Hudson River Lesson Plans
Lessons Available for Grades 3-5
The Hudson River has great potential to help students meet New York State learning standards with engaging immediacy. To realize that potential, the Hudson River Estuary Program has developed place-based, interdisciplinary lesson plans that present the Hudson as context in lessons that build understandings and skills required by state standards and tests. While these lessons could be used to create a stand-alone unit centered on the river, many educators will want to pick and choose from these offerings to support teaching of English language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other disciplines. Recognizing that teachers are pressed for time both in the classroom and in preparation, the lessons are easy to set up and implement.
The lessons, aimed mainly at Grades 3-5, are grouped by discipline, though a given lesson will often incorporate learning in several subject areas. In addition, content covered in a lesson devoted to one set of skills is often reinforced in another lesson aimed at a different set of skills. For example, students can read about the blue crab's life cycle in an English language arts lesson, and then do a math worksheet about the crab's movements in the estuary.
The links below access descriptions of the lessons in a particular subject area. Teachers may download individual teachers' guides and student worksheets for each lesson, or download packages of lessons focused on a particular skill area.
Links to Hudson River Lessons in:
- English Language Arts - This collection of lesson plans facilitates integration of river studies with instruction in English Language Arts.
- Mathematics - These lessons use actual data from river research to construct word problems that require math skills for their solution.
- Science - These lessons explore physical and life science topics related to the Hudson.
- Social Studies - These lessons look at the Hudson Valley's history, geography and economics through the lens of the region's natural resources.
Lesson plans use real data about Hudson
River fish, like this flounder, to teach students math and science skills.
While the lessons above are designed for Grades 3-5, the Estuary Program has partnered with other groups to develop a full range of curriculum for K-12 study of the Hudson. The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies' Changing Hudson Project features web-based curriculum designed by teachers and scientists to engage high school students in exciting, innovative science connecting them with current research about the river. Teaching the Hudson Valley offers a growing online collection of K-12 lesson plans that connect visits to sites of environmental, historical and cultural interest with classroom study of math, science, history, art and other subjects. And the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve reaches out to classrooms with distance learning via web-based video conferencing as well as lessons on site at its Norrie Point facility on the Hudson in Staatsburgh [Dutchess County]. Links to these resources can be found in the right hand column of this page.
The Estuary Program's lessons address New York State Learning Standards for English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Mathematics, Science, and Technology. Except for a few labeled as drafts, the activities have been reviewed by classroom teachers and field tested in Hudson Valley schools. We welcome further feedback. Please use the contact information below to let us know about successes, problems, and suggestions for improvement with regard to the lessons, along with ideas for other lessons you would like to see. Bookmark this page and check back on a regular basis, as more lesson plans will be added in months to come.
Steve Stanne
Interpretive Specialist
Hudson River Estuary Program/NYS Water Resources Institute, Cornell University
NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program
21 South Putt Corners Road
New Paltz, NY 12561
845-256-3077
hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us
