Curated OER
It's Magic: Understanding the Roles, Responsibilities, and Requirements of Workers
Fifth graders investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions. Then they break into groups to complete the training and education for two careers selected from a listing in the lesson....
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Water Cycle - A SiteMaker Presentation
Have your young scientists explore a single element of the water cycle and write a report to explain findings. Your class can take their writing through all the steps of the writing process and publish it using a Web-based multimedia...
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Encouraging Students to Embrace Their Inner Author
Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. For this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...
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Jeffrey and Sloth: Six Traits of Writing
Use drawings as inspiration. Have learners doodle for 10 minutes before beginning the lesson. Then, have them use their doodles to inspire a story. Several writing activities are included here to play with writing. One of my favorites...
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Reviewing Good Playing Habits
The string section of your school orchestra can get a proper form make-over by incorporating this lesson. They reestablish proper playing form, posture, and sound as they compose an essay on how to maintain good playing habits during...
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Changing Seasons
Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...
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Applying KWL Guides to Sources with Elementary Students
What is a KWL chart? Here is a well thought-out activity that has learners use KWL charts to gain historical perspective. Your class examines primary sources about historical events and identifies what they know, want to know, and,...
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What Are Bullying And Harassment?
Fourth graders define the four types of bullying and define harassment. They complete a True/False survey, student notes, and question and answer.
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The Landfill Loafers Meet the Wise Buys
Students discover recyclable materials and the proper disposal of those items through Internet research. Working in groups of four, they search the Internet for uses of recyclable materials. After research is complete, they participate...
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Shadows & Light, Science & Puppetry
Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...
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Think It, Write It, Create It
Help your scholars create a class story. They will write a page of the story and illustrate that page. Then they use a variety of digital technologies to make the story come alive. A variety of digital resources are recommended for the...
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Environment: Clouds of Changing Times
Here is a wonderful lesson which has youngsters interview family and local elders about the seasonal history of their local area. They focus on climate change by asking questions about rainfall, temperatures, length of the seasons, and...
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Nutrition and the Media: Cereal Box Consumerism
How many treats do you buy each week? Learners investigate diets and how the media tricks consumers into purchasing unhealthy snacks. They will investigate the designs and logos affiliated with cereal boxes and identify specific phrases...
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"Zigzag"
Second and third graders explore point of view and read and discuss the book "Zigzag." They listen to the story "The Five Blind Men and the Elephant" and discuss point of view, identify the point of view of the main character Zigzag, and...
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Pet Perspective
Discuss point of view through a familiar medium: your pet! Learners write a story from the perspective of their own or the class pet. Prompts such as "My Family" (or "My Class"), "My Day," and "A Day in the Life of a _________" help...
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The Daily Scoop
Pupils report classroom news. First, they write complete sentences using adjectives and adverbs to describe events. Next, they take turns presenting interesting news to the class using appropriate volume and clarity. As an extension,...
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What Was That All About?
Through direct instruction, the teacher demonstrates how to identify the main idea and supporting details of a text when creating a summary. As a class, read a paragraph, highlighting relevant information and crossing out extraneous...
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Researching the Past
Learners research the western movement in order to learn note taking strategies with nonfiction texts. They use the Internet to search for important information about the western movement using the Cornell Notes note-taking system. They...
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Exploring Owls
What can young scientists discover from dissecting an owl pellet? Explore the owl food chain, beginning with an introduction to these predatory birds. Suggested strategies here include creating a podcast and purchasing a poster, however...
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Let's Get it Together! Reading to Learn
Let’s learn about frogs! Young readers are led through “Freaky Frogs,” a non-fiction article. Teach learners how to edit an article so there are fewer details to sift through. After talking through the article, they learn the six steps...
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Language and Dialect
Practice listening skills while studying oral story tellers from different parts of Louisiana. Consider the regional dialects and insider language of folk groups with your class. Identify language as part of folk life and recognize that...
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Understanding Dialect as Used by Mark Twain
A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...
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Using Primary Sources to Study the Holocaust
Engage your middle schoolers with Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem that begins, "First they came for the communists." Now that you have their attention, send learners to the various work stations you created to have them explore...
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Wildlife Along the Mississippi River
Students create a class book about the wildlife that lives in and near the Mississippi River.