Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices
The Right Number of Elephants
How can you tell if a number of items is reasonable? Combine math and language arts with a fun instructional activity based on Jeff Shepard's The Right Number of Elephants. After reading the book, kids discuss amounts of other...
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Water/Agua
Third graders complete water activities including vocabulary, visualization and performing activities. They study water vocabulary words in both English and Spanish. They listen to a read aloud of Jane Yolen's, Letting Swift River Go,...
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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.
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You Flattened Me
Students listen to a read aloud of Flat Stanley. They draw flat self-portraits, e-mail themselves, along with a letter to a buddy.
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Native Americans of Our Region
Young scholars describe the life of a Native American tribe native to their area. They form small groups and visit stations in the classroom to read about various Native American tribes. They write journal entries and draw pictures of...
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Drive the Data Derby
Three days of race car design and driving through the classroom while guessing probability could be a third graders dream. Learn to record car speed, distances traveled, and statistics by using calculation ranges using the mean, median,...
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Tell Me More
Fifth graders demonstrate research techniques in addition to endeavoring to display focus and stay on topic. Using books and stories, they gather, organize, and share information about a topic. Additionally, they explain to the class...
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Weather
Sixth graders hear the book "Tornadoes" by Peter Murray, they use a hot list to research information on tornadoes. Then they create a group PowerPoint on the information they have gained on their research. They share these PowerPoint...
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Acid Rain
Create a simulation of acid rain in your classroom with lemon juice and bean plants to help kids study the effects of pollution on plants. In addition, learners will listen to a story and write responses based on guiding questions.
Learning to Give
The Beginning of the Storm
Introduce readers to Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry with a lesson that sets the context for the novel. Class members research the bigotry in Mississippi during the Great Depression and identify examples in the story of how...
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Pregnancy, Day 1: The Developing Baby
Twenty-six pages of good information about pregnancy. Pictures and descriptions describe the moment the sperm and egg unite, and there are worksheets that students can complete. This is a pretty comprehensive lesson for one day. It might...
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Visual Impairment Based on a Children's Book
Students explore practical information about visual impairment. They explore about the uses of seeing eye cane. Students explore the postive aspects about how people fucntion in spite of handicaps. They explore about helping others.
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Picture This: Visualization
Sixth graders practice visualizing and understanding that visualization is an important comprehension strategy. They share their visualization of the story through original artwork and determine that ideas, and cultural settings can...
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Picture This
Students explore finding facts from the Internet to create a nonfiction story. For this writing lesson, students fill out KWL charts and do internet research about the given topic of spiders. Students then create and illustrate...
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Picture a Character
How would Jean-Etiénne Liotard paint the characters from "The Little Mermaid?" What would the main character from "The Little Match Girl" look like from Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes' point of view? After examining various paintings...
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Sketch It to Stretch It!
Third graders listen to a read aloud of a chapter of a book while creating a mental image that shows comprehension. They draw pictures of their mental images. Next, they read a passage of a book silently and sketch the images they create...
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Learning About Occupations
Students examine the occupations of a variety of community helpers such as doctors, policemen, firemen, nurses, and others by listening to a read aloud. They find pictures in magazines to glue to a classroom mural of occupations.
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The Big E!
Students study the correspondence ea=/E/ by examining picture cards that show examples of items with the long "e" sound. They listen to a read aloud of Nancy Shaw's, Sheep Out to Eat before writing words that contain the "ea"...
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Then What Happened?
Students complete activities about the story "Diary of a Worm", by Doreen Cronin. In this reading comprehension lesson, students make predictions and apply prior knowledge about the topic of the story. They actively listen as the book is...
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Colors, Characters, & Clues
Students investigate inferences. They define inference, view a Powerpoint presentation, answer questions about a picture book, and identify clues throughout the story as examples of inferences.
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Family
Students listen to a teacher read aloud of a book about families before discussing what a family is to them. They discuss how families can be the same or different, who they are made of, and what their traditions might be. They draw a...
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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Learners read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and read companion poems, make a bear book, blend sounds, and more. For this guided reading lesson plan, students take 5 days to read the book.
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We're Going On A Leaf Hunt
Students read the story We're Going on a Leaf Hunt and read companion stories, make leaves, work with rhyming and word families, and more. For this reading lesson plan, students take 5 days to read the book.
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Four Seasons
Students who are special needs and early elementary students study facts about the four seasons. They listen to read aloud books about each season before completing associated graphic organizers. They illustrate pocket books to hold all...