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Are You Balanced?
Fifth graders discuss what it means to have balance in their lives. Individually, they are given a worksheet in which they list their activities and things they are involved in. To end the lesson plan, they place weights on each side of...
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Help! I'm Trapped in the Principal's Body
In this reading worksheet, students answer 10 multiple-choice questions about the book. For example, "Who was the principal of Burt Itchupt Middle School?"
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Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers
Students compose a letter to a family member. In this writing lesson plan, students listen to the book, Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers and identify the parts of a letter.
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Storybook Theater
Tell a story visually using this resource. Learners design a storybook theater by creating a book and painting watercolor pictures describing scenes from the story. This is a creative means to have your class practice summarizing skills.
Brain Targeted Teaching
Tuck Everlasting Novel Study
The broad ideas included here provide clear ideas on how to use brain-targeted learning, what activities work best with Tuck Everlasting, how to apply the knowledge gained from their reading, and ideas for evaluation. Not teaching...
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Appropriate Use of Helping Verbs
Readers of all ages correctly use appropriate verbs in their speech and writing. The focus of this lesson is on the proper use of helping verbs.
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Guest Speaker Preparation: A Cooperative Lesson
Are you planning to have a guest speaker talk to your class? Prepare in advance and help your class transform into an engaged and thoughtful audience. Before the visit, young writers work cooperatively to brainstorm what they want to...
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Mapping the Lewis and Clark Trail
Students explore how physical and human geography features effected Lewis and Clark's expedition by using the Lewis and Clark Digital Discovery Web site.
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Whale Is Stuck
Learners engage in the process of problem solving with the help of children's literature story of how the whale was trapped and then freed. The story illustrates the power of teamwork and commitment. The students practice the skill of...
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Poetry Cubes
Reading aloud can be scary, but it's an important way to build oral fluency. Break the class into groups of four or five learners. Each learner will roll a cube to determine which poem they read aloud to their small group. Feel free to...
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Introducing Communication Talent with "Casey at the Bat"
Analyze the poem "Casey at the Bat." Your team of analysts will read the poem and complete a variety of activities, including describing how Casey looks and acts, describing how he feels before and after he strikes out, and sharing...
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Animation Pre-Production
Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...
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The Sounds of Daydream
Based on the poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, this resource is well constructed and guides learners through examining the Yeats poem (rhyme, meter, content) to composing a poem of their own about a...
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Dreams, Stars, and Beaches
Compare and contrast ideas, hopes and dreams with those of Cassie in Faith Ringgold's, Tar Beach. your students can entries in their journals expressing their ideas.
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Cite Your Sites
What information would you find in an almanac that you would not find in an atlas? What is the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus? Using a Cite Your Sites worksheet on which they record their observations, groups participate...
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Trivia Pursuit" To Review Material
Young scholars play "Trivia Pursuit" in order to review material in any subject area. Groups are chosen to answer a given question, they discuss the answer and orally give it together.
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Children's Literature and the Bill of Rights
Students read a variety of well-known studenT books and discuss concepts presented in the books as they relate to the Bill of Rights. They discuss the books and compare them to the Bill of Rights Amendments.
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How to DO Just About Anything
Learners discover how to use a digital camera and how to make a PowerPoint presentation. They practice good listening skills and hear how to make a "Supa Dupa Egg." They take notes and use them to create an effective, step-by-step...
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California Gold Rush
Students discover the people who lived in California before and after the gold rush. They use primary source documents to identify how the finding of gold changed the area. They also discover the discrimation that was present during the...
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Using Informational Books: Index, Table of Contents & Alphabetical Order
Students recall and use previous knowledge of the library's reference and nonfiction sections. Also they utilize various forms of reference (encyclopedias & dictionaries) and nonfiction books.
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Sato and the Elephants
Students write a persuasive letter to the government of an African country that has elephants as a resource. Students research and debate the pros and cons of ivory use. Students identify the value of ivory products versus the lives of...
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Fact Versus Opinion
Young learners distinguish statements as fact or fiction. After exploring a newspaper, they determine the type of information it contains. They read editorial articles and discuss the differences between the editorial page and the front...
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Making an Argument: Effective use of Transition Words
Work on using transition words in context by prompting elementary and middle schoolers to write their own persuasive essays using transition words. They explore new forms of transition words and examine how they are used in an editorial...
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A Simple Task Made Complex: Types of Sentences
Looking for a lesson about differing sentence types? Use this lesson on compound and complex sentences in your grammar unit. After composing simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences individually and as part of a group,...