Curated OER
Become a Word Detective
Students investigate the origin of words in the English language. In this language history lesson, students examine words by breaking them down and finding their roots. Students analyze words from a poem and complete a word...
Curated OER
Dictionary Detective
Build your class's dictionary skills with this fun game. The activity allows learners to better understand dictionary usage, spelling, and vocabulary. By the end of this activity, they should be skilled word finders.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Early English Settlements History Detectives
Young historians play the role of history detectives as they investigate some primary source texts and images related to the early colonization of America, The Jamestown Settlement, and the Mayflower Compact.
Curated OER
Irregular Word Fluency, Word Hunt Tally
Play games with your young word learners. They participate in games to develop word skills, working with a partner on a word hunt. As they work, they keep a tally of how many times they find their word in three minutes. They use...
Curated OER
Mystery Words
In this language arts lesson, 8th graders verify the meaning of a word in its context, even when its meaning is not directly stated. After a class discussion on how to use context clues, students pairs are given a worksheet of "mystery...
Curated OER
Spelling Detective
Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and become a spelling detective! Scholars hunt down the spelling errors in a short passage of a high-interest current events text. Here is a great way to develop editing and reading skills.
Curated OER
Making Words
Third graders spell words and define homophone. In this making words lesson, 3rd graders decipher words from letter strips in an effort to identify the "secret word". Students use a set of letters to spell different words.
Teach Engineering
Tell Me Doc—Will I Get Cancer?
Can you beat the odds of cancer? In the first installment of a seven-part series, future biomedical engineers consider how to detect and diagnose cancer. An article on biosensors provides useful information toward this goal.
Curated OER
Iggy the Penguin
Take your young word detectives on a hunt for the /i/ sound. Use the tongue twister about Iggy the penguin to help learners identify the target sound. Then learners are given several words, and they have to use their detective skills to...
Curated OER
ABC DETECTIVES
Learners alphabetize words according to the first letter while pretending to be detectives with magnifying glasses. They also work on their social skills and character development when working with their teams and partners.
Curated OER
Wetland Plant Detectives
Sixth graders identify plants in the wetlands. In this plant detectives instructional activity, 6th graders complete a scavenger hunt on a local reserve, record observations, and respond in their journals.
Curated OER
Many Meanings
Second graders listen to the book, Play Ball Amelia Bedelia, and find words in the story that have more than one meaning. In this language arts lesson, they write four words that have multiple meanings on the worksheet embedded in...
Curated OER
Word Detectives!
Students recognize the short vowel e in written and spoken language. Through matching activities, students discriminate the short vowel e from the long vowel o. They associate the phoneme with its letter representation and identify the...
Macmillan Education
The Tell-Tale Heart
Rather than who done it, the mystery literary detectives have to solve as they examine the evidence found in Edgar Allan Poe's famous "The Tell-Tale Heart" is why did he do it?
PBS
Family History: On Your Honor
What is your history? Scholars work with their own families to create a unique story of the courage and bravery of their ancestors. The third and final part of the series culminates in a creation of not just a family history, but a...
Curated Video
Privacy Part 2
Why is online privacy so important? Explore privacy with a group assignment for which pupils create word clouds with words they associate with privacy. A discussion and online activity follow. Learners will read articles, explore the...
Curated OER
Working Out Word Problems
Students study word problems and learn to identify key words to solve the problems. In this word problems instructional activity, students role play as detectives to find key words in addition and subtraction word problems. Students then...
Curated OER
Be a Building Detective!
Students participate in an in-depth study of a historic building in their community. They conduct a visual survey of the building, complete a worksheet, take a rubbing of the building, and research the history of the building.
Curated OER
Dental Detectives
First graders explore the theme of dental health and hygeine. They make tooth loss predictions, count lost teeth, and graph tooth loss. In addition, they listen to dental health stories, read online stories, create spreadsheets, and play...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Identity Theft and Credit Safety
Deter, detect, defect. Pupils watch a PowerPoint presentation and video about identity theft and credit card safety, taking notes to use later. Next, they develop a plan for maintaining credit safety and write an essay about the...
Curated OER
Context Clues
Students practice identifying the meanings of unknown words using context clues. In this vocabulary lesson plan, students read sentences which contain an unknown words. They will use the context of the sentence to determine the...
Curated OER
Underwater Descriptive Detectives
First graders utilize descriptive words to convey ideas in writing. After hearing the story, 'Rainbow Fish,' students create their own fish books. The books contain original writing and illustrations.
Curated OER
Cognate Detectives
Second graders examine how some root words are the same in English and Spanish. They explore cognates in Spanish and English language.
Curated OER
Detective Fiction for Remedial Readers
Eighth graders in a remedial reading class are introduced to detective fiction by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After reading about their lives and work, they define new vocabulary and practice using a guided reading...