Curated OER
"Knot" the Whole Truth: Writing a Modern-Day Story with a Tall Tale's Voice
Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write...
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Lesson Plan 10: Writing Really Good Dialogue
Boring dialogue can run a great story into the ground; get your novelists using dialogue as a tool to move their story into deeper and more developed territory. As part of a larger writing series, this lesson plan has a worksheet that...
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Halloween Tales
At the beginning of this Halloween lesson, learners generate a list of spooky characters and words that they will use when creating their original stories. Teams of 3-4 members create the stories together. The lesson includes a handy...
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Topic Sentence
Students write a topic sentence to a paragraph and explain that it introduces the main idea. After a whole-class demonstration, students write a complete paragraph with their topic sentence and supporting sentences. There are some...
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Secret Writing Devices
Elementary and middle schoolers explore the world of secret writing, otherwise known as cryptography. After an interesting introduction to the activity, learners utilize a decoder badge which uses the St. Cyr cipher - which is a cipher...
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Creating Children's Books
High schoolers collaborate to create a children's book. In this visual arts lesson, student study the components and procedures that go into making a children's book including the shape, size. layout, biographical information about the...
Amnesty International
Human Rights and Service Learning (Part 1)
What better way is there to teach about human rights than by seeing them firsthand? Introduce your class or club to the spirit of service through a myriad of service project ideas. First in a series of human rights instructional...
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ABC Book of Words
Students make a book. In this vocabulary instructional activity, students brainstorm vocabulary words about China, write the words in alphabetical order, discuss the meanings of each word and make a book of the words.
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Teaching Descriptive Word Usage
Second graders practice their creative writing by using descriptive words. In this language arts lesson, 2nd graders utilize their best descriptive writing to elaborate on one of 20 different bean bag characters. Students...
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Sounding Out CVCE Words
First graders explore vowels and consonants by participating in a flash card activity. In this phonetics lesson plan, 1st graders discuss the difference between short and long vowels and identify them within a story told to them by their...
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Technical Writing
Students discuss technical writing and its importance in the work place and review the definition of technical writing They evaluate technical writing examples and look for characteristics of effective technical writing. They conduct a...
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What are Numbers?: Learning to Add
Students identify numbers from 0-20. They show quantities to 20. Students work in small groups and take pictures of items demonstrating the numbers that they have beeen taught. They form the number shape using their bodies and take...
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The Outsiders
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
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A Weigh we Go!
Here are some cross-curricular activities whil should help your kids understnad weight measurements and grammar. In this grammar and math lesson, young scholars read the book Skittles Riddles and practice counting and balancing skittles....
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Spanish 1 Chapter 3
Students explore the pronouns ir, estar, ser, tener, querer, poder, and jugar. They do a word scramble using 8 words from chapter, and clues needed to be in the Spanish sentences. Students design concept poster from using 10 vocabulary...
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Paragraph Writing
Third graders receive Gummi hamburgers. They discuss parts and structure of a (real) hamburger. Students dissect the gummi hamburger and rearrange the pieces. Students discuss the problems that would be caused by this with a real...
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Write Picture Captions
Students notice and investigate a large range of devices for presenting texts-captions. Students write original captions for several audiences. Students write a fictional news story based around a certain caption.
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writing mini lessons
Students pair up and talk about a story, plot, or incident they are working on in writing workshop. Ask the listener to note when his interest is piqued and to share those moments with the storyteller. Those points of intrigue are all...
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Sentence Puzzle Race
Students create sentences based on the word cards they are given. In this sentences lesson plan, students work in teams and get points for correct sentences.
ReadWriteThink
Alliteration in Headline Poems
Poetry is everywhere you look! Create found poems using headlines from newspapers and magazines. Young poetry focus on creating alliterative phrases with words they find in headlines, tying their poems to a central theme.
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Honesty and Integrity
What are the benefits of kindness and integrity? When is it difficult to be honest? Through discussion, writing, and hands-on experiences, your young learners will consider the definitions and importance of having honesty and integrity...
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Shakespeare: Henry V - Writing Task
Pairs of pupils choose a person who they consider to be a hero. They research that person, develop a speech, and deliver it to the class in hopes of persuading them that this person really is a hero. A vote is taken after the...
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Picture Writing
Fourth graders create symbols. In this visual arts lesson plan, 4th graders study cave drawings, Native American pictographs, and Aboriginal Drawings prior to creating their own communication without using words.
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Passionate Pilgrims- Two Poets And A Painter
Students engage in a lesson that looks at the culture of Japan to isolate the practices of painting and writing in several different traditions. They conduct research about the lives of the artists using a variety of resources. The...