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Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
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Sense, Sensibility and Sentences: Examining and Writing Memorable Lines
Involve your readers in finding works of literary genius. Have each individual write down compelling sentences that they read or hear, whether in a newspaper, advertisement, book, movie, song, or any other place! Once each person has a...
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Tasty Topics
Students analyze a graphic from an article and predict what the article might be about. After reading an article, they discover a journalist's experience of traveling across the United States to compare fast food restaurants. They...
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Adventurous Magic
Students investigate storytelling by creating their own dialogue. In this writing development lesson, students read the story Jeremy Thatch, Dragon Hatcher in class and discuss their own magical object they wish to write a story about....
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Writing a Storybook
Students explore language arts by creating their own stories in class. In this book making activity, students read the story City Pig in class and create storyboard illustrations in order to analyze the story. Students utilize these...
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A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On
Here's a fabulous lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a butterfly. This...
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Teaching Awareness of Human Development
Students examine the process of human development and identify the reasons for a good nights sleep. Individually, they write a list of the situations in their lives which are stressful. As a class, they discuss myths about stress and...
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Using Artwork to Develop Personal Narratives
Students use a work or art as a springboard to a personal narrative or descriptive writing. They represent an idea in an artistic product which connects to composition.
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Comic Book Characters
Explore gender stereotypes by analyzing how male and female characters are depicted in comic books. Using the provided Comic Book Analysis sheet, learners record the attributes of male and female comic book characters. Then the whole...
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Twisted Tales
Experience how a story can drastically change when the point of view is altered. Young scholars first read a review of Disney's film Tarzan, focusing on how the point of view in the classic story is important. They then select...
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Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
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Life Cycle of Butterfly
Second graders investigate life cycles of insects by writing a story. In this butterfly life lesson, 2nd graders create a checklist of the many steps a caterpillar takes before growing wings and flying. Students utilize...
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North Carolina State Vegetable -- Day 2
Students are introduced to the state vegetable of North Carolina, the sweet potato. In groups, they create their own sweet potato person using the items from a Mr. Potato Head. They write a summary of their person and a narrative about...
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Fractured Fairy Tales
Students use familiar characters, plots, and settings from traditional fairy tales to create "fractured" versions, while experimenting with satire, irony and parody. A fractured fairy tale is designed to be humorous by changing the story...
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The Influence of Jazz Music in Twentieth Century Art
Students examine the effect of music on society. While listening to music, they identify the beat, rhythm and write down their reaction to it. Listening to longer selections, they assign a color to the music and share it with the...
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Who Gets to Invent and How Do Inventors Change Our Lives?
Young scholars examine the way various inventions have changed their lives. As a class, they create a timeline of the most important inventions during their lifetime and another timeline of how old they were when it was invented. ...
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Wanted Poster
Students examine a fairy tale character of their choice in great detail. They create a wanted poster that includes the following: a picture of the character, a written description of his/her appearance, a reward amount, and reasonthe...
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Ugly? Says Who?
Students explore biology by writing animal poetry in class. In this animal characteristics activity, students research the Internet for facts about an "ugly" animal such as a bug or small critter. Students complete worksheets about...
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Solution Concentration
Students determine differences in concentrations. They have to state the problem they feel exists, consider possible solutions, and develop a plan to come up with for containers whose labels have fallen off. Students base this off the...
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The Second Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms
Students examine procedures and processes of the Michigan Supreme Court. They explain the Second Amendment to others. They compare and contrast two cases dealing with the Second Amendment.
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Children Around The World
Students read a multicultural book called "This Is the Way We Go to School" by Edith Baer and Steve Bjorhman. They become culturally aware of the different nationalities around the world and different ways that they may do things on a...
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Predict and Clarify with The Old Woman & Her Pig
Primary readers predict and check for understanding by using comprehension strategies. Prepare readers the first day by frontloading vocabulary and using pictures to visualize the words. On the second day, read the story The Old Woman...
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The Root Show
Students investigate plant roots. In this plant activity, students discover the function and structure of plant roots. Students plant a plant in a milk carton with a clear section cut out in order to observe the roots of the plant.
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Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly
Third graders access prior knowledge of the monarch butterfly and discuss what they would like to know. In this Monarch Butterfly lesson,students read Monarch Butterfly and discuss the life cycle of the butterfly. Students gather...