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African Americans Seen Through the Eyes of the Newsreel Cameraman
Fifth graders learn about this history of jazz music. In this musical influences instructional activity, 5th graders read God Bless the Childand listen to a recording of it. Students create a KWL chart on jazz and early 1900s music and...
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How Do Plants Grow?
Students investigate plant growth. In this plant growth lesson, students investigate what would happen to plants if they did not have water and sunlight. Students conduct experiments to determine what plants need. Students create a...
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Book Reports Rethought
Students write unique book reports. In this book report assignment, students choose a creative way from a teacher-provided list to demonstrate that they read a book.
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Nibble, Nibble, Little Mouse
Students complete activities to analyze points of view in different texts. For this point of view lesson, students read Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Circle and discuss the points of view. Students choose a character from the story and...
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Punctuation Takes a Vacation
Students read Punctuation Takes a Vacation. In this punctuation lesson, students discuss punctuation marks and how they are used. Students write postcards using a punctuation mark and students guess which punctuation mark it...
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Meriether Lewis and William Clark: Who are these Men?
Students investigate the Lewis & Clark Expedition. In this history lesson, students identify the importance of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, as well as the events leading up to it, then create a poster which depicts the...
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Topic Sentences and Supporting Facts
Third graders write a paragraph. In this topic sentences instructional activity students are read the book The Matzah Man: A Passover Story and try Matzah bread in class. Afterward the students write a detailed paragraph about Passover.
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Runaway Ads
Fourth graders distinguish between primary and secondary sources while creating an underground railroad presentation. In this underground railroad lesson, 4th graders research the underground railroad using copies of primary and...
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Classifying Defending Information about Main Idea
Students read and highlight important information gathered from text. In this reading strategies lesson, students define classify and then classify the important information they find. Students share and reflect on their answers.
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"The Westing Game" Activities and Lesson Plans
You can use a novel, such as "The Westing Game", to teach reading concepts and skills in a way that keeps students interested.
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Apples! Apples! Apples!
Students explore the life of Johnny Appleseed as they create a MediaBlender project of Johnny's journey through the Midwest territory, and compare and contrast items he brought on his journey with items students would bring with them on...
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SEQUENCING A STORY WITH PICTURES: TEXT AND TALK
Third graders create a graphic organizer. They draw illustrations that show the beginning, middle and end of a trip they took to visit a friend or a relative. They write age-appropriate text to accompany each drawing. They tell...
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Digital Poetry Books
Learners, after reviewing the writing process and assessing how to use a digital camera to take creative photos, create a Digital Poetry Book. They incorporate the use of Microsoft Photo Draw and Publisher for the creation of their...
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Mixed Media Landscape Design
Seventh graders create mixed media representations of landscape designs in Africa and Asia. The lesson is great for cross-curricular projects with the Social Sciences and/or Literature, or can be used as a self-contained project. ...
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Christmas Tree Shaped Poems
Students think about ways in which they can spread joy during the holiday season. They create poems in the shape of a Christmas tree. Pupils use formatting tools in Microsoft Word to format the text of the poem. Students discuss ways...
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Music-Follow the Drinking Gourd
Fourth graders study the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd." For this dance lesson, 4th graders listen to the book by the same name, listen to the music, and in small groups create a short dance illustrating a stanza from the song.
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Human Rights Arts Project and Research Paper
Students examine human rights abuses in thirty countries, specifically explore abuses in Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime, research one country with significant human rights abuses, use Preamble to U.S. Constitution as measure of...
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A Day in the Life
Students research questions related to sports medicine. They write an essay from the questions and create professional email accounts to email a professional in their field of interest. In addition, they interview their professional and...
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Random Album Covers
Students design a random album cover. In this album design lesson, students display their photo manipulation skills as they make a cover for an album. They examine covers of albums from classic bands before designing their own.
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Nominate a Classmate
Students study what it means to be good citizens. In this government lesson, students nominate a classmate for being a good citizen and write a persuasive letter to the principal persuading the principal to make that person the citizen...
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The Elf Project
Sixth graders create elves in order to respond to Santa letters from first graders.
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Be a Weather Newscaster
Ninth graders, in groups, create and videotape a news broadcast. Each group researches, develops and writes a weather forecast, a commentary on an environmental concern, a school activity and a commercial.
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Adventure Story Starters
In this writing worksheet, students read 6 story starters which would make interesting beginnings for adventure writing. Students choose one or more prompts, write the stories and evaluate themselves using the rubric.
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Judging a Book by Its Cover
Students explore the relationship between the form of books and the content inside. In this book exploration lesson, students use a piece of their creative writing as inspiration; they author a written book and design a cover that...