Wish for the Future
Wish for the Future
What would be your class's ideal world 30 years in the future? What about 100 years? Use a series of activities to discuss globalization, sustainability, scientific contributions to society, and the global community of which your...
Curated OER
A Moment When My Life Changed
Students recognize symbols in a work of art, analyze composition of picture by Hollis Sigler, and plan and execute compositions that successfully tell stories, primarily with symbols.
Curated OER
Painters as Authors
Second graders explore artists as authors. They discuss the stories that their pictures tell. Students describe what story they think the artist is trying to tell in their pictures. Students search the Internet and choose a piece of...
Curated OER
Introducing Tolkien and His Words
Students identify and describe the types of narratives that made Tolkien the writer he was. In groups, they examine different myths and folktale motifs. They discuss what Tolkien meant by "faerie" and "eucatastrophe." As a class, they...
Curated OER
Literacy & Art: The Story behind the Quilt
Students examine the many ways quilts were used to chronicle the history and experiences of African slaves and African-Americans in America. They analyze a story quilt using the elements of storytelling, then create a class quilt.
Curated OER
Retelling Nursery Rhymes
Fourth graders explore language arts by reciting a famous nursery rhyme to their classroom. In this oral storytelling activity, 4th graders read the story "The Three Little Pigs" and identify the characters, setting and story. Students...
Curated OER
American Revolutionary War: Two Sides...Two Perspectives
Pupils investigate the American Revolutionary War era from the perspective of Britain and the American colonists by researching causes, effects, events and people. They compare the views of the Colonists, and the British and recognize...
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
Dream Catchers
Students create Native American dream catchers to represent the Native American culture. After reading and discussing the origin of the Dream cather, they begin to construct their dream catchers using wire hoops, thread, beads, and...
Curated OER
Pizzazz!...Basket Stories
Students discuss the use of connectors and sequence words. They discuss common story endings and beginnings. Students brainstorm ideas for a creative story and compose a story for the rest of the class.
Curated OER
Pizzazz!...Chain Stories
Students compose a short story working with partners. They create a beginning, middle, and an ending. Students brainstorm with their partners and create a creative short story.
Curated OER
The Artist As Storyteller
Learners practice the art of storytelling by examining scroll writing techniques of Asia and applying them to a monthly story of their own classroom. This lesson is in two parts (Part II continues throughout the school year).
Curated OER
From Memoir to Expository Writing with Advanced English Language Learners
Learners create a memoir. They compare writing with story telling and personal experience. They analyze how they learn, so they can begin to look critically at their own learning.
Curated OER
Story Pyramids
Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...
Curated OER
Pizzaz! Magazinie Marvels. People Interested in Zippy & Zany Zcribbling.
Students explore creative writing. Students select pictures from old magazines. In groups, students receive a folder containing pictures. They create a story based upon the pictures given.
Curated OER
Richie's Rocket
Fourth graders, while working in centers read Richie's Rocket by Joan Anderson, and then create a puzzle using ideas, emotions, and experiences from the story. In addition, they write specific definitions for certain words, use those...
Curated OER
Richie's Rocket
Fourth graders, after reading with intonation and expression the book, "Richie's Rocket," by Joan Anderson, circulate in centers to create a puzzle with emotions and experiences from the ideas in the story, write the definition of words...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Arabic Poetry: Guzzle a Ghazal!
Students research the evolution and cultural significance of the Arabic ghazal form of poetry. They, in groups, compose an original ghazal poem and read it aloud to the class.
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...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Painted Story Quilt
Creating story quilts is a great way to combine art, social studies and literature. Kids select a story, a published one or one of their own, to illustrate, paint on a canvas square, embellish, and mount on a felt backing.
Curated OER
Scripting the Past: Exploring Women's History Through Film
Explore women's history through films and filmmaking. An innovative research project prompts class members to create their own screenplay about a figure in women's history. After outlining their characters, settings, and plots, young...
Vanderbilt University
Stories from the Panama Canal
The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...
Curated OER
Painted Story Quilt
Emmulate some of Faith Ringgolds famous painted story quilts in your classroom. Have your class choose a story or you choose one for the whole class to portray. They will select their favorite scene to paint onto their story quilt. What...