Choosing homeschool curriculum can be hard. Here are 6th and 8th grade homeschool curriculum picks that may help get you started.
Teaching Middle School History Through Literature is a great way to bring history alive! Beautiful Feet Books offers an easy to use History Curriculum.
If you're searching for the best homeschooling curriculum for middle school, check out this awesome list of helpful resources!
Looking for free homeschool history curriculum? I've got a list of truly incredible options for you that won't cost you a dime. Really!
Prehistory unit activities for upper elementary and middle school history and social studies classes with reading passages and activities.
If you're planning to homeschool middle school history, use these 10 tips to add fun and variety to your curriculum!
6 History Games to Try in the New School Year
Find a Secular History Curriculum for Homeschooling Use this list to choose a secular history curriculum to suit your family's needs! There have been many new secular history curriculum created over the past few years.
These free history unit studies and lesson plans are perfect for piecing together a history curriculum based on your children’s interests.
Check out over 14 resources that should add to your 8th-grade homeschool curriculum. Includes resources for math, English, history, and even Spanish.
Need homeschool unit studies ideas for theme learning approach and hands-on homeschool curriculum, incorporating a variety of subjects and topics like math, science, language arts, and social sciences? You'll learn: what are unit studies as a homeschool method or style of homeschooling and how to write your own learning unit, even using free homeschool resources for free unit studies for kindergarten / preschool and up! (YES, even middles school and high school aged student theme units!)
Vision boards are a great tool to keep students motivated and determined to meet their goals. They are also great for promoting growth mindset.
Early American history is full of exciting people & events that make it easy to love, so get out of the textbook & make it fun with these hands-on activities.
Need ideas for a hands-on, literature-based Middle Ages unit study? This post has got you covered with projects, literature lists and resources.
Is homeschooling free? Yes, it can be! Here's a list of my favorite homeschool curriculum that you can find online for FREE!
If you're studying Ancient history this year, it's crucial to add some hands-on activities into your lesson plans, like these that your teen will want to do.
Find a history homeschool curriculum that will suit your needs and match your philosophy by taking a look at these 30 history curriculum programs.
If you're in need of a fun history curriculum, check this out! Learn about Home School in the Woods and their wonderful homeschool options.
How can I teach study skills for middle school or high school students? Have you ever thought this? I certainly have. The teen years can present many challenges and we want to set our kids up
Essential topics for an Ancient Greece Unit - key topics to cover on Ancient Greece for middle school or upper elementary.
Check out our FREE unit studies that explore science, history, and biographies! Each one accompanies a Who Was, Magic Tree House, I Survived or Carole Marsh book!
My family is not very strong in math, so I am always nervous when we reach the high school math years. I am so very thankful that high school math doesn't have to be a scary thing since there are so many great helps available online.
Why I don't review the syllabus on the first day of class in high school and what I do instead. Fun first day of school activities and icebreakers!
Learn about the Holocaust with this Holocaust unit study. It includes lessons on Hitler's rise to power, Jewish resistance, and life in the concentration camps.
Our favorite hands on world history for middle school is Project Passport. Travel to different time periods in world history with exquisite paper projects!
