National Education Association
Read Across America Classroom Activity Guide
Celebrate the legendary Dr. Seuss on Read Across America Day with a plethora of activities set to five stories—The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, and Green Eggs and Ham. Activities include...
Curated OER
Roger Robot
Read the story of Roger Robot included in the lesson and have kids move creatively by interpreting how a robot might move. Read a part of the story, then stop and let the class act it out. Read some more, and let them move some more....
Curated OER
Lesson: Urs Fischer: Reviving the Past Art Movements
Seven major abstract art movements are analyzed by learners in groups. Each group analyzes various works by determining which work belongs to which movement. They then read Flatland, engage in an art and literary analysis discussion,...
Curated OER
Telling Stories Through Dance
Examine the movement of characters in the story, Caps for Sale. Using the text, pupils invent gestures and movements for some of the actions and major events. They practice retelling a story by using the movements they developed. They...
ARKive
Adaptations for Movement
What animals are best suited for moving around a rainforest, or a desert? Design your own animal species based on a particular habitat, focusing on the characteristics it will need for optimal movement. Great as a group lesson or...
Crafting Freedom
Man in the Middle: Thomas Day and the Free Black Experience
How did free and enslaved blacks work to craft freedom for themselves and their families before the Civil War? Young historians read about the life of Thomas Day, a free black man who also owned slaves and had abolitionist ties in...
Curated OER
Dance: Discovering the Culture of Gullah
It's wonderful to see a lesson that incorporates art, movement, and writing. These three forms of creative expression are explored as learners dance to music from the Gullah people of West Africa. They analyze several paintings, listen...
Curated OER
I Have A Dream - Pastel Drawings
Discuss the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, explore figurative language, and read about Harriet Tubman and her courage. After the discussion, learners analyze painter/author Jacob Lawrence's use of...
Curated OER
Flip and Flop: An Adaptation Through Dancing Echoes with Shapes and Locomotor Movement
Dancers practice echoing through dance. They listen to a story "Flip and Flop" and then are put into pairs. One partner is Flip, while the other is Flop. Flip creates a shape by dancing, and Flop, the other student, echoes that shape by...
Curated OER
Movement Adventure
Pupils discover movement and pantomime techniques in this adventurous story telling experience for kindergarten. Assessment is done through a short question and answer session and students drawing the "adventure".
Curated OER
All About Me - 2
Students recognize beat vs. no beat, sing and improvise on do, me, so, and la, and perform creative movement to music in this Kindergarten Music lesson. Emphasis is placed upon the Wiggy Wiggy Wiggles CD and creative movement exercises.
Curated OER
The Teacher Directs: The Experience of Movement in Literature
Experience movement in literature. High schoolers are introduced to new vocabulary related to drama and theatre. In groups, they use a piece of literature and develop their own skit to act out in front of the class. As a class, they are...
Curated OER
Trouble With Trolls
Students listen to The Trouble With Trolls and discuss fables. In this story elements lesson plan, students work on reading skills. Students participate in different reading activities.
Curated OER
Picture Perfect: Reading and Narrative Writing
Students will create a fictional narrative based on the cover of a picture book provided by the teacher. For this narrative writing lesson students incorporate all story elements and use strategies to engage the reader.
Curated OER
Activity Plan Mixed Ages: Do the Animal Dance!
Young scholars create a dance based on animal movements. In this kinesthetic lesson plan, the students will read and imitate animals in a creative way and share their dances with the group. The lesson includes a take-home activity and...
Curated OER
Creating Sentences with Onomatopoeia Words
Third graders create sentences. In this sentences lesson students use onomatopoeia words to write sentences. They make a movement to match their onomatopoeia word. The students discuss why an author might use onomatopoeia in their writing.
Curated OER
Civil Services
Students investigate important themes, figures, and events of the Civil Rights Movement. They create a class mural that demonstrates their understanding of the continuing impact of the movement on American society.
Curated OER
Creative and Cultural Dance
Students study dance as a way to communicate and represent oneself in the world. They perform and articulate movement skills from the "dancer's toolbox". They solve problems in dance using the "dancer's toolbox" composing, witnessing,...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Poem
Fifth graders write poetry using imagery and practice poetry presentation. In this poetry lesson, 5th graders listen as the teacher reads a humorous poem using different voice modulations and presentation techniques. They discuss the...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: Analyzing the Author’s Point of View: Relief Camps
We're halfway there ... what a relief! Scholars read an excerpt from a primary source about the relief camps associated with the1906 San Francisco earthquake. Next, they complete a mid-unit assessment, answering short-answer and...
Curated OER
The Joy of the Body
Students participate in a read aloud of the poem, "My Body" then perform several different movement activities such as a finger play, a letter dance, and a body puzzle. They then create a drawing of their body using a prepared outline.
Curated OER
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
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...
Curated OER
Black Music: Its Message and Meaning
Students develop an appreciation for modern black music from a historical, political and lyrical perspective. They examine the political and the historical surge of the civil rights movement of the 1960's and how this surge directly or...