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Sampling the Ocean Floor
Students sample goodies from an unseen ocean floor and try to accurately describe their composition. This simulation helps students explain the limitations of sampling and the problem of obtaining representative samples of sea floor...
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Fish Tank Territories
Students observe swimming and resting patterns of aquarium fish to determine how different parts of the habitat are used. Different pairs of students should compare their results after several days to look for daily patterns.
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Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon
Take your class to the moon with Midnight on the Moon! Then provide them with this short packet to develop vocabulary and practice reading comprehension. The first page has readers match vocabulary terms to their correct definitions. The...
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Kids Can Make a Difference
What is a philanthropist? We can all be philanthropists! After assessing the needs of the school and listening to literature about how they can help others, primary learners develop a class project and maintain a journal of their...
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Rules for Rubrics
How do you create an effective and fair rubric? Read this article to create the best rubric possible.
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What A Pair! A Cross Grade Writing Activity
What a pair! Older pupils interview younger ones and use what they learn to write a short, illustrated storybook that features the youngster as the main character. The youngster responds with a thank-you note in which they identify their...
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Marking Time
Two narrative excerpts tell the same story from different points of view. In the first excerpt (first person), sequencing words and phrases are bolded and learners write down what the bold type does. The second excerpt is in third...
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Improve Your Spelling with the Visual Thesaurus
Using Visual Thesaurus software, class members participate in a computer-based spelling bee. Then they work in groups to analyze the words and use deductive reasoning to infer spelling patterns. They then present one of their "rules" to...
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Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
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The Great Lakes
In this Great Lakes worksheet, students observe the Great Lakes location on a partial U.S. map, write their names in the acronym HOMES, list them in order from largest to smallest, and identify states that border them. Students write...
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Think Pair Share
Here is a great tool to help train your learners what to do during a think pair share! The graphic organizer has a place for your learners to put the title, their partner's name, notes during their peer discussion, and a place to record...
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Digging Up Dino Data
Third graders use the Internet to research a specific dinosaur. They work in pairs and individually to browse dinosaur websites, take notes on pertinent information, write, edit and illustrate reports. They post their work.
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Printing and Publishing
Explore African literature and artwork in a multicultural literacy and art lesson. Begin with a read aloud of Tiger and the Big Wind: A Tale from Africa, and afterward, have kids retell the main events in the story. They identify and...
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Who Works at Our School?
Young interviewers will learn more about the school staff by asking them questions and creating a bulletin board display. They will learn how to make thoughtful interview questions, conduct professional interviews, and organize...
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Questioning
Practice making predictions by looking at the cover of a book. You can use The Hungry Thing, as suggested here, or any other book you may be reading in class. Use the predictions to talk about good reading strategies. A chart is included...
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Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
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A Weave of Woods
Focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis while reading A Weave of Woods, a colorful picture book by Robert D. San Souci. Young learners use worksheets to preview, predict, practice paraphrasing, and make comparisons. The richly...
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Band of Brothers
What is a community? Explore the idea of community by investigating countries that have experienced severe damage. Learners discuss the horrible aftermath the 2011 earthquake had on Japan's infrastructure after the tsunami it caused....
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Writing Classroom Agreements using Inspiration & Word to Go
How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...
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Secrets of the Mummies
How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...
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Giant Smelly Plant Attracts Thousands
Read and discuss a news article about a rare corpse plant that bloomed in Washington D.C. Because this native Indonesian plant blooms so rarely, people flock to see it. After reading the article, your class answers comprehension...
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A Rat's Life
Here is a two-page worksheet on rats and mice. Learners answer nine true/false questions about rats and mice, then compose answers to seven short-answer questions about these two rodents. Finally, they must compose a fictional story...
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I'm a Little Teapot
In this rhyme worksheet, students read a nursery rhyme about a teapot. Students also color in an illustration and cut out rhyming words from the story.
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A Hidden Beauty
Expose the beautiful mystery of bulbs as young botanists learn all about these fascinating plants. They glean information from a short text before observing actual bulbs (consider an onion), and comparing their findings with predictions....