Engage your students right when they walk in the door with bell ringers that will support your middle school American History curriculum! This low-prep resource only requires you to choose which bell ringer works best with your curriculum for the day. That's it! Inside this resource, you'll find 200 bell ringers to use throughout the year while you teach about United States history from the Age of Exploration up through the Civil War Era. Along with a PowerPoint version of the slides, the bell ringers are also compatible with Google Slides! There are links to digital versions of the bell ringers included for easy use in your classroom. Each bell ringer set also has a full page response sheet in Google Slides for students. What's Included: ⭐200 Bell Ringers for the Whole Year - These PowerPoint bell ringers will cover you every day of the school year. Pick and choose which one matches with your curriculum for the day. The bell ringers promote critical and creative thinking skills, vocabulary skills, historical thinking skills and positive growth mindset skills. Each of the five bell ringer sets includes 40 slides for a total of 200 options! ⭐Student Response Sheets - Printable student response sheets are included in two versions - as a whole page and in half-page formats - for each of the five bell ringer sets. A digital response sheet on Google Slides is also included so you can choose what is best for your classroom needs! ⭐A Variety of Ancient History Topics - The bell ringers cover the following content areas in your American History curriculum: 1. Exploring the New World 2. Colonial America 3. Causes of the Revolutionary War 4. The Revolutionary War 5. The Constitution 6. The Federalist Era 7. The Jefferson and Madison Eras 8. Westward Expansion 9. The Jackson Era 10. The Industrial Revolution 11. Causes of the Civil War 12. The Civil War Looking for more details about each set? Keep reading! 1. American History Critical Thinking Bell Ringers This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing a unique writing prompt on each page that encourages students to use critical thinking skills and previously learned knowledge about American history to craft a response. There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts. A link to the slides in Google Drive is included. Please Note: Each unique critical thinking prompt requires students to have knowledge of early American history. These questions are designed to support your curriculum content. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! 2. American History Vocabulary Bell Ringers This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing one vocabulary term and definition pertaining to U.S. history on each slide. There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use during their vocabulary practice. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the vocabulary slides. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! 3. American History Quote of the Day Bell Ringers This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing 40 quotes from notable people in American history, a writing prompt on each page and two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the slides - not writing prompts at this time. Weekly Writing Prompt: What does this quote mean? Do you agree or disagree? How does this quote relate to an event in history or in your own life? This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! 4. American History Historical Thinking Bell Ringers This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing questions related to maps, document excerpts, historic images and mini biographies. There are two versions of a response sheet that students can use when answering the prompts and an answer key for the teacher. A version for Google Slides is included as well, for the slides. This resource is designed to be used once a week in your classroom. There are 40 slides – enough for each week of the school year! All historic documents and images used are Public Domain. 5. Growth Mindset Bell Ringers This resource includes a 40 page PowerPoint (non-editable) containing one writing prompt pertaining to growth mindset, goal-setting and/or positive thinking per slide. There are also two versions of a response sheet that students can use when writing their thoughts to the prompt from the bell ringer. A version for Google Slides is included as well. What other people are saying about this resource: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Great Warm Ups for my class. Led to a lot of great discussions." - Marley S. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"These are a great opener to Social Studies Lessons, I let my small groups read and discuss the prompts aloud." - Nicole S. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"I love the variety of questions. Some that are just fun, some that make the students really think, some that leave them with helpful information. Well worth the money!" - Elizabeth R. Are you still not sure if these bell ringers are a right fit for your classroom? Check out the FREE Introduction to Social Studies Bell Ringers resource! They are perfect for the first unit of the school year. Please click on the preview to see examples of the five bell ringer sets and student response sheets. If you have any questions, please leave a question in the Q & A section of my store or send me an email at [email protected]. :) Happy Teaching! :) Let's Connect! The Teacher's Prep Blog The Teacher's Prep on Facebook The Teacher's Prep on Pinterest The Teacher's Prep on Instagram
Q: How is art incorporated into the Waldorf middle grades, 5 through 8? (This post is part of a series in which we answer the most common questions we receive in our inbox re: homeschooling, Waldorf curriculum/pedagogy, and whatever else comes our way! Click here to read more from the series
Teachers like starting the school year feeling well-prepared and confident. Read about 5 Strategies for a Solid Start to Your School Year
Benefits of Art Integration in the Upper Elementary and Middle School Classroom. Includes tips and activities for Arts Integration.
Home School in the Woods offers a homeschool history curriculum providing a hands-on, project-based world history curriculum to keep learning fun!
Shop Evan-Moor Skill Sharpeners Science … and other curated products on LTK, the easiest way to shop everything from your favorite creators.
This writing activity creates a bulletin board display that shares the consequences of bullying through a chain of events!
