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Moving to the Five Paragraph Narrative Essay
Your class just completed a graphic organizer as a prewriting strategy, but how do they take what they've recorded on their sheet and turn it into a five-paragraph essay? Help your novice writers with this 23-slide PowerPoint. An example...
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The Eyes Have It: Learning About Cultures Using Photos
Young scholars focus on determining what the characteristics of culture are. They look for these characteristics in a set of photos. They complete a worksheet imbedded in this plan.
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Understanding "The Stans"
Students explore and locate "The Stans" in Central Asia to create, write and illustrate maps, graphs and charts to organize geographic information. They analyze the historical and physical characteristics of Central Asia via graphic...
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Demonstrative Pronouns
What is a demonstrative pronoun? Help can your class recognize demonstrative pronouns in written work, and it might help them write better! The first three slides introduce the topic and give examples, while the last two offer practice...
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Writing Workshop: Writing Process
If reading seems to be going out the window due to television or other influences, it follows that writing might be close behind. Here are suggestions for setting up a writing workshop in your classroom to keep writing going strong.
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Malapropisms
What's the difference between an allegory and an alligator? Fifth graders work with malapropisms to determine the meanings of words that sound alike. Five sentences challenge them to find the malapropism and change it to the correct...
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Writing to Make a Point
Begin your persuasive writing with a helpful exercise on making points. With a list of ten points on transportation in a city, third graders map a logical order to their argument. They then write one or two paragraphs about the points...
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Determining Importance
Students hone their skills at identifying the principle story in a work of art and text. Through discussion, students assess the central and supporting stories of a work of art that is characterized by multiple layers of action and meaning.
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Writing an Explanation
Bananas are an important part of a healthy diet - but where do they come from? Third graders write an explanatory text about the origins of bananas. The bottom part of the paper includes necessary information about bananas, as well as a...
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Dance: Sharp and Smooth Energy Qualities
Students use different qualities of movement to express themselves. In this lesson on movement, students use different qualities of energy and then use their experience as an inspiration for writing poetry.
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Dramatic Outlines
Young scholars write about main characters. In this dramatic writing lesson, students brainstorm character ideas. Young scholars create actions and give the character a voice. Students act out the scene in groups and create a final draft.
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Dancing Levels in Space
Learners practice mirroring human moves by performing a dance in class. In this physical education lesson, students utilize different spaces around them to perform a dance expressing their full motion. Learners cooperate in pairs or...
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Building Original Narratives
Fourth graders act out and write original narratives. In this theater meets writing lesson, 4th graders work in groups to create original narratives; after students act out their story, they write it down as a narrative.
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State of Illinois
In this creating a picture and paragraph about the state of Illinois worksheet, students draw an illustration and write about it. Students complete 2 activities.
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Rock Stories
Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...
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Sincerely Yours
Learners write a friendly letter. They write a friendly letter to author, Cynthia Rylant, after reading a number of her books, and watch a presentation by the teacher that describes how to write the letter. They word process their...
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Nurture Poetry
Students create a poetry book. In this poetry lesson, students write a cinquain poem, name poem, haiku, limerick, and preposition poem.
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The Hatfield and McCoy Feud
Learners explore West Virginia history with regard to Mountain and Appalachian Culture. They compare and contrast life now with life 100-150 years ago. They write and illustrate a short story about the life of children 100-150 years ago....
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Flutter Farm
Students create their own butterfly garden and follow a participation plan to ensure that everyone will have a hand in the garden. In this gardening lesson, 5th graders log their progress with their garden by taking photos, and...
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36 Public Policy Questions to Energize Your Government/History Classroom Debates
Need topics that are sure to engage your debaters? This list of public policy questions includes such topics as school mascots, regulation of major league baseball, physician-assisted suicide, and violence in video games. A great...
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Fortune Cookies Motivate Writing
Fortune cookies are used as motivation for a story. In this creative writing lesson, young writers review the six traits process. They discuss interesting characters, setting, problem and solution in a story. Original stories based on...
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Fractured Fairy Tales
Through reading and writing, learners explore common elements found in fairy tales. After discussing traditional fairy tales, class members listen to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka, a hilarious retelling of the...
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Interviewing Famous Leaders in History
Students explore historical figures. In this history/research lesson, students use a variety of research materials to learn about the historical figure of their choice. Students write questions and responses as if they were interviewing...
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Invent a Holiday
Who wouldn't want to create their own holiday? Use the 12 elements of a holiday to have learners of all ages create their own holiday. These days, it seems like we make any excuse for a holiday! Consider having some fun with your kids...