This year, we are taking a cue from the honey bee, and trying our best to adapt to new environments. Whether this is an online classroom, part-time school, or full-time classroom planning, The Bee Cause Project is here to meet you where you are with plug and play pollinator lesson plans.

The Back to School Bee Program is built to begin with the Six Week Bee Unit and then adapt to your classroom as you see fit. The Six Week Bee Unit can be completed in sequence, or as individual lesson plans. Each of our new resources has teacher guides, are mapped to the standards, and are easily adapted to digital platforms.

Our mission is to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards while protecting our planet's most precious pollinators. The resources we have provided are designed to engage students through observation-based and hands-on learning with a little help from our tiny friends -- the bees! This unit of study has ample resources including teacher guides, video links, material lists, background information, standards mapping, and engaging work for students. 

Learn about the Wyoming gold rush that occurred in South Pass City, and explore the varied perspectives of the people who experienced the gold rush in the 1840’s-1860’s.

In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials), students will watch a video that introduces the gold rush and the people who were impacted by it, and then hold a discussion to understand the multiple perspectives. Then, the students take part in a creative writing activity in which they create a piece of text from one of the perspectives.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will develop grade level appropriate speaking and listening skills, as described by the standards.
Students will learn how to write a fictional narrative based on nonfiction resources, following a set of parameters.
Students will understand the motivations and perspectives of various people during the Wyoming gold rush.

The Fractured Fairy Tale tool encourages students to create their own fractured fairy tales.

In this eight-week module, students explore animal defense mechanisms. They build proficiency in writing an informative piece, examining the defense mechanisms of one specific animal about which they build expertise. Students also build proficiency in writing a narrative piece about this animal. In Unit 1, students build background knowledge on general animal defenses through close readings of several informational texts. Students will read closely to practice drawing inferences as they begin their research and use a science journal to make observations and synthesize information. Students will continue to use the science journal, using the millipede as a whole class model. They begin to research an expert animal in preparation to write about this animal in Units 2 and 3, again using the science journal. In Unit 2, students will continue to build expertise about their animal and its defense mechanisms, writing the first part of the final performance task—an informative piece describing their animal, the threats to its survival, and how it is equipped to deal with them. With their new knowledge about animal defenses from Unit 1, students will read informational texts closely, using the same science journal to synthesize information about their animal. Unit 3 allows students to apply their research from Units 1 and 2 to write a narrative piece about their animal that incorporates their research. This narrative will take the format of a choose-your-own-adventure. For their performance task, students will plan, draft, and revise the introduction and one choice ending of the narrative with the support of both peer and teacher feedback. The second choice ending will be planned, written, and revised on-demand for the end of unit assessment.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

Did you know that honey bees dance? Or that they build their homes out of perfectly formed honeycomb? The Digital Hive Experience was created to educate about the inside of a beehive and our friends, the honey bees. Pair the Digital Hive Video with the companion Educator’s Guide! Included are a lesson plan mapped to the Common Core and NGSS, pre and post-assessments, discussion questions, and a KWL Chart for your students! Perfect for a classroom introduction or for programs that may not have live bees, we hope you enjoy your journey into the hive!

Did you know that honey bees can dance? Do you know why bees build honeycombs in the shape of a hexagon? Do you know how many eyes honey bees have? Bees live a secret life inside their hive...but NOW we can see what goes on in a live hive. The Bee Cause and its partners are on a mission to inspire children to learn about and protect these precious pollinators. That's why we've created the Digital Bee Hive Experience - to educate our community of learners about this vital ecosystem. 

This Educators Guide provides everything you need to make this virtual field trip a huge success with your students! You will find lists of materials and resources, step-by-step instructions for three complete lessons, journal prompts as well as research topics, supplementary card work, and standards mapping.

10-lesson fourth grade unit to build classroom culture focused on identity, diversity and community.

Students consult primary and secondary sources to identify the events leading to Abraham Lincoln's assassination and consider whether his assassination was avoidable.