One of the best parts about teaching the littlest learners is that you can create thematic lessons that use one topic to address every subject. Here is a nice set of thematic teaching ideas that uses turtles and tortoises to teach...

After viewing a video and reading an article about the threatened turtles and tortises in The Amazon River area, collaborative groups create a poster or presentation about how we can help them. Several links to other related lesson plans...

Turtles might be slow, but class will zoom by when your pupils build a program in which reptiles draw a grid. Using App Lab and JavaScript, class members build a program to find the most efficient way to draw an image of a...

Explore the works of Dr. Seuss, such as Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches and Egg, The Sneetches and Other Stories, The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Each story lesson includes reading...

Bycatch is a sad reality for many sea turtles, dolphins, and sharks; it occurs when they get unintentionally caught in commercial fishing nets. The class plays a game using popcorn and crackers, each child will attempt to catch the...

When your parents say that your room's a pig sty, tell them about biomimicry. The sixth installment of a nine-part Life Science unit has scholars research the shelters used by animals in the natural world, like turtle shells. Using the...

Our oceans are composed of many complex relationships. Young oceanographers explore relationships between organisms, understand the world ocean's currents, and discover the effects of water pollution and how it behaves. There are...

At over 450 pages, John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath can be a challenging choice for full-class, book circle, or independent reading. The activities in a 10-page sample The Grapes of Wrath...

With What Do You See at the Pond?, young readers explore pond life and practice reading strategies. Learners first make predictions and then read the simple story independently. After a second read-through with a partner, kids come...

When is a staple remover a fanged monster? In your ELA classroom when you're teaching this fun figurative language lesson, of course! Get your young writers using figurative language by making a game of it. Give groups a paper bag full...

Breath new life into your class's study of dinosaurs with this extensive collection of materials. Offering everything from a printable T-rex mask, word searches, and connect-the-dots activities to informational handouts, hands-on...

Language learners engage in a series of games and activities using pet vocabulary and the verb "have" to show possession or ownership.

Introduce your class to the API, a reference guide that lists and explains the functionality of programming language. Using JavaScript, individuals draw complex designs that require additional commands and parameters defined in the...

Jellybeans Up Your Nose, by Jeff Moss, prompts a discussion of responsible and irresponsible behaviors. After reading and discussing the poem, groups of fifth graders examine a Dr. Seuss-ism, from Geisel’s Seuss-isms, and report back to...

Explore the power of words with your class by analyzing the connotations of fictitious sports team names. Learners discuss team names and the mental images they convey. They create logos to illustrate the meanings and...

Partners work with real objects as they practice final phonemes. Here's how it works: Partner A silently chooses an object and sounds it out, determining the final phoneme and saying the sound aloud. Partner B examines the group of...

Build phonological awareness with an activity that challenges learners to sort picture cards based on the number of phonemes each has.

Try to match the final sounds in this memory game! Learners place all 24 cards upside down and take turns flipping them to see if the final phonemes match. If they do, remove them; if not, put them back. Partners play until all cards...

Greed is the theme of this collection of multidisciplinary activities. As a class, read The West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch by Bobby Norfolk, and take part in a grand discussion about it's plot and theme. Reinforce the...

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day instructional...

Provide extra support for language learners as they progress through the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on animal adventures. This 30-page packet includes scripted lessons designed for beginning, emergent,...

Animals are the theme of this series of English language development lessons. Scholars take part in grand conversations about woodland, jungle, and grassland animals. They also go on picture walks, read poems and high...

Let me break it down for you! Introduce your class to a way of breaking up a complicated task into its component pieces. Individuals draw a complex figure using JavaScript and then break it down to help determine the...

The pupils practice modifying parameters in a function to add variations to their under the sea scene. The resource also introduces random number functions that alter the scene every time the program runs.