Curated OER
Color Code Writing
Students form letters and numbers using a technique called color code writing.
Curated OER
The Art of Persuasion
Students write a persuasive letter. In this persuasion lesson, students listen to the story Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School and discuss the vocabulary and parts of a persuasive letter. They write their own letter to...
Curated OER
Stop! Explore Go!
Students examine a three-step process for making decisions and how their peers can influence them in different ways. They role-play different roles when making decisions and other students reflect on how they feel about the activity.
Curated OER
Pigs Don't Wear Pants
Learners engage in the writing process and differentiate between what is real versus fantasy. They identify the rhyming words and follow the steps of writing to complete the page for the class book. The prompt is checked looking for...
Curated OER
Monster Descriptions
Monsters take center stage! Elementary schoolers are assigned to write a descriptive paragraph by a toy company to help in designing a new monster for their toy line. One student composes the paragraph, another uses that to create a...
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...
Teaching Tolerance
Musical Movement Showcase
Young performing artists create a song or choreograph a dance to illustrate a theme in a text they are reading. Step-by-step directions are included.
Curated OER
Retelling
Explore language arts by completing a story worksheet in class. Readers will identify the importance of plot, setting, and character while they write their own short story. They also retell their story to a classmate and participate in a...
Teaching Tolerance
Collage of Concerns
A picture can speak louder than words. An interesting lesson introduces the themes of social justice and diversity to young learners by having them create artwork. Scholars create collages from a variety of sources to showcase what...
Perkins School for the Blind
Following Directions
Turn the act of following directions into a fun and engaging game! Especially designed for students with cognitive or intellectual disabilities, this lesson uses a game format as a natural reinforcer. Write a set of directions onto a set...
Curated OER
Chef for a Day
Have class members create a recipe flip book for their favorite after school snack. Using ordinal words (first, second next, etc.), young chefs write and illustrate each step in the process on separate cards. They then design a cover,...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Prediction
What do you think will happen? Use a graphic organizer to help learners predict what will happen in a text. Consider modeling the chart using a familiar story, pretending you don't know what happens. Show scholars the book, explaining...
Curated OER
Natural Twig Journals
Artists of all ages participate in a very basic bookbinding technique incorporating a dimensional object and simple fastening method. They create their own book to use as a sketchbook, writing surface or scrapbook. The results are...
Curated OER
Decisions, Decisions!
Introduce young learners to the conscious process of making decisions. Guide them through a scenario where a boy is going to a sleepover and is trying to decide whether to take his teddy bear or not. Use the included worksheet to write...
Curated OER
Snapshots of a Short Story
First graders will be creating and filling in a graphic organizer using Kidspiration, as a pre-writing activity for their short story piece. They then use their graphic organizers to write their entire short story. Once written, the...
Curated OER
Relate Counting to Addition and Subtraction
Use patterns to practice basic addition; pupils count by two, starting from eight and counting on to 20. They record the five numbers missing from the sequence. Below, the instructional activity walks learners through...
Curated OER
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Students discuss the differences between a storybook and an information book. Students use various materials found in nature to make a nature collage. Students make a nature dictionary using pictures and their own definitions from the...
Achievement Strategies
CCSS Unit Design Template for Art
Art classes, like any lab class, require extensive preplanning and set-up time. Use this planning template in the quiet before the storm to identify the equipment and materials that will be needed, the procedures and processes...
Curated OER
Comparing 3 Digit Numbers
Warm up your mathematicians with this comparing numbers activity. Because it includes an explanation, consider projecting this as an all-class activity, covering up the answers until after learner responses have been shared. There are...
Curated OER
Reading Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers
Young scholars discover the impact "Lady Bird" Johnson had on America by reading a short biography. For this historical persons lesson, students read a multi page biography of the former first lady and write a summary of her life's...
Curated OER
Egg-ceptional Poetry Writing
Young scholars recognize that eggs have nutritional value. In this eggs instructional activity, students create poetry for a shape book on eggs. Young scholars participate in additional games and activities about the egg.
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Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story
Students read Blackbeard and brainstorm their knowledge of maps. In this language arts and geography lesson, students use landmarks on their playground to review north, south, east and west and discuss the compass rose. Students read...
Curated OER
Safety Around Dogs
Students assess how to properly greet a dog and cover the safety tips when and if they should encounter a loose dog. They follow a five step-by-step process to greet a dog as well as see a demonstration of the process first hand. In...
Curated OER
Buzz Up My Hive
Students research bees. In this organisms instructional activity, students participate in various learning centers to find out more about bees. The centers include watching a video and taking notes, reading books about bees, and going on...