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Publishing an Alphabet Book
Students research, write and publish an A,B,C book based on research of their own.
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Mix and Match Poetry
Third graders compare boring and vivid words: adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. They list them and come up with 10 vivid words on cards. They shuffle all the cards and use 10 to write "vivid" poetry.
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Learning Words
Students listen to Jane Yolen's, All Those Secrets of the World. They engage in activities to find word meanings without using a dictionary. They practice using a vocabulary mapping handout.
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First Class Mail
Students read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and write a friendly letter to Elizabeth George Speare, the author, discussing their points of interest in the novel with her.
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Learning New Words
Young scholars, working in groups, make as many words as possible in a given time, using flash cards that contain prefixes, words, and definitions. They chose group roles and participate in a numbers of time rounds of this activities.
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The Poet's Message-"The Colored Soldier" by Langston Hughes
Young scholars analyze the poem, "The Colored Soldier" by Langston Hughes to gain a greater experience of how poets use language to create meaning, influence thinking and thus become pioneers of change in American society. They work on...
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Begining Reading: Antonyms
Students create and play a game called Antonym Match-up. They create twenty cards with ten pairs of antonyms. In pairs, They mix up the cards and compete to see who can match all of the pairs the fastest. A video segment from the...
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Glossary, Index, and Table of Contents
Fourth graders use two separate sources to learn about index, glossary, and table of contents usage. In this library lesson, 4th graders use two books, Learning About Weather with Graphic Organizers, and The World Almanac for Kids, to...
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Grammar and Mechanics Review
Students review and edit writing pieces for grammar and mechanics. They view sentences and discuss how they feel about them. They collaborate in small groups to revise and edit sentences and present them to the class.
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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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Color My World Grey and Blue
Can colors help to convey a mood in writing? Explore this question with your class using the songs "Grey Street" by the Dave Matthews Band and "Blu is a Mood" by Blu Cantrell. After analyzing the effect of the color words in these songs...
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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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A Twist On Teaching Affixes
Engaging your class in prefix and suffix instruction with these helpful ideas.
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Introducing the Incredible RBT-2000
Fourth graders construct a miniature robot using recyclable materials. They write a descriptive explanation from the robot's point of view explaining how it aid in protecting the environment.
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Which One Doesn't Belong?
Third graders identify words that are related with 80% accuracy. Given a list of four vocabulary words, 3rd graders identify specific relationships between three of the four words. They also identify which of the four words are not...
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Publishing a Group Book
Students examine various alphabet books. They write several sentences for their assigned letter of the alphabet, type them onto a word processing program, and create an illustration for a class alphabet book.
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The Class Garden Essay
Fifth graders use a class garden as inspiration for a specific writing assignment. They conduct research into different types of flowers in photo images taken with a digital camera. Students write a creative essay and draw a picture to...
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Help! I Need Some Editing
Students write their own story using as much descriptive language as they can. They peer edit each other's stories and create illustrations to accompany their writings. They place their story in a booklet and give it to a needy recepient.
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Euro English
Eighth graders read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings. They create a paragraph of their own using Euro English and ask fellow students to translate to standard...
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Look It Up!
Sixth graders improve their writing skills by finding, defining, and correctly using new and interesting vocabulary words. Groups of students work together to find, define, and use in sentences ten words with which they are all unfamiliar.
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A Study of Japan with the Haiku of Basho
Sixth graders explore haiku poetry and the works of the Japanese poet Basho. They review characteristics of haiku poetry and other forms of poetry. After they write three or more haiku poems, they illustrate one of them and share with...
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Brain Break: Vocabulary and Context Clues
Young scholars utilize various sources to build and refine their vocabulary skills. They work together to solve a crypto-quote and daily puzzle from the newspaper.
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Re-Name That Tune: A Vocabulary Activity
Students build vocabulary skills by rewriting the names of some popular holiday songs, and create a fun "Holiday Tune" bulletin board display.
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What is Your Story?
Pupils listen to Picnic In October and Memory Coat to explore the concept of memoirs. They interview a family member and write a personal memoir that reflects their own family history.