Curated OER
Build Mastery: Sequencing
Writing a summary is much easier once you've laid out the sequence of events. Show readers how these two skills are intertwined using this graphic organizer. Review the meaning of sequencing first, presenting the chart and possibly...
Curated OER
Whittling Out Haiku
Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...
Curated OER
Cartography Project
A lesson involving mapping, the use of a compass, writing and following directions, and exploring the first two themes of geography is here for you. Learners create original maps that show the routes they take through their own...
Curated OER
Como Se Hace...?
Students work in groups to give step-by-step instructions to the rest of the class about an activity of interest. They write presentation proposals, research the activity and then draft and edit a presentation. Students present their...
Curated OER
Propaganda
How does word choice affect the reading of a text? Compare two headlines that were written about the same event. Is one biased? Discuss how word choice often reveals the author's feelings about a topic. Then look at different techniques...
Curated OER
Using a Graphic Organizer to Research a Question
Is Pluto still a planet? Using this popular question, kids are introduced to graphic organizers as a writing tool. As a class, they watch a demonstration on how to use them and work together with a partner to research whether Pluto is a...
Curated OER
Mystery of Mirrors: Discovery Stations
Hands-on stations in which groups of primary learners experience what mirrors can do provide opportunities for experimenting and authentic discovery. Recording their observations in complete sentences seems age-inappropriate. Drawing...
Curated OER
ASL Lesson 2
Empower your non-verbal, autistic, or learning-impaired child with sign language. Lesson 2 in this functional and straight-forward series focuses on vocabulary related to familial relationships and ASL grammar. Video clips and images of...
Curated OER
Context Skills
Here is a fine instructional activity on teaching ways to use context clues. Upper graders split up into groups and use sticky notes to cover up five words in a passage of text. The passages are rotated to the other groups, and learners...
Curated OER
The Stock Market and the Great Depression
How does the Stock Market work, what was Black Tuesday, and how did the Market crass of 1929 lead to the Great Depression? Have your class play this stock market game for two weeks to better explain how the stock market works.
Curated OER
Halloween Counting Book
First graders recognize and write numerals from 1 to 10. They estimate and count to identify sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects, listen and respond to others in a variety of contexts, and take turns speaking in a...
Curated OER
Explore your Culture through Storytelling
Explore the cultural heritage through of your class through reading, writing, and speaking exercises. They create illustrated mini-books that express their unique cultural and personal experiences. They share their stores with the class...
Scholastic
Outlining Main Ideas and Details
Practice outlining and evaluating expository writing in this lesson. After discussing main ideas and seeing examples, young writers go through a sample outline and discuss the way to properly format a piece of writing. They then create...
Curated OER
Regions of the United States
Your learners practice writing ideas on paper and logically presenting them in an organized manner. They brainstorm ways to write down ideas while creating a travelogue about a particular U.S. geographic region. When they present...
Curated OER
Learning to Ask Questions
First graders analyze historical materials and create questions about Dwight D. Eisenhower. In this question writing lesson, 1st graders ask and answer questions about the life of Eisenhower. Students write about photographs they view.
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss - Make Time for Rhymes
Read the story Green Eggs and Ham to practice phonemic awareness, rhyming, and writing skills with emerging readers. They will match oral words to printed words, create a graphic organizer, and the use rhyming words in an original...
August House
The Magic Pot
The Magic Pot by Patricia Coombs is the theme of this multidisciplinary lesson plan. Early readers first take part in a read aloud and grand conversation about the story's details. Then, they get to work practicing their skills in...
Curated OER
Finders Keepers: Vocabulary Instructional Routine Guide for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Like Oskar, the curious boy in Jonathan Safran Foer’s story, class members journey through other “stories that the mouth can’t tell” to find another sentence that uses a word found in novel. Individuals create their own vocabulary list,...
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: Question Answer Response Strategy
What types of questions help readers learn the most? Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders learn how to ask four types of questions from the Question Answer Response (QAR) reading strategy to help grow their comprehension of Touching Spirit...
Achieve3000
Context Clues and Idioms
Kids practice using five types of context clues (definition, synonym, antonym, example, and general) to decode idiomatic language.
Curated OER
Harvesting Energy from Food: How do Plants Help Humans?
Beginning botanists view slides of plant vascular tissue. They watch Magic School Bus Gets Planted, which you can find online, and then write a summary of what they have learned about plants. This lesson could be used with upper...
Scholastic
Presenting Persuasively (Grades 9-12)
As a review of persuasive techniques, groups develop a one-sentence slogan designed to entice others to purchase a produce or adopt a point of view. The group then craft a storyboard for a commercial for their product.
Curated OER
Fall Similes
Fall is like a beautiful painting come to life—or is it more like an overflowing cornucopia? Practice writing similes with a lesson on figurative language. As learners review simile structure, they come up with their favorite similes for...
Curated OER
Snowy Similes
The class defines similes after creating a KWL chart about them. Groups rotate through a series of stations in which they creatively complete similes. They create a picture booklet that contains similes. However, the booklet topic and...