Curated OER
Random Acts of Kindness For Kids
Develop a world-wide, email chain on which class members can showcase their acts of kindness. After defining the meaning of random acts of kindness through discussion and through a reading of Random Acts of Kindness,...
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Sly Book Channel
Create a commercial for a favorite book and broadcast this pitch on the Sly Book Channel! Learners practice retelling, summarizing, comparing/contrasting, and evaluation skills as they prepare their scripts. The approved scripts are then...
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Encouraging Students to Embrace Their Inner Author
Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. For this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...
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Technopoet - Poetry Lesson Plans
Practice word processing while writing different types of poems. First, elementary and middle schoolers use Word templates to write poetry. They use rhyming and descriptive words as they work with clipart, text wrapping, and picture...
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Giving Thanks for Food and Farms
Sarah Stewart’s The Gardener and Food from Farms by Nancy Dickmann display the importance of community farms. After reading these short picture books, class members draw connections between farms and the food we eat each day. As a...
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What a Character!
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
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Persuasive Writing -- Commercial Style
Students create persuasive TV commercials for common products. They develop a list of products, write the script for a commercial, and act-out and videotape the commercial to present to the class.
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Expressing Thoughts & Feelings
Students discuss an ordinary apple. They pass the apple around the room, whacking it on the floor at their turn. Students watch as the teacher cuts open the apple showing them it looks the same on the outside, but is bruised on the...
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Searching for Stars
Positive character traits in literature are explored in this character development and literacy lesson. Learners listen to Cinderella by Charles Perrault and Little Gold Star by Robert D. San Souci, followed by a discussion comparing the...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Quotation Station: Using Quotes in the Classroom
An informative list compiled with quotes, authors, and discussion questions, along with 20 out-of-the-box application ideas, make up the collection of lessons geared to spark dialogue and creative thinking about quotations.
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Internet Investigations: Unsolved Mysteries
Students conduct Internet research to investigate the facts and fiction of various unsolved mysteries. They examine the facts and opinions of the mysteries, and create a Powerpoint slide show to present the theories and the group's...
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Working Together to Improve Our Community
Students from the fourth grade research a solution to a community problem and converse with eighth graders via email. Eighth graders study the political process and work with the fourth graders to present information to the public to...
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Patty Reed's Doll: The Story of the DonnerParty
Students explore westward movement through eyes of doll belonging to Patty Reed, member of Donner Party. They write journal entries from points of view of characters in book, Patty Reed's Doll, participate in Pack the Wagon game, and...
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First Grade, First Grade, What Do You See? (Elementary, Reading/Writing)
First graders assist in making a list of the many things that Brown Bear saw in the story. They create an illustration of the person, place, or thing that they wrote about in their pattern sentence.
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How Does Your Garden Grow?
Students construct and maintain a school garden. In this gardening lesson, students plan the construction of the garden by writing letters to local businesses asking for supplies and materials; students build the garden using their math...
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Latin and Greek Roots Lesson Plan: Creating a Board Game
Students explore Latin and Greek roots. In this vocabulary lesson plan, students create a board game featuring Greek and Latin roots.
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Using Words to Work Things Out
Students explore classroom community building. In this character development and community building lesson, students listen to Hands Are Not for Hitting and generate a class list of positive ways to handle classroom conflicts. Students...
Channel Islands Film
Telling Your Own Story
After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.
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A Holiday Card in KidPix
Students create a holiday card using computer software. For this computer card making lesson, students design an original holiday card using a variety of tools. Students navigate the software utilizing various tools.
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Disaters!
Students read a fiction and nonfiction accounts about different types of disasters. The class uses iChat AV and iSight camera to interview students in a different part of the country about natural or manmade disasters in their area....
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Homes of Yesterday and Today
Students explore homes as shelters while they built writing and technology skills. In this homes of yesterday and today lesson, students produce books using digital photography. Students develop vocabulary while researching how homes are...
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There's a Monster in My Classroom
Students work in groups making drawing of monsters and then given written instructions to students in another class about how to draw the same monster. After the drawings are complete, they share with other students using an iSight...
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Seasoning the School Year
Students observe the changes a class tree goes through as the seasons change and record observations in journals. They investigate changes in the weather, changes in the length of the day, and how that affects people. They create...
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Cooperative Classroom Text Features Activities
Fifth graders examine text features and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this text features lesson, 5th graders go over Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures and text features before they choose one to include in a book and...