This Internet fact finding activity is as easy A-B-C! Students will get an introduction to safe search engines, including MeL, (Michigan e-Library.org), to find ways to do a basic online search safely for information by simply using the letters of the alphabet.

Students go on a hunt to find a word for each letter of the alphabet from a free online picture dictionary.

In first grade students begin learning about basic nutrition and how to grow plants in a cup or small planter. In this lesson, the students will take it a step further and students will learn how to create a community garden and share the food. The students will use brainstorming apps to plan the garden and create a poster to advertise the garden.

It is important that students learn how to search safely online. Students will get an introduction to safe search engines, including MeL (Michigan e-Library.org), to find ways to search safely for information. Students will also review how using key effective keywords will give them better results.

First grade task cards for all seven MITECS and ISTE Standards for Students

Second grade task cards for all seven MITECS and ISTE Standards for Students

Mystery Doug is a FREE weekly video series where students ask questions. The videos are short, approximately five minutes long. Mystery Doug inspires students to ask questions and investigate. Some videos provide activity extensions. Students are also encouraged to submit questions.

Everyone is talking about real and fake news. Even first graders are hearing their parents, teachers and journalists talking about it. Teachers should begin teaching media literacy skills as soon as students begin using the Internet. In the first grade, students will be visiting approved sites that most likely will still have advertisements. The students will learn how to distinguish between the advertisements and the actual content they are supposed to be using.

Classroom environments can have diversity culturally and socially. Within the environment each student has a unique family and family history. Students will investigate, learn, and share information about their own families and heritages including family traditions, cultural traditions, languages, and generational family history (past two generations).

After this unit, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate chronological thinking by distinguishing among past, present, and future using family or school events.
- Investigate a family history for at least two generations, identifying various members and their connections in order to tell a narrative about family life.

The teacher will engage in a read-aloud with the picture book "Me and My Family Tree" by Joan Sweeney or a similar text. As the teacher reads through the story, they will share information about their own family and allow students to share short stories about their families. This project will be done in the Fall while the students are just starting to get to know each other.

Students will interview their families to complete a family questionnaire, a family tree template, and an interactive family timeline. The final product will be a family tree digital book.

The tools that could be used are Google Slides, Padlet, Book Creator, or a Google Docs page with the student work imported. They can also use Powtoons or Adobe Spark to include sound with storytelling.

Students will generate questions regarding a given topic and then research that topic using a kid-friendly search engine. Students will utilize information obtained during their search, in order to create a shared presentation.