My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this lesson on Ben Franklin and is waiting for the next storm to move through. lol. But in all honesty, this not only explains his beliefs and ideas but him as a person. It makes children and/or adults realize that he was just a person too. To quote Mr. Franklin "One day Mr. Franklin was asked why he failed 2000 tries to make a light bulb? He told this gentleman that he hadn't failed, he had just learned 2000 ways not to make a light bulb." Ben Franklin is a very important and a highlight of American History and should be discussed more in a classroom setting to give him the character that he deserves.

I am always looking for ways to provide cross curricular activities, and this is one that provides great activities! I love the static electricity one, very simply to do with easy to find materials.

I have always been fascinated by Ben Franklin. This lesson illustrates the depth and breadth of his interests and accomplishments. I liked the lesson with the portraits of Franklin's friends. I would love to have the students draw a portrait of themselves and include objects that emphasize their interests. The lesson about static electricity is very effective, and I found it very effective to set up different stations in the room to show how electricity can be created. This is a lesson which I will continue to incorporate into my thematic unit on Franklin for many years.

This is truly a fun lesson. It obviously targets younger kids, but it works well for older ones as well.
It can be used by Art teachers, but also by English and World Languages teachers to accompany the description of a story created by students. Students can create a plot, main characters and a colorful setting. It will certainly take more than one lesson, but it will keep them engaged. My students had lots of fun creating their script and then their short "movies." They worked in small groups and each group got to read and watch the projects of the other groups. The little notebooks and their descriptions are still in my classroom and occasionally someone still enjoys looking at them.

I remember doing these when I was a kid, but I just couldn't remember exactly how to do it to show my 1st grader. Wonderful that I happened upon this! Thank you Smithsonian!

This is a great lesson to extend into the tech lab classes. Students from 2nd - 5th can create their animation on a multimedia program, such as power point and print the books to create their own flip book.(ISTE 1, 4, 6)

To integrate within the math curriculum, calculations could include how many slides per moving an object from side to side and how many pages for printing if 6 slides are printed per sheet of paper. (ISTE 1, 2, 3, 6)

To integrate within the language arts curriculum, students can write a procedural essay for the creation of the flip book. Another writing option is a research paper about the history of animation or inventors, both historical and contemporary. (ISTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

This can be extended to science technology through the study of Java script for Middle School students.(ISTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

This resource is great. It helps to teach children about art and different colors. Art is a great way to express your emotions. Children need an outlet like this.

This book absolutely opens a child's world to the many colors of the world, they are able to see the world around them in a completely different light, projects with this book are very engaging. I love it!

Mixing paint and making color. What a wonderful hands on learning experience. Math, science, and art. plus the delight of making a mess. Bring this activity outside and we can really cover some very young educational bases.

I used this in my classroom as a way to introduce how flight works. It was a great resource. It started out very simple using simple examples and simple experiments and then built upon the simple to the more complex. The drawings were very cute.

The activity is great for gifted K students studying shadows by introducing the math behind shadows. Only the last link is available, and its reading level and content are too high for K, but could be introduced in math classes when they discuss angles (grade 4 gifted).