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Reading and Spelling Activity
In this Language Arts instructional activity, students read a short text and answer 8 questions. For example, students choose the correct spelling of the word excited.
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Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
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“Home on the Range”
Fourth graders analyze the song "Home on the Range" and identify its meaning and setting. In this timeline and retelling instructional activity, 4th graders use dictionaries to find definitions of unfamiliar words, create a...
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Explore Chapters 1 - 5
Learners preview the novel, "Dragonwings," by Laurence Yep, make connections between the novel previewed and their prior knowledge, other texts, and the world. They utilize graphic representations including charts, graphs, pictures, and...
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Anne Frank and Louisiana - There is a Connection!
How is Louisiana connected to the Holocaust? After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders complete a research report about a survivor of the Holocaust who currently resides in Louisiana. Though the idea is a good way to...
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Learning Vocabulary by Using Reference Materials
Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...
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Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 10-12
As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...
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Homophone Cartoons
A terrific activity on homophones awaits your youngsters. First, pupils access a website that contains lists of homophones. Then, it's time to get creative! Everyone gets a piece of poster board and they create a homophone cartoon -...
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Reference Source Four Square
Fourth graders play a four-square game on the playground while reviewing four main references -- dictionary, atlas, thesaurus, and encyclopedia. Students must throw the playground ball in the correct "square" identifying the correct...
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Nurture Poetry
Students create a poetry book. In this poetry instructional activity, students write a cinquain poem, name poem, haiku, limerick, and preposition poem.
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Sing for Your State: Tennessee quarter reverse
What's the connection between singing and a state quarter? Creative thinking and observation, perhaps. Pupils will observe and take note of all the characteristics found on the Tennessee state quarter. They will then use their...
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Writing Myths I
Explain a natural phenomenon in an original myth. After researching the phenomenon they have chosen, young readers use factual information to include in their myth. They find synonyms and new phrases to create vivid images as they...
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Beginning, Middle or End
Second graders work with a partner. In this library skills lesson, 2nd graders watch a demonstration on how to find a word in a dictionary. Students practice finding words in the dictionary with a partner.
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Down the Knoll Without the Water
Young scholars use a thesaurus to find synonyms for selected words in fairy tales.
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Encyclopedia Introduction
Second graders demonstrate how to use reference materials. In this library media lesson, 2nd graders are introduced to the encyclopedia and are shown how to use the encyclopedia as a reference. Students use encyclopedias to complete a...
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Nouns in a Story
Students, assessing a variety of formatting tools with Microsoft Word, utilize a bank of vocabulary words to make a personal dictionary of nouns. They classify nouns for people, places, things and ideas and separate them into common and...
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Dragonwings: Explore Chapters 1-5
If you are beginning Laurence Yep's Dragonwings, this will provide activities for the first five chapters. The objectives include making connections to oneself and the world, organizing information and events, vocabulary acquisition,...
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Become an Expert
Young scholars are assigned a separate species of plant or bird to research. Using a worksheet, they are responsible for finding a variety of information on their assigned plant or bird. They also complete a mini-poster and give an oral...
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Desert Plant Detectives
Students examine and categorize plants in their own schoolyard desert garden and then observe other plant areas of their schoolyard.
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"Spelldown" by Becky Mushko
Learners read Spelldown, by Becky Mushko and consider how it portrays the Appalachian community. They define and discuss vocabulary presented in the story and write a comparison/contrast paper analyzing two of the story's characters. The...
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Children Around The World
Students read a multicultural book called "This Is the Way We Go to School" by Edith Baer and Steve Bjorhman. They become culturally aware of the different nationalities around the world and different ways that they may do things on a...
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A Twist On Teaching Affixes
Engaging your class in prefix and suffix instruction with these helpful ideas.
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Locating Information Quickly in a Variety of Resources
Here is a lesson which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to find information...
Virginia Department of Education
The Writing Process for Persuasive Writing
Get your junior high writers stimulated with the strategies and ideas available in this activity. Learners discuss and debate controversial subjects, and outline their reasons with an online graphic organizer (link included) that creates...