Curated OER
Critical Thinking With Fables New and Old
Explore the fables of today along with Aesop's ancient fables. Learners will understand the structure of a fable, critically think about the fable's message, and create a instructional activity that they would like to teach through a...
Newspaper Association of America
A Good Read
Teach your readers strategies for breaking down informational texts. Pupils develop and implement the tools they'll need to decode texts for the rest of their lives with an informational resource that focuses on the structure and...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension
After listening to a story learners engage in a kinesthetic activity to answer comprehension and critical thinking questions. Finally, the students identify three main facts about the story. Extensions include a fact and opinion...
Curated OER
The Important Thing About Reading
Third through fifth graders discover the importance of reading and plan a service project to provide books to children. First, they read the book The Important Book and then they brainstorm about the importance of reading. Afterward,...
Curated OER
Using a Title to Determine Main Idea (Nonfiction)
Young readers explore a nonfiction text for its main idea. They will listen to the book Animal Sight by Kirsten Hall, and then observe as the teacher models a main idea think-aloud. Later, for independent practice, they listen to the...
Curated OER
Self-Monitoring Strategies and Vocabulary Games
Middle and high schoolers identify how to discover a word's meaning by exploring context clues and any pictures, diagrams, photographs, and charts that might be included. They continue this process with other examples and locate one on...
Curated OER
Combining with Participial Phrases
Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...
Curated OER
The Interactive Read-Aloud
Students listen to a variety of books about immigration themes. They discuss immigration and some of the ideas presented in the books. They complete a variety of immigration-themed art projects.
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...
Curated OER
Picture a Tarantula
Young scholars create an illustration based upon a read-aloud. For this visual arts lesson, students listen to the book The Tarantula Scientist and listen for details. Young scholars create a picture based upon what they imagined during...
Curated OER
Getting to Know You
After going over the five steps of the writing process, pupils fill out "Getting to Know You" worksheets. They trade papers with each other, and have the task of writing a descriptive paragraph about the person whose worksheet they...
Curated OER
Mouse Mess
Scholars practice rhyming and phonemic awareness using trade books and poetry. They will listen to the book Mouse Mess several times throughout the week, identifying rhyming words, and matching words that begin with the same sound. Then...
Curated OER
Grandma Thinks It's Cake Baking Weather
Second graders listen to a read aloud of Patricia Polacco's book "Thunder Cake" to explain how daily life has changed over the past 150 years.
Curated OER
Hattie and the Fox
Who is Hattie? Youngsters explore animal characteristics by reading poems and stories in class. They read the book Hattie and the Fox about a fictitious fox and his drama with the other farm animals. Then they reread the story over...
Curated OER
Newcomers
Explore emotions associated with moving to a new home with young learners. First they listen to the books Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki and Going Home by Eve Bunting. Then they are invited to share their experiences as well as...
Curated OER
Poet James Whitcomb Riley: Famous in His Own Day
An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...
Curated OER
Everyday Heroes You Can Be One, Too
Students listen to a read aloud of Alan Baker's, White Rabbit's Color Book while identifying shapes and lines throughout the book. They use shapes and different types of lines to create a bunny of their own. They must use five shapes to...
Curated OER
We All Live Together
First graders examine the lifestyle of classroom and family pets in their natural habitat. They determine the needs of plants and animals, and how those needs are met. They listen to read alouds, sing songs, and draw using computer based...
Curated OER
Math in Literature and Life
Pupils read poems, read phrases, and create a poster for what math is and relate it back to literature. They also discuss the impact math has had on literature.
Curated OER
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Students read about the history of the one room school house and complete language arts activities to go with it. Students answer comprehension questions, role play, group discuss, and more.
Curated OER
Spring-Aloud Read
Students study the season of spring and create stories about the season. In this spring season instructional activity, students read books about spring and discuss the season. Students then color and create a mini-book about Spring.
Curated OER
Robotics Reading Hour - Robot Dog
High schoolers create a robotic dog for story time. In this story lesson, high school students bring a robotic dog to an elementary school. They read the story Robot Dog by Mark Oliver and then show their robotic dog.
Curated OER
On the Seashore
Students read the book On the Seashore and complete activities such as reading a book, color and cut out animal cards, model rock making, shell graphing, shell patterns, and more. In this seashell lesson plan, students use the sea...
Curated OER
Bad Case of Stripes Lesson Plan
Students think about why we worry about what others think, bullying, and learning to respect and accept differences in others.In this Bad Case of Stripes lesson plan, students examine cause-and-effect relationships in a story as they...