Media Smarts
Teaching TV: Television Techniques
As part of a five-activity unit on how television uses technology and film techniques to communicate meaning, elementary students create their own media productions that demonstrate their understanding of these concepts.
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"Bursting" Stereotypes
Students comprehend the meaning of the word steretype, work in groups to come up with stereotype statements, discuss whether the statements are fair, and write what they learned from the activity. Balloons are used as a conduit in this...
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Those Fabulous Fables
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
Scholastic
Holes Match 'Em Up Challenge
Upper graders read the book Holes as a class or by themselves. In groups, they identify symbols and discuss how they are connected among the many plots in the story. They create a timeline in which they sequence the main...
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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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Can You Find It?
Plan a Parts of a Book scavenger hunt. Begin by giving your young adventurers a book, and asking them to find the title, author, illustrator, and table of contents. After a discussion of the purpose of each of these items, class members...
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Thumbs Up For Movie Reviews
If your class loves movies, this instructional activity is sure to interest them. After discussing the purpose and structure of movie reviews, young writers compose a movie review and discuss why people may read a review before they go...
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Name It! - Nouns
Young readers practice identifying nouns. This interactive resource goes over the the three categories that nouns fit into, then has them click on the words they think are nouns in sentences contained in each slide. If they get it right,...
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Verbally Speaking
Verbs are the center of attention in this resource. Students discover that a verb shows action, then they consider twenty sentences that each have an action verb. Students must click on one of three words at the bottom of each slide in...
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Adjectives
Engage young readers by introducing them to adjectives, and the roles they play in writing in this presentation. Students discover that adjectives tell about nouns, and usually answer two questions; what kind or how many? After the...
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Double Negatives
Double negatives are highlighted in this very nice PowerPoint. Students are reminded that, when expressing a negative idea in writing, only one negative words should be used. After seeing both correct and incorrect forms, students...
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Complete Sentences
Many types of sentences are covered in this presentation. Elementary schoolers view examples of complete sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and compound sentences. After studying the rules, emerging writers try their hand...
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Homophone Search
Homophones take center stage in this engaging, interactive slide show. Students see that homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. They consider 20 slides which have sentences with...
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Mr. Indent: A Write On Activity
Using a cute premise, a bodybuilder named Mr. Indent, this resource explores the correct use of indentation. As a review of this concept, this presentation would be a great tool to use in the classroom. There are examples and exercises...
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Let's Proofread
Third graders are invited to hone their proofreading skills in this interactive presentation. They focus on the four most common mistakes: punctuation, capitalization, word usage, and run-on sentences. Two nicely-written worksheets are...
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Recognizing the Main Idea
Understanding that paragraphs have a main idea expressed in a topic sentence, followed by supporting details in the subsequent sentences is the focus of this presentation. Students practice by reading short paragraphs in 10 slides, and...
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Possessive Nouns
As a way to explore possessive nouns in an interesting way, this presentation has a list of rules, examples, and practice questions. This would be a terrific way to review material you have already covered in class. You could also use it...
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What Possessed You?
To review the possessive form, a teacher could use this presentation to help learners cement their understanding of grammar. Using commonly encountered mistakes, it gives students a quiz in which they identify the correct word for use in...
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Pronouns
The many types of pronouns are the focus of this presentation. After viewing the presentation on pronouns, students try their hand at correctly-identifying the type of pronoun missing in five slides. A good, solid teaching tool.
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What Are Pronouns?
Using an interactive approach, learners explore the rules regarding pronouns. This is a great way to review this topic with younger students. It gives them a motivating way to internalize the idea.
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Irregular and Helping Verbs
Irregular verbs are highlighted in this interactive presentation. In each slide, students are given a verb, such as drive. They must then come up with the present, past, and past participle of the word. In this case, drive, drove, and...
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Planets in our Solar System
A wonderfully designed, and very thorough lesson plan on the planets in our solar system. Designed for third graders, this lesson has learners use technology and multimedia tools to research, explore, and create information about the...
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Art to Zoo: Celebration
Students research and develop a report on birthday rituals around the world. In this research lesson plan, students compare birthday rituals from other cultures to their own. Images and resources are included.
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How the Test Was Won
Pupils create 'Wanted' posters based around their state testing activities. In this state technology integration activity, students take pictures of themselves in sepia tone in an Old West pose. Pupils write captions for the photos using...