Curated OER
Art of Mask Making
Students make an African mask. In this culture and heritage lesson, students view samples of African masks and learn about the importance of these masks. Students visit the African Art Museum website to view the styles of mask making. ...
Curated OER
Read Me a Story and Check My Listening
Young scholars develop listening and reading skills with the oral reading of a story. The students demonstrate good listening skills using appropriate body language and answering assessment questions. They discuss the story looking for...
Curated OER
The Outsiders: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.
Curated OER
Fabric Dimensions
Students create original examples of the trapunto quilting technique in this middle-level lesson sutied for the Art classroom. Assessment and discussion questions are included for this lesson.
Curated OER
Assessing Presenting the Mask
Eighth graders use a software program to recreate a mask they made in art class. Individually, they write a paper describing their mask with an loose illustration. They combine the pictures of each mask into a class book for others to view.
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Music and the Brain
Even if you've never picked up a musical instrument, chances are that music has directly impacted your mental and emotional development. Sixth graders engage in a reading activity in which they read two articles on the impact of music on...
Boward County Public Schools
Hoot Activities
If you're looking for engaging, cross-curricular, inquiry-based activities and projects to support your class reading of Carl Hiaasen's Hoot, you've come to the right place!
National Endowment for the Humanities
A “New English” in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: A Common Core Exemplar
To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...
Curated OER
Writing a Screenplay
It's time to make a movie! Kids follow 15 steps to take their movie ideas from concept to script, following clear examples. The resource includes creative ways to guide learners into developing a few words and concepts into fully...
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Giver
Wouldn't it be great to live an a community without pain, without danger? Such a society is the goal of the community in The Giver. Using Lois Lowry's dystopian novel as the core text, class members read primary source materials about...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 3: Adventures of Don Quixote
Fifth graders explore the Adventures of Don Quixote in a four-week language arts unit. Scholars listen to and discuss a new chapter each day as well as examine vocabulary and practice word work including suffixes, subject-verb agreement,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
Curated OER
Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Film Foundation
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: What Is a Movie?
Watching is not the same as seeing. Transform viewers from passive watchers to active students of film with this 34-page packet, filled with lessons and activities that use Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to examine the technology, the...
Curated OER
Designing a Crew Exploration Vehicle
Take your class on an out-of-this-world adventure with this fun engineering design lesson plan. Working in small groups, young scientists design, build, and test crew exploration vehicles using some creativity, teamwork, and...
Learning Express
501 Writing Prompts
Never again will you need to worry about coming up with a writing prompt! This packet contains, as it says, 501 prompts that are suitable for fourth graders on up. The prompts are paired into four categories (persuasive, expository,...
Scholastic
Step-by-Step Strategies for Teaching Expository Writing
A carefully crafted, logically organized, 128-page packet is an excellent addition to your unit on expository writing.
US Department of Education
A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address provides the text for a series of close reading exercises that model for instructors how carefully crafted guiding questions can help readers think critically about what they read, thus developing...
Odell Education
Building Evidence-Based Arguments: "Cuplae poena par esto: Let the punishment fit the crime."
Should a criminal's punishment match the crime? An argumentative writing plan explores this question as class members investigate a variety of mixed-medium sources by experts in the field, form evidence-based claims, and support them...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Insects Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
A read-aloud anthology explores the world of bees, wasps, beetles, termites, ants, fireflies, and more. Scholars listen to stories and discuss topics and practice word work. Extension opportunities keep the learning going in and out of...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Second Grade Skills Unit 6: The War of 1812
An English language arts unit closely examines spelling, grammar, reading, and writing skills. Scholars practice spelling patterns and tricky words. A read-aloud details the War of 1812 and introduces adverbs, and a close reading looks...
Curated OER
Visit to Ackland Art Museum (African Masks Exhibit)
Second graders observe and describe the similarities and differences in the African Mask exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum. They use describing words to express the feelings of the masks.
Curated OER
Rock Art Stories
Young scholars examine different types of rock art. They analyze them to try to figure out the meaning of the art. They create their own rock art that tells a story. They share their creation with the class.
Curated OER
A Journey To Africa: Art And Artifacts
Students create a multimedia presentation based on a piece of African Art. They use the art piece to demonstrate the culture and ceremonies of the area in which it was produced. They research facts for a Power Point, write a poem...