Curated OER
Character Study
Third graders work in pairs to choose two characters and find their similarities and differences. In this character lesson, 3rd graders compare characters by their actions and attributes. Students individually complete a graphic...
Orange County Department of Education
Poppa's New Pants
Angela Shelf Medearis' Poppa's New Pants provides third graders with an opportunity to stitch together their own narrative filled with sensory details. After reading the story and noting the sensory and concrete details in the tale that...
Curated OER
Make a Memory with Movie Maker
There is nothing more exciting than allowing learners to express themselves through a creative medium. In groups, they write narrative stories, focusing on building a strong storyline and dialogue. Next, they transform their stories into...
Curated OER
Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One...
Explore language arts by reading two similar stories in order to compare and contrast them in class. Young readers read two Aunt Isabel books, by Kate Duke, and discuss the main characters, plot, and setting. They complete a graphic...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Visualization
What do you see? Young reader tap into the visualization process as they listen to or read a fiction story and fill out a graphic organizer. Model this first with a think-aloud, showing scholars how you visualize a familiar story. For...
EngageNY
Close Reading of The Boy Who Loved Words: How Do People Build Their Word Power?
Third graders practice the skills of identifying the main message in a story, describing the main character, and sorting the key details of a story into specific categories. The story they read is, The Boy Who Loved Words. Using a...
Curated OER
Setting the Story: Techniques for Creating a Realistic Setting
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...
Leadership Challenge
Inspire Students Today to Make a Difference in the Future
Your search for a year's worth of leadership lessons is over! A lesson in a character education series provides a full two semesters of inspiring leadership activities. The resource includes individual and group challenges to ensure a...
Scholastic
Dr. Seuss Extension Activities
Extend the exhilarating learning experience of Dr. Seuss with five activities designed to reinforce literacy skills—site word reading, dialogue writing, story mapping, and more! Featured stories include The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, The...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Mrs Twit
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second instructional activity in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly thoughts, but...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: Personal Phrenology Chart During Reading Activity
Phrenology, the belief that parts of your brain control certain aspects of your personality, is described in Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science. While we now know much more about the brain, learners use this idea...
Curated OER
Story Writing
Young scholars examine story writing. In this writing lesson, students discuss the structure of a story and create a story using suspense and character description with dialogue.
Curated OER
Building a Literature Pyramid
Students create a literature pyramid. They review and discuss their assessment task and rubric and select the literature for their pyramid. They read the literary selection and complete a pyramid sheet for one of the four literary...
Curated OER
Building Two Literature Pyramids
Learners create literature pyramids. They read selections of various societies, eras, and ideas. They complete two pyramid sheets for the same literary element including either plot, character, setting, or theme. They color-code their...
Curated OER
The Gingerbread Story
Students explore storytelling by reading a classic book. In this story structure lesson plan, students read the story The Gingerbread Man and identify the characters, settings and plot. Students answer reading comprehension questions...
Curated OER
Multimedia Urban Stories: "This is who I am"
Students create a photo essay. For this lesson encouraging self-expression, students view and reflect upon photo essays. Then, they go out into the community and create their own photo essay complete with captions. Students publish their...
California Department of Education
Plagiarism is Stealing!
Stop, thief! Do your pupils understand the consequences of plagiarism? Lesson three of six in a series of college and career readiness activities demonstrates the dangers of taking credit for someone else's work. Learners engage in...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Heroes
Three creative activities follow reading a fiction and nonfiction book about heroes. Scholars build hero action figures out of clay for make-believe play, explain in written form how they show bravery, kindness, patience, thoughtfulness,...
Curated OER
Self Discipline: Building Character
There is not a clear purpose for this resource. It seems to be partly an exploration of self-discipline and a discussion of the myth The Dancing Horses of Sybaris. If a class was studying this myth, it could be altered, and corrected in...
Curated OER
Dr. King's Leadership and Character
Focusing on Martin Luther King Jr, this instructional activity explores the qualities of a leader. First, learners listen to a story about Ruby Bridges. Then, they discuss the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, they discuss the...
Curated OER
Summarizing Story Events
Here is a way to build your pupils' public speaking abilities. The lesson describes a reader's report chair, which is used each week by a student who has just finished reading a book. The featured reader sits in the chair and talks about...
Curated OER
Making Magical Creatures Talk
Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.
Curated OER
Predicting Actions
Analyze and predict a character's actions in a text by reading the book Julius, Baby of the World and discussing the character's personality. Individuals use a character action chart to record their actions throughout the story, and then...
Bowland
Pointzero: Confined
Groups plan their escape carefully. Three three-tiered puzzles help a story character escape their situation, each involving integer sequences, transformations, and geometric constructions. The teacher resource includes slides and...