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.
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Dream Big
Students discuss the success of privately built and flown space crafts by reading and discussing a news article. They develop adventure trip proposals to present to Sir Richard Branson. Students write essays reflecting on the importance...
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Mining For Descriptive Gold
Students describe places using language that is as vivid as possible. They will examine the writer's craft in describing a place by reading and discussing "Resurrecting the Miner's World." They will then revise their descriptive pieces...
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High Anxiety
The Learning Network section of the New York Times produces high-quality teaching materials. This issue gets middle or high schoolers reading an article about how people use art to express their response to high-stress events. They work...
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A Long Way Home
Students examine the difference between hard news and editorial writing by considering several pieces written about the Elian Gonzalez custody battle. They then craft their own hard news and editorials on the case.
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Little Cloud
Students create "little clouds" after reading the story "The Little Cloud" by Eric Carle in this cross-curricular Art and Language Arts lesson plan for the early-elementary classroom. The author suggests using this with a "Raindrop...
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Writing Traits Instruction
Students assess and critique a wide variety of writing samples for each of the traits of writing strands from literature, composition writing, reading and assessment tools. They create and design a descriptive definition piece of writing...
For the Teachers
Story Strips Sequencing
What happens next? Work on story sequence with a lesson plan that prompts kids to put a story back in order. Additionally, they discuss what would happen if one event was missing from the sequence.
Middle Tennessee State University
A House Divided: The Civil War Home Front in Tennessee
To broaden their understanding of both the short term and long terms effects of the Civil War, class groups examine primary source materials and then assume the role of a family member and draft a letter to a soldier describing life at...
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McONE Hundredth Day
Students explore the components of a calendar and counting through the preparation and celebration of the "One Hundredth Day" of school. Badges are worn and McDonald fries are enjoyed in the celebration.
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Show Some Backbone and Teach Invertebrates
Fifth graders identify two similarities and two differences between two phyla, assign fictitious invertebrate to its phylum and explain why it belongs in that grouping, and construct member of given phylum and explain why it should be...
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Harriet The Spy
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
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Technological Grand Conversations
Conduct a written literary discussion and diminish stress about public writing. Class members, already arranged into literature circles, compose and post responses to novels, signing with initials or class number. The process continues...
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Writing a Mystery Story
Students examine the elements of mystery stories and read Rage in Harlem. In reciprocal teaching groups, they discuss the author's development of the story, and complete dialectical journals.
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Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...
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Harp Of Gold
Students create "Harp" pictures using harp shapes, shoe box lids, paints, old sheet music, and inspiration from Harp music in this inter-disciplinary Art and Music lesson for the elementary classroom. Resource links are included for...
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Christmas Trolls Lesson Plan
Students love the illustrations in Jan Brett books and the story in the border of each page. In this Christmas Trolls lesson plan, students read a variety of texts, both print and non-print sources, to help give them a better...
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Eensy Weensy Spider Lesson Plan
Students create their own versions of The Eensy-Weensy Spider. In this creative writing lesson, students read The Eensy-Weensy Spider and imagine what else the spider could do. Students then draw a picture depicting the spider engaged...
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Cut-Glass Mosaic Garden Stepping Stones
Students design and create a mosaic glass collage. In this mosaic art instructional activity, students complete lessons to learn about mosaic art and design. Students watch their teacher demonstrate the project and then create their own...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
“Tell Me a Story”: Moving from Reading to Writing
Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...
Prestwick House
Vocabulary in Context: Inside the World of Wizards
Enter the world of Harry Potter and learn new vocabulary at the same time. A high-interest reading passage provides insight into the history of Harry Potter. Follow-up activities incorporate key vocabulary strategies, such as using...
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Language Arts: A Hoe-Down Wedding Invitation
Students write wedding invitations for the fairy tale, Bubba, the Cowboy Prince. Once they assess the components of the original Cinderella story, they compare and contrast it with the fractured fairy tale. Students decorate their...
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Poetry for Kids
Sixth graders be immersed indirect experiences which are opportunities for students to reflect, look back, debrief or abstract from their experiences what they have felt, and thought, and studied.
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American Robin: Eggstra! Eggstra! The Story Behind a Robin's Eggs
Pupils answer questions about robin's eggs. They read about robins, then mark up text for unfamiliar words.