New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...
Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices
The Right Number of Elephants
How can you tell if a number of items is reasonable? Combine math and language arts with a fun lesson based on Jeff Shepard's The Right Number of Elephants. After reading the book, kids discuss amounts of other items and create...
New York City Department of Education
Myself and Others
Self reflection is an important skill to reinforce in our children, and it's especially helpful to help them realize who they are in the context of their environment. A collection of lessons about self image and community encourage...
Curated OER
Rainbow Fish: The Copycat Fish Lesson Plan
Students explore the concept of copying one another. In this early childhood lesson plan, students discuss what a copycat is and why people copy one another. Students then discuss the story Rainbow Fish: The Copycat Fish, recording...
Curated OER
When (Seasons, Day, or Night)
Practice identifying the setting with a reading activity. Kindergartners find the setting of a story by observing when the story takes place. They read the book Look! Snow! by Kathryn O. Galbraith and decide in which season the story...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Tell Me A Story
Students listen to the story Mrs. Wishy Washy and practice retelling the story. In this tell me a story lesson, students become familiar with all of the characters in the story, then use character pieces to retell the story. Students...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Julius, the Baby of the World
Students are read Julius, the Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes. In this vocabulary focused lesson plan, students discover the definitions of seven new words. They discuss the meanings of the words, as a group, before and after the...
Curated OER
The Big Sneeze
Students participate in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book "The Big Sneeze" by Ruth Brown. They develop a list of farm vocabulary, sequence the events of the story on a graphic organizer, act out...
Curated OER
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff:" Retelling the Story
Youngsters retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They write a sentence for speech bubbles for a character in the story, identify the phrases that can be used for retelling a story, and in small groups write a sentence for the...
Curated OER
Random Acts of Kindness for Kids
Learners examine the concept of kindness to others. They define kindness, listen to various stories about random acts of kindness, and create an e-mail chain describing their own acts of kindness that is sent around the world.
Curated OER
Where
Kindergartners identify where a story takes place. In this literature instructional activity, learners take a picture walk and discuss how pictures can provide clues to the location of the story. They then illustrate where a new story of...
PreKinders
Winter Word Cards
Walk in a winter wonderland with a set of picture word cards. Kids work on their seasonal vocabulary with 18 cards, which include both pictures and names of winter items and animals that live in the cold.
Curated OER
Cycles of Life
Students explore the metamorphosis of an insect as it changes from an egg to pupa to an adult. the process of change is observed, recorded, and transformed into a life cycle picture.
All Things PLC
Pyramid of Interventions Considerations
There's much to consider when contemplating an intervention for students. Here's a list of considerations that should be taken into account, as well as questions that should be asked and answered during the planning stage.
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Sleep
A reading adventure pack features two stories—Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming and Animals Don’t Wear Pajamas by Eve Feldman. In response to reading the fiction and nonfiction texts, scholars create a dreamcatcher, discuss hibernation,...
Curated OER
A'planting We will Go
Germination is an amazing process that results in amazing things. The book The Tiny Seed is the inspiration for a set of activities that will help build early literacy, observation, language, and writing skills. The class observes how...
Curated OER
Problems and Their Solutions in Stories and Everyday Life
Students identify story elements. In this stories lesson, students read a story and identify the chracter, character traits, plot, setting and theme. Groups of students match problem and solution cards.
Curated OER
THE LITTLE RED HEN - A TALE OF COOPERATION
Students explore how much pleasure reading can bring, explain the concept of "story sequence", "re-tell" a story through art, and read other folktales.
Indian Land Tenure Foundation
Elders' Stories
Very young learners study the ways that oral traditions play such a huge part in the culture of Native Americans. They see how Elders pass along stories to the younger generations. If possible, a tribal Elder comes into the class to...
Curated OER
Lesson: Ahoy! A Painting!
Kids listen to the story, How I Became a Pirate and analyze the painting, Our Lady of the Victory of Malaga. So, what do these to things have in common? The art depicts the time period and style. And, the story sets their...
PreKinders
Forest Word Cards
Explore the animals of the forest with a set of vocabulary cards. Each half-page card features the name of an animal with a corresponding photograph, as well as a few plants.
Curated OER
Observing the Pumpkin Cycle
Students observe and listen to nonfiction books about the life cycle of pumpkins. They practice early reading skills in a shared reading related to pumpkins. They observe the life cycle of a pumpkin including growth and decay.
PreKinders
Ocean Word Cards
Dive into ocean vocabulary with a set of 29 picture word cards. Each card presents a picture of an animal or item from the ocean in vivid color, as well as its name.
Curated OER
What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...