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Beautiful Bovine
Looking for a fun and interactive way to explore bovine biology? Learners read a brief informational text (included for printing) before participating in several cross-curricular activities. First, grab their attention with a hilarious...
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Build Mastery: Main Idea
Use a graphic organizer to get readers thinking about main ideas as they record the who, what, where, when, and why of a story. Consider modeling this process completely before kids do this independently. They fill in five boxes charting...
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Introduce: Fact and Opinion
Build reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills as learners focus on discerning fact from opinion. First, introduce the two terms as you test prior knowledge and explain their meanings (there is a scripted explanation here for...
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Draw What You Feel in the Bag: Art Game
Here is a great game to play on a rainy day or as a warm up. Kids feel an object in a paper bag, they do not attempt to identify it, they simply draw what they feel. This results in a contour drawing based on line, feeling, and texture....
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The Star-Spangled Banner
Get your kids moving as they learn about the history of the United States National Anthem. Scholars examine the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, and the meaning behind The Star Spangled Banner as they listen to an 18-minute...
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Seed to Soup Organic Garden
Have your young biologists visit decomposition stations as they explore the process of organic material. This activity involves some set-up as kids will be visiting 13 desks to collect colored paper each representing a different element...
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Analyzing Literature via Literature Circles
Introduce literature circles with Roland Smith's novels. Your seventh graders will see the activity modeled as you read The Three Little Pigs together and apply the format to a Roland Smith novel of their choice. The lesson includes...
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Come To Your Senses
Write narratives that include ideas, observations, or memories of an event or experience, and be sure to use concrete sensory details! Groups utilize a few of the famous I Spy books in order to create narratives that utilize sensory...
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Examining Character Traits through Character Mapping
Some of what we know about a character is directly stated. Some of what we know is inferred by events in the story. Character maps help primary learners recognize the difference. After modeling with a story your class has read, pupils...
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Fun Through Fitness Day
Make fitness fun at your school! A list of outdoor activities for a "Fun Through Fitness Day" could be helpful in planning your own version of this activity. The resource describes what one school district has done in general, but does...
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Real-Life History: Looking at Our Community
Spend several days with your class exploring local history. Learners brainstorm and categorize sources of historical information as primary or secondary; collect and present artifacts from family/community; construct a definition of...
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The Looking Glass: Artwork of Robert Harris
A series of 4 activities foster critical thinking, careful observation, and creative expression with the work of Canadian artist Robert Harris. Learners respond to half a painting and then to the whole picture while listening to a poem;...
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Rainfall and Water Table
Through inquiry, experimentation, and observation, young scientists see how an increase in rainfall under climate change can affect the water table and soil salinity underground. Young scientists build models that represent the...
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Learning Log
A simple idea, this exercise will help young learners practice metacognitive and language arts skills. At the end of each day of school, have each member of your class record, in their own words, what they learned that day. Merely...
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Asian America: Heritage Experience
Learners of all ages read and discuss books about Asian America. In this Asian-America lesson plan, different books for every age group are listed and various teaching strategies are suggested. Great tips cover virtually every grade level!
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Show, Don't Tell: Details to Make Writing Come Alive
After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...
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Wheelchair Basketball
The class practices bounce passes and chest passes to improve their basketball skills. They get to play a modified basketball game with no dribbling allowed. You could incorporate several modifications into this instructional activity to...
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Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
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Backwards Writing: Reflections and Symmetry
Why is "ambulance" written backwards on emergency vehicles? Young geometers apply principles of symmetry to translate words written backwards. See if your school or district subscribes to Jobland, where you can view a clip that explains...
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Dancing through Poetry
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...
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Mayan Farming Practices
The introduction of this lesson requires reading a from The Maya by Jaqueline Dembar Greene. Learners sketch a Mayan during the reading. Teaching strategies include direct instruction, grouping the students for discussions, reasearch,...
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Fluency is the Key!
A field trip to the library begins this lesson plan where children select their own books to practice fluent silent reading. They then practice their writing by creating a new ending to the story they chose before receiving a mini-lesson...
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Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh My!
Research animals and develop a non-fiction presentation. Students will complete research on a particular animal and determine the animal's characteristics as well as habitat before choosing a differentiated project to present using the...
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Social Studies, Music, The Blues, Urbanization, and Technology
Enable young scholars to use the blues to explore urbanization, technology, and their effects on everyday life in the 20th century. Musicians were among the large number of people who, between 1914 and 1945, participated in the Great...