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...
Mr. Printables
Alphabet Flash Cards
Support young learners' exploration of the alphabet with this series of picture flash cards. Each card includes both upper- and lower-case letters, as well as a picture and corresponding word that begin with the letter. This fun resource...
Novelinks
Tuck Everlasting: Bio-Poem
Learn about the characters of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a character biopoem. Readers fill in a poem format to detail the character traits of Winnie, Jesse, Miles, and Mae, and share their finished poems with their peers.
Kiz Club
Phonics Floor Game: Short Vowels
Turn your phonics instruction into a game! First, hop on to word family foot prints to match the short vowel sound cards. Then, take the game to the next level; write a word on the foot print that has the same word family sound.
Curated OER
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Problematic Situation
Accompany The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis with this activity learning exercise. Spark a discussion about the story's characters' decision making skills while making inferences and allow learners to connect personally...
Virginia Department of Education
Analyzing and Planning Persuasive Writing
Young writers work backward to analyze persuasive techniques. As a class, work through the provided persuasive letter: a plea to an imaginary city council to lift a city-wide ban on fast food restaurants and discount stores. Start by...
Curated OER
Hero Myth Creative Writing Assignment
Send your pupils on a hero's journey! Individuals must compose a story that includes six key elements of the hero's journey. In order to determine the basics of the content of their stories, class members use the included grid to circle...
Model Citizen Publications
How To Write a Paragraph
Instructing learners on how to craft a good paragraph, a skill required of all writers, is the focus of a 23-page packet that includes directions, graphic organizers, exercises, and worksheets for guided practice.
National Woman's History Museum
Women, Propaganda, and War
Governments rely on propaganda to build support for wars. Class members examine six propaganda posters, two each from the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II, and analyze how the way women were portrayed in the posters...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Feelings
Encourage self-awareness with a lesson that challenges scholars to identify feelings—happy, sad, mad, and scared. Using a feelings thermometer, similar to that of a bar graph, pupils discuss how they would feel in specific scenarios then...
Curated OER
Seashell Painting
Let nature inspire your budding artists. They paint seascapes on actual seashells. First, they observe the seaside, then they paint what they see (image or in person) on the inside of a white shell.
Curated OER
Pass the Painting
After reading a story or informational text describing an animal, your class gets creative and collaborative with paint. In groups, they brainstorm all the parts of an animal, they then take turns painting those parts. One child starts...
Curated OER
Alphabet Matching Game - Kites
All you need is a file folder and these fun kites to help kids with their letter identification! After laminating a set of kites on the inside of a file folder, kids match additional kites to the ones on the game board.
Curated OER
Geography and Culture of China
Take out a map, a paper, a ruler, and those coveted colored pencils for a lesson plan on Chinese culture and geography. This is a multifaceted approach to basic geography skills that incorporate story telling, class discussion, primary...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Fabulous Fibonacci and His Nifty Numbers
Fibonacci numbers are not only found in the classroom but also in nature. Explore the concept of Fibonacci numbers through a series of lessons designed to gain insight into the mathematical reasoning behind the number pattern, and spark...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
Teach With Movies
The Glenn Miller Story (Film) - Teacher's Guide
Anthony Mann's 1953 film biography, The Glenn Miller Story, is the focus of a series of activities that introduce class members to Miller's life and music. Of particular interest to music students will be the cameos by many famous...
Curated OER
Class Book Awards
Students study the criteria used to select notable book awards, including the Caldecott Medal and the Newbery Medal. Then they develop their own Class Book Awards to bestow upon favorite books in the classroom library. They decide on...
NASA
Earth and Space—Climate and Seasons
Why does Earth have so many seasons? Learn about the importance and changes of our planet's climate with a series of learning activities, which focus on connecting seasons to past experiences, making scientific observations, and...
American Institute of Architects
Architecture: It's Elementary!—Fifth Grade
Young citizens construct an understanding of urban planning in this cross-curricular unit. Covering every aspect of city development from the political, economic, and social influences to sustainable building practices, this 10-lesson...
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help the...
Curated OER
Hoot: Anticipation Guide
Should companies be able to build wherever they want? Are animals worth protecting? Explore the literary themes from Carl Hiaasen's Hoot with an anticipation guide. Kids read ten statements and decide if they agree or disagree, then...
Curated OER
Creepy Read Week
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
Virginina Department of Education
Combining Ideas into an Effective Sentence
Here is a lesson that is best utilized as reinforcement in identifying sentences that combine independent/dependent clauses, and phrases that are awkward, fragmented or complete. Learners use the red, yellow, and green light method of...