Never planned to homeschool, now wouldn't trade it for the world
Enrich your history curriculum with a few of these FREE Ancient Greece printables. You will find worksheets, lessons, games, puzzles, coloring sheets, notebooking pages, papercrafts, and more. Have fun hunting for Ancient Greece Resources! BBC Primary History Worksheets Little Historians Worksheets and Teaching Resources The Glory That Was Greece
Whether your lesson plans are detailed multi-page documents submitted to your administration each week, or they’re mostly post-it notes with concise bullet points, effective lesson planning requires strategy and intent. Great lessons need clear direction, purpose, pacing, and solid pedagogy. (Side note: If you are looking for engaging step-by-step lesson plans for the ELA classroom – especially for sub plans – check out my ELA Lessons Bundle with over 60 individual plans). While planning such successful, well-balanced, dynamic lessons takes time (think of all those observation lessons), if you get into a strong habit of working through a few key steps, it simplifies the whole process. And, as with all habits: the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Soon you internalise the steps and find yourself doing them without even realising it. Below are the four simple steps - G.A.D.E - I go through in my mind every time I plan a lesson. Do I always write them out in detail? Nope, but I still always work through them as I plan. What do you want students to be able to do, know, or understand by the end of the lesson? The most effective way to plan a route for a journey, is to start with knowing where you are trying to get to, right? Instruction is most effective when you, and your students, have a firm idea of the goal. When they know what they are working towards, the lesson is far more purposeful. Your goal should be able to be expressed in a single sentence or two: the more focused it is, the easier it is for students to digest and understand. I even suggest writing this on the board at the start of the lesson, for students to be able to see and reference. Examples of Goals: - Students will understand the impact of varying sentence patterns, in term of creating tone. - Having read chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, students will be able to explain how an author develops a character in a narrative through the use of indirect characterization. - Students will be able to effectively back up their thoughts and ideas with appropriate textual evidence. [Grab a free lesson plan template here] How are you going to break down the substance of the lesson, to help students reach the goal? This is the nuts and bolts of the lesson: the lecture, activities, exercises, etc. Ask yourself: What are the most effective methods to help guide students to the goal: A lecture? A group discussion? A reading exercise? Worksheet practice? A video? A writing exercise? Station work? The key here is breaking the lesson down into varied, manageable chunks: rarely should you plan a 60 minute lesson with just one single activity. You want to think about dividing the class up into 10-20 minute segments with varied activities and modes of learning: all geared towards the overall goal. [Check out Room213's helpful blog post on how to build in time for productive struggle when lesson planning.] Examples of Segments for a 60 minute lesson: 5 min: Provocation - some sort of hook for the lesson to pre-test knowledge, or incite intrigue and interest. 10 min: Paired work 15 min: Teacher-led lecture and discussion 20 min: Individual work to practice a skill 10 min: Reflection and assessment of learning How will you, and your students, know if they have achieved the goal? This does not always have to be a large assessment task: that would perhaps be a unit goal. However, you should be able to place small milestones in every lesson to assess whether or not students are gaining knowledge, or developing their skills, and this need to be intentional. It may be a summative assessment task, but in the daily lesson it would likely be formative assessment. This should be a conscious decision when planning the lesson. Examples of Opportunities for Demonstrations of Learning: - Ask strategic questions: “How do you know that? Why did you write that?” - Use exit slips - Have students produce something which requires them to use what they have learned - Anonymous class polls or quizzes (or Kahoots!) - Self-reflections or evaluations - Written work / Projects What do you physically need to do, to facilitate the learning? Once you know the purpose of the lesson, and have a firm understanding of the activities and elements of the lesson, think about what you need to do to prepare. While this might be gathering resources, photocopying, finding passages, etc., it also should be about the space of the classroom: how best to facilitate the most effective lesson for your purpose. Think about desk layout, visual displays, seating arrangements, etc. Example of Environmental Elements - Move the desks into groups / pairs / individual etc. - Print, layout and organize materials - Have a specific song playing which relates to the lesson, for when students enter. - Create spaces around the room for station work or gallery walks etc. FREE TEMPLATES: If you are looking for a template for lesson planning: Click here to access a FREE editable Google Docs template (just go to “File” and “Make a Copy” to save the document to your own drive for editing). Want a printable copy? Click here to access a printable lesson plan template. Do also check out: If you are looking at planning a whole unit of study, read this great post by The Daring English Teacher.
Fur trade teaching ideas for social studies. Perfect for teaching about Canadian History, New France, and the Hudson's Bay Company.
Want to add history to your day, but struggling to get the basics done? Try this simple homeschool history plan that works!
When studying the Middle Ages in your homeschool, engage kids by adding some fun medieval activities for middle school to your lesson plans.
FREE Minecraft Learning Printables (Various Subjects)
