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This multi-day lesson involves pre-kindergarten - grade 3 students in exploring the similarities found in grandchild-grandparent relationships across the world's cultures. It stresses key concepts associated with these relationships: love; listen; explore; tell stories; play; teach; learn; celebrate; share; care; and happy, safe, and loved.

This extensive lesson involves grades pre-K-3 students in exploring the similarities in the experiences in a single day that children have across the world. Students use discussion, comparing and contrasting, drawings, and digital photos to capture their own and others' daily experiences in and out of school. They use One World, One Day as a resource and springboard for the development and testing of the generalization, "a typical day in the life of a child is very much the same around the world." The book includes photos of children from many nations. Students locate the nation in which the photo was taken and consider similarities found in photos with events in a typical day in their lives. The lesson originates in social studies but incorporates interdisciplinary elements.

Be My Neighbor is a Global Fund for Children book that focuses on the characteristics of a neighborhood and how certain traits are shared in communities around the world. Because neighborhoods share many characteristics, the people who live in them are neighbors not just with those people in their own locale but in neighborhoods worldwide. The activities found in this learning cycle lesson engage the prior knowledge of children ages 4-8, help them develop the concepts of neighborhood and neighbor, and involve them in expanding those concepts beyond their local neighborhood.

The purpose of this study was to survey the state-of-the-art of science education for deaf individuals in residential schools in the United States. Forty-seven schools for the deaf were sampled to obtain a representative description of science program materials in use for students aged 2-14. Of the schools studied, more than 20% had no planned science program. Of the schools that did have a science program: (a) 60% used low student activity curriculum material, (b) 57% used curriculum materials which were not modified for use with deaf students, and (c) science teaching and evaluation strategies of all schools were infrequently modified to meet deaf student needs. Based on this pattern of use, it was concluded that a majority of the sampled residential schools were not providing a science program which met the needs and capabilities of the deaf student. Processes which may help improve science education for deaf students include systematic analysis of curricula according to student needs and capabilities as well as guidelines for science education.

Kindergarteners' (n=41) concept of peace, a foundational social studies concept, was investigated via pre- and post-assessments that first, asked them to physically demonstrate how they looked or felt when they were at peace, second, asked them to draw a scene showing peace, and third, to caption the drawing. In pre-assessments all but three children demonstrated aggression and drew aggressive stances accompanied by captions indicating aggression. After opportunities to read about, discuss, and explore the concept of peace over five weeks, post-assessment occurred. In the post-assessments none of the data indicated aggression. Categories coded showed peace described as enjoyable activities, pro-social behaviors, and quietness/calmness/privacy. The study suggests hypotheses for further research investigating the concept of peace among very young children and possible factors influencing their concept and implications for social studies curriculum.

Everybody Works in many ways, indoors, outdoors, at home, at an office, by traveling from place to place, to earn income, or as a hobby. This book is a photographic essay looking at the many ways in which people work and sometimes use animals in work. The learning cycle lesson helps young children construct a deeper understanding of work as varied and an important part of each person's life.

Brothers at Bat describes the Acerra family and their love for baseball, providing students with insights into 1930's family culture and community life. Students examine the characteristics of the Acerras that enabled them to develop and demonstrate their team spirit. Creating a Power Point slide show displaying their own diverse characteristics and team spirit from a classroom perspective will engage students' creativity and knowledge. A trading card created by each student uniquely representing the student and will be used in a Trading Card Collection displaying the different cultures and interests that come together to make one classroom community team.

Using I Am Different!: Can You Find Me? allows students to explore multiple languages and cultures as they peruse the text to find similarities and differences in the illustrations and languages presented. This lesson introduces various cultural concepts while concentrating on linguistic differences, allowing students to think critically as they examine their own language, as well as others. Students create a class video after they explore the content of the trade book and related resources and teach their classmates about different languages. Students will expand their learning and apply critical thinking as they note similarities and differences in many ways, including the differences in the languages discussed within the text.

This learning cycle lesson plan uses hands-on and minds-on experiences to assist fourth or fifth graders in developing the important concept of scale. The lesson focuses on enabling students to define scale as a ratio so that one square represents more squares, e.g. 1:5. It also works to enable students to draw the same object in two different scales.

Thailand: Enchantment of the World describes the southeast Asian nation of Thailand with recent photographs, maps, and figures accompanying the text. Graphic and text elements together build a description of Thailand today. History and geography are discussed as is the natural environment and a changing economy. Characteristics important to the establishment of the nation as a 21st century leader in its region are discussed. Students will enjoy a wide and deep range of photographs of Thai peoples, culture, and landforms from early in the 19th century through recent years. This book facilitates students' development of an understanding of the influences contributing to similarities and differences among Thailand and other nations.

In today's world, citizens must use scientific information to make choices and knowledgeable decisions in many aspects of civic affairs involving their everyday lives. Issues related to energy resources are important to everyone, because energy use and misuse affects people's lives. Citizens must be scientifically literate, informed, and active participants in their society in order to create fair and equitable energy policies for the present and the future. To begin to establish these policies in a society that is educated and concerned about energy, it is important that teachers link social studies and science issues about energy production and consumption. Social studies and science often are interwoven in education because many social issues relate to science topics.