August House
How Tiger Got His Stripes
How did the tiger get its stripes? Kindergartners read a Vietnamese folk tale, "How the Tiger Got His Stripes," retold by Rob Cleveland, and work through several reading comprehension and literary analysis activities.
National History Day
Leland Linman’s War: A Look at Soldiers’ Daily Lives in World War I
Hunkering down in the trenches of World War I, Leland Linman decided to write a journal about his experiences. By reading Linman's entries in the fourth installment of an eight-part lesson series, scholars get a firsthand look at life in...
Crafting Freedom
Sequencing of Events in the Slave Narrative of Henry "Box" Brown
What steps did Henry "Box" Brown take while planning his own escape from slavery? Learners work in groups to analyze segments of Brown's narrative and identify the sequence of the most important events of his story.
Scholastic
Pilgrim and Wampanoag Daily Life
A instructional activity looks at the Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe during the first Thanksgiving. Scholars compare and contrast information presented by an online activity then discuss their findings. Learners examine the two group's...
Poetry Out Loud
The Tabloid Ballad
What do the theme song from Gilligan's Island, the nursery rhyme "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," and the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" all have in common? Why, they're ballads of course! Challenge your young balladeers to compose their...
Huntington Library
Everyday Life - Exploring the California Missions
Young scholars relive history as they examine primary sources that document everyday life in the California missions. During a class viewing of the included slideshow presentation, children analyze documents, paintings, and...
Curated OER
Writing a Letter to a Friend
First graders practice their letter writing skills by writing to a fictional character. In this formal writing lesson, 1st graders read the books The Jolly Postman and Frog and Toad are Friends to examine the different parts of a...
Curated OER
Writing Persuasive Letters
Students write persuasive business letters to candy companies suggesting ways to change their products to make them more enjoyable and increase sales. Prior to writing their letters, they conduct Internet research about the companies and...
Curated OER
Father Knows Best, Write a Father's Day Letter
Students write a Father's Day letter. In this friendly letter writing lesson, students brainstorm a list of parent responsibilities, then write three specific ways their fathers care for them. Students share learning experiences they...
Curated OER
A Happy Time
Second graders listen to stories about feelings and identify their own feelings during certain times of their lives. In this a happy time lesson, 2nd graders explore writing elements as a way to communicate with a variety of audiences...
Curated OER
Letter Writing Accuracy: Write it Big, Write it Small
Students write the letters of the alphabet. In this language arts lesson, students listen as the teacher says a letter. Students write the letter spoken by the teacher. Students write capital or lowercase letters.
Curated OER
Unscramble the Letters
Students complete word scramble activities as a vocabulary lesson and write sentences with the words. In this word scramble lesson, students unscramble letters in the given examples and spell the words correctly. Students write the words...
Curated OER
Z is for Zaxby the Buzzing Bee
Students complete a variety of activities related to the /z/ phoneme. As a class they listen to word pairs and identify the word containing the /z/ sound, then recite a z tongue twister. Students trace and write the letter z and listen...
Curated OER
Alligator Printable Puzzle
Students complete a variety of literacy based activities related to a Letter A Alligator puzzle. They listen to an alligator book, discuss basic animal facts about alligators, simulate the movements and sounds an alligator makes, and...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Write an unsent letter about a consumer scam, paying attention to the writing conventions of punctuation and spelling. This lesson could be adapted to fit a variety of social issues in which letter writing is appropriate. 4
Curated OER
Letter Writing: Social Action Project
Help your pupils sharpen their letter writing skills. They compose business letters that include greetings, headings, closings, and a professional tone for a philanthropic organization requesting information. Use this resource to...
Curated OER
Phonics: Decode and Write Words with Blends
Kids see, say, then count the phonemes they hear in a series of simple words. They practice counting phonemes with the teacher, then sound out the same word on their own. As they count each phoneme they write it down on their paper. A...
Curated OER
Astonishing "A"
Young learners gain phonemic awareness with this quick activity. First, point out what sound you’re focusing on today: /a/. Then spell basic words that use this sound, like fat, bat, cat, etc. As a culminating activity, the whole...
Curated OER
Letters From Santa
Seventh graders practice the use of word processing software and writing skills. They read letters to Santa from a second grade class and compose an answer that is grammatically correct. Afterward, they cut and paste, save the file to be...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
African American Life After the Civil War - Sharecropping
What is the sharecropping system? What role did it play in the post-Civil War economy of the South? Who were the sharecroppers? Who employed them? How were they paid? To answer these questions, kids examine a series of sharecropper...
Curated OER
Viewpoint and Persuasive Writing
Practice persuasive writing skills in this thorough lesson. After selecting issues and discovering viewpoints, middle schoolers write letters or brochures created to express the individual's perspective. The ideas are presented to the...
Curated OER
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
With The Great Kapok Tree, by Lynne Cherry as the hook learners discuss the rainforest, the animals that live there, and conservation efforts. Then, students write a letter to the man in the story asking him not to cut down the Kapok...
Curated OER
The Letter "L"
Students practice using the letter "L." For this letter "L" lesson, students complete a worksheet (not included) on which they identify pictures of items that begin with the letter "L."
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...