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Punctuating a Paragraph
Do your fourth graders need a little help with punctuation? Use this run-on paragraph to demonstrate proofreading for capitalization, punctuation, and separating ideas into separate paragraphs. At the end of the activity, learners...
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Rock Stories
Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...
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Good Manners
It's never to early to introduce childen to good manners. It's often assumed that they will just "learn" them on their own, but that's not true! In this simple lesson, pupils practice using good manners and conversation skills at a...
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Nurture Poetry
Students create a poetry book. In this poetry lesson, students write a cinquain poem, name poem, haiku, limerick, and preposition poem.
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The Hatfield and McCoy Feud
Learners explore West Virginia history with regard to Mountain and Appalachian Culture. They compare and contrast life now with life 100-150 years ago. They write and illustrate a short story about the life of children 100-150 years ago....
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Handling Fear
By sharing stories and doing role-play activities, youngsters learn how to deal with their fears. A class discussion is held where the teacher shares some things that used to scare him/her as a child. The kids come up with suggestions of...
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Compound Sentences
Do your pupils need a little variety in their writing? Help them build compound and complex sentences with sentence frames. They first combine two independent clauses to form a compound sentence, then add a third clause to make a complex...
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Homophones: Fun with Puns