Curated OER
Flora and Fauna as Figures of Speech
What a lovely way to incorporate artwork into your language arts lesson plan. View artwork in illustrated manuscript pages, depicting insects, animals, plants, flowers, and ornate writing in the Getty Museum. Practice using figurative...
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Learning About Fiction Genres in the Elementary School Library
Teaching about fiction genres can be challenging. The lesson here, designed for library media specialists, offers a fun way to do it. In the lesson, learners visit the library and learn about the different types of fiction through book...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing: Lesson 2 of 5
Introduce expository writing to your elementary learners. Young authors write a three-paragraph informational paper using the steps of the writing process. They follow guided lessons to experience each of five steps. Included are tons of...
Curated OER
Prepositions
Elementary schoolers view and study ten pictures of the location of a ball adjacent to a box. They decide where the ball is and match it to its appropriate preposition on the right. A good language arts lesson!
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Poems: calligrams
Have fun with shape poems! First and second graders write calligrams that add to the meaning of their poems. Great for your poetry unit or if you want to combine poetry and art lessons.
Curated OER
A Story on a Vase
Students associate a hydria with Greek myths. In this Greek art and mythology lesson, students examine a scene on a hydria, then choose a Greek myth to illustrate on their own painting.
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Fabulous, Fractured Fables
Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...
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We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution
Robert Coles’ The Story of Ruby Bridges forms the basis of this powerful cross-curricular study of civic education and civic responsibility. Class members consider how the book presents authority, responsibility, justice, and privacy.....
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Narrative Writing vs. Explanatory Writing
The class discusses the different purposes an author has for writing. The focus of the discussion is on writing to tell a true story and writing to give information about a specific topic. There are writing purpose sorting cards embedded...
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Just the Facts, Ma'am
Elementary learners identify the main elements of story structure and form questions to summarize their reading. They listen as the teacher reads a story and then write questions to determine (1) main characters, (2) setting, (3)...
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The Palm of My Heart: Poetry By African American Children
Elementary students explore African American culture by reading children's poetry. They read the book, The Palm of My Heart which features poetry by an assortment of young African American boys and girls. Students define several...
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My Childhood Portrait
Young scholars practice descriptive writing by viewing auto-portraits of young children. In this art analysis lesson, students examine an auto-portrait of their teacher as a young child and ask him/her questions about their youth....
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N is for Natural State
For any pupils who live in the state of Arkansas, this would be a fabulous educational experience to help them get to know their state better. Through the use of activities in literature, art, mathematics, science, social studies, and...
Curated OER
Panther Exam: Writing a Play
Students demonstrate their knowledge of panthers by writing a play on the subject. For this animal life lesson, students view a slide-show on school computers of a veterinary exam of a panther. Students utilize this scenario to write a...
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Transforming Negatives to Positives
Young scholars write diamonte poems that correspond to the double-exposed photograph they created. In this poetry and multimedia artwork lesson, students use the photographic process to create a double-exposed photo then create a...
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Judging a Book by Its Cover
Students explore the relationship between the form of books and the content inside. For this book exploration lesson, students use a piece of their creative writing as inspiration; they author a written book and design a cover that...
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Take a Breath, Steal Some Time
Students explore the art of haiku's by listening to, modeling and creating them. In this haiku poetry lesson, students choose an object to focus their haiku on. After hearing a brief history of the haiku; students make a list of what...
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Autobiographies
Young scholars create an autobiography. In this autobiography lesson, students create a digital autobiography using photographs and captions about their lives. Young scholars will publish their autobiography on the class blog page, as...
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Creating a Story that "Stacks" on Itself and Repeats a Catch Phrase
Students explore language arts by reading a classic children's story in class. For this story structure lesson, students read the Judith Viorst book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students discuss the...
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What Can I Write About When I Can't Think of Anything To Write About?
Third graders write, illustrate, and publish a collaborative story. In this writing instructional activity, 3rd graders review story elements by reading stories written by professional authors and other students. They work in groups to...
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Challenge to Communicate
Students use Lewis and Clark's journals to identify the forms of non-verbal communication they used. They discover the problems they faced on their journey and how they overcame them. They practice using the non-verbal language of the...
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Le School Sac
Students critique their own school bag by sketching and writing a detailed description of it. In this creative design lesson, students then design a more efficient carrier for their school supplies on paper. Students explain to their...
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I Am a Book
Third graders discuss books that have been banned and the things that they have in common. They explore the concept of freedom of speech and write poems based on their discussion.
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Animal Life Cycle
Students conduct hands-on experiments. In this life cycle activity, students are able to observe a variety of animals as they travel through their life cycle (brine shrimp, mealworms, frog eggs and chicken eggs). Students respond to...