and feel. |
| Once Upon a Time: What Makes an Interesting Setting: | There are stories that make you feel like you are there experiencing everything along with the characters. Often times, this is because the writer is describing the setting in vivid detail. These lessons will look at the componants of a setting and give students the opportunity to write the beginning of a story based upon a setting of their choosing. |
| Hamming it up with Plot: | Using the classic story, The Three Little Pigs, students will learn will use a plot line graphic organizer to record the action in this story. Students will use this plot line to help them retell the story in writing and record their paragraphs using technology such as Voice Thread. |
| Jack's Magic Beans: | Jack traded the family cow for some magic beans. The woman traded Jack the beans, said that if he planted the beans in the best soil, something magical would happen. Students will examine the properties of different types of soils to recommend the best soil for Jack to use to plant his beans. They will ask and answer questions about informational text on soils from various websites.They will create a procedure for ranking soils and will present their recommendations to the class. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Birthday Parties 'R' Us: | Students will determine which pizza place should be used to cater parties at the Birthday Parties 'R' Us facility given a set of data. They will create a procedure for determining the best pizza place, write an explanation about their procedure, and present their recommendations to the class. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Literature Circles: Round and Round We Go!: | This lesson provides teachers with an effective approach to teaching students how to conduct literature circles independently. From developing classroom structures to teaching proper listening skills, students will increase reading comprehension skills while developing a natural interest in reading. |
| Marshmallow Cereal Comparisons: A Tasty Treat: | Students will analyze information to determine the best selection of three Marshmallow Cereals for a selection in the school cafeteria. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| May the Force Be With You: | In this lesson plan, students will explore what items are attracted to magnets. They will learn that magnets have an invisible force called a magnetic field and that objects can be moved without even touching them. |
| Charlotte’s Web: An Amazing Adventure about Friendship: | In this lesson students will read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and complete activities to help them comprehend the story. Students will "dig deep" into the novel by learning new vocabulary words, writing about the characters and their decisions, and taking part in some creative activities. Students will be assessed with higher order thinking questions that require them to draw on elements from the story and make connections. This lesson is for the first four chapters of Charlotte's Web. |
| Understanding Miss Maggie: | Students will love talking about the unlikely friendship that forms in Miss Maggie by Cynthia Rylant. They will share their opinions by writing a paragraph after learning new vocabulary words and discussing character traits. |
| Lighthouses and Lenses - An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of force from SC.2.P.13.1 (investigate the effect of applying various pushes and pulls on different objects), the concept of wind from SC.2.E.7.4 (investigate that air is all around us and that moving air is wind), and practice working with money (MAFS.2.MD.3.8 solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately) as they build structures to withstand the force of high-speed winds. The first day's lesson also provides practice in recognizing and drawing shapes (MAFS.2.G.1.1). It is not intended as an initial introduction to these concepts. |
| What's The Weather?: | This is an introductory lesson to teaching the students how to ask questions about the key details of a story. |
| Cover Your Mouth and Wash Your Hands: Informational Text on Germs: | In this multi-day lesson, students will read informational text on germs, learn how germs are spread, and ways to avoid getting sick. They will identify the key details of the text and use the images (diagrams, photos, charts) in the text to help them understand the key points. The students will create a detail web using evidence from each text and will then write an explanatory paper explaining what they have learned. The students will also participate in a guided class discussion. The students will learn the guidelines and procedures for successful discussion and will also learn how to come prepared for discussion by providing supporting information from the texts they have read. |
| Henry and Mudge Meet Leonardo da Vinci: | This is an integrated lesson that includes an Engineering Design Challenge, a review of forces, an introduction to drawbridges, and a literary text Henry and Mudge and The Long Weekend by Cynthia Rylant. The Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students investigate and generate explanations (SC.2.N.1.1) and practice working with money (MAFS.2.MD.3.8) as they design and build movable drawbridges. It is not intended as an initial introduction to these concepts. |
