Curated OER
Guy Fawkes
Sixth graders access their prior knowledge of the job of Parliament and its relationship to the monarchy. In this Gunpowder Plot lesson, 6th graders research the Gunpowder Plot, summarize key story ideas, and role play the plot. They...
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Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
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Mystery Lessons
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
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Revive, Contemplate, Integrate
Students recognize flags as a symbol through writing and imagery. In this artifact lesson, students investigate Tibetan prayer flags and their significance. Students create personal prayer flags and write about their life experience of...
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Genre: Short Story
Discover the genre of short stories with sixth graders. They discuss the characteristics of short stories from the book America Street. Then, they compare and contrast movies and television shows and chart story characteristics. Various...
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What is a mystery?
What is a mystery? Learners complete an anagram worksheet to discover the mystery genre. First, they listen as the teacher reads from All About Mysteries and notes defining words on the board. Then they read a mystery and examine it for...
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Marshmallow Geometry
In this three-dimensional shapes geometry lesson plan, learners identify geometric solids and name their properties. They define "face," "edge," and "vertex," and construct geometric solids using marshmallows as vertices and toothpicks...
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Respect
Investigate "respect" with your class. They will participate in a think/share activity in which they complete sentence starters about their personal experience with "respect." Then they view a video clip in which Holocaust survivors...
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Juan Verdades
Cement comprehension skills using the strategies in this activity. After reading the story, Juan Verdades by Joe Hays, learners use context clues to answer questions, identify main ideas and details, and sequence events.
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The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon
Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Dig in deeper with Robert Frost's, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Learners will read and discuss poems by Robert Frost and learn the meaning of terms such as narrative and personal. They journal, collaborate, and present poetry...
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The Summer of the Swans
The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars, is a 160-page chapter book about a family going through a difficult time. Complement your reading of Byars' book with this detailed outline of each chapter. Every section includes comprehension...
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Dancing Lights
Students view artwork and navigate the Internet, and read books to learn about the Aurora Borealis. For this Northern Lights lesson, students complete a KWL and separate the facts from the myths about the Northern lights. Students...
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Chew On This!
Learners develop pamphlets for a dental health mentoring program that educates younger students about caring for their teeth. They recall experiences at visits to dentists and consider why some students may have poor dental health.
Curated OER
Everybody Is Unique: A Lesson in Respect for Others' Differences
Learners of all ages talk about the meaning of the word "unique," and draw a truly unique person, one part at a time. They create a totally unique person, with a head drawn by one student, a torso drawn by another student, and lower body...
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Pay It Forward Project
Create a list of random acts of kindness and have your class perform them during a designated week. Learners will also participate in a project centered around being kind to others. Each grade chooses their kindness project, and then...
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Language Arts: Telling a Painting's Story
Use art museum paintings as inspiration for your class's creative writing works. Observing the paintings closely, middle and high schoolers list details and write descriptions. Their completed stories are displayed on bulletin boards...
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Story Telling through Photography
Use this writing and photography lesson plan in your descriptive writing unit. Elementary and middle schoolers write and create a story line incorporating photos from Inspiration or their own personal photos. They experiment with...
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Online —On Stage—and Action
Use your tablets to participate in a culture-sharing project with a class in a foreign country. Your class can communicate and share ideas with a class in another country, swapping information regarding language and culture. Together you...
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"Sentences - Can You Make Them?"
Here is a great lesson on how to make a complete sentence. Young writers "drag and drop" the words using the mouse. This is a fantastic activity to use with "Word Wall Words." It provides practice in making sentences, as well as...
Curated OER
Quotation Marks, Commas, And More
Correctly punctuating a character's dialogue can become a fun activity as students learn to use quotation marks, commas, and more.
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Eva's Code
Students understand the importance of punctuation in a sentence. In this codes lesson, students write a pen pal letter using codes for the punctuation. Students send a key to break the code if needed.
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Animal Fact or Fiction?
Read and discuss the article "Welcome to Cicadaville (Enter at Your Own Risk)" to gain a better understanding around the confusion regarding cicadas and locust swarms. In groups your young analysts research statements about animals to...
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Superpowered Interdisciplinary Projects: Using the Science in Saturday Morning Cartoons
How to leverage cultural background knowledge to increase student investment.