Curated OER
The Renaissance Person: composing an Extended Definition Essay
Young scholars recognize the characteristics of an extended definition. In this Renaissance person lesson, students read a collection of short stories. Young scholars research the definitions of Renaissance and Renaissance person. ...
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Chinese Mythology
Seventh graders examine creation myths of China, discuss how myths reflect Chinese culture, differentiate between Chinese and Greek creation myths, and explore place of myths in Chinese culture as compared to their place in other...
Curated OER
Altered Books
Students transform a discarded book into a creative art work of art that encompasses a theme and utilizes a variety of media and techniques.
Curated OER
Fish Book Report
Students use previously prepared book reports about fish themed books to make a shoebox float that displays the theme of the book. Shoe boxes are decorated colorfully, using dolls or stuffed animals as the book character. They create a...
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Students work in groups to imagine, research and simulate a dinner party involving an author, a fictional character, and a significant historical figure as dinner guests. The activity uses Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the time...
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Fairness Metaphor
Pupils write a metaphor. In this descriptive writing instructional activity, students define metaphor. Pupils come up with a creative metaphor to describe their feelings about fair practices related to music downloads.
Novelinks
The Good Earth: Biopoem Strategy
To gain a better understanding of characters in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, kids create a biopoem for one of her characters.
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Out of the Dust: Biopoem
As part of their study of Out of the Dust, readers create a biopoem for one of the characters in Karen Hesse's 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel.
Mississippi Whole School Initiative
Dream Big...With Your Eyes Wide Open
For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...
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Egg Carton Stories
Students create stories with better structure when they are able to focus on its characters, setting, and plot. Teacher creates settings, character, and problem cartons with information written on strips of paper.
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Ecology
Students personify ecology vocabulary and write a one-act play using their knowledge of ecology as the basis for characters, conflict, setting and plot.
Curated OER
Connecting Characters and Themes in Julius Caesar
Fourth graders prepare for the literary analysis. They locate, interpret, evaluate and analyze the relationship between a character and the theme. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders write topic and detail sentences, then correctly put...
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Gingerbread Baby Language Arts/Grammer #6
Learners are read the story "Gingerbread Baby". They draw and cut out the characters from the story and create a mobile to hang from their classroom ceiling. They write a sentence using a verb on the back.
Curated OER
Harriet The Spy
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
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Comic Book or Comic Strip Design
Students design an original cartoon character. They explain the creative process and development of a cartoon from brainstorming to final draft and study different types of cartooning. Use the correct terminology associated with cartooning
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Nursery Rhyme Mania
Students become familiar with many different nursery rhymes. They use nursery rhymes for a variety of creative activities including writing, singing, poetry and acting.
Curated OER
It's Written in the Stars!
Children create narrative accounts about their character traits, illustrate the constellation of each sign of the Zodiac, and write and illustrate their own creative myths about an original "Zodiac Sign". They use the computer as a...
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Hairy Monster Stories
Students work together to create a hairy monster. They discuss the elements of a character sketch. They use a rubric to guide them as they write a sketch of their hairy monster.
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Art as Storyteller
Students examine how paintings tell stories. They read biographies about artists, analyze paintings, research and write the art history of a painting, write a creative story based on the painting, and create a painting in the artist's...
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Literary Odyssey
Students read and compare excerpts from The Odyssey and The Adventures of Telemachus to create their own story based on a secondary character. In this literary analysis lesson, students read and compare the excerpts from the texts....
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Bunnicula
Young scholars create a dictionary of vocabulary after reading a story. Individually, they create a story web making sure to include all of the basic story elements. They also create a timeline and write a book report of all important...
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Design a Book Cover
Class members take on the role of graphic designer and craft a cover for a book they are reading. Individuals formulate a proposal outlining the images they will use to not only grab the interest of readers, but hint at the mood and...
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Animal Story: An Informational Narrative
Students use the computer to research information and publish creative narrative stories about the life of a specific Everglades animal. This lesson uses many educational, computer programs including the iLife suite, publishing...
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Create An Ending
Students create a new ending for a familiar story that stand alone with a clear beginning, middle and end. As a class, students review a familiar text focusing on plot and character development. In small groups, students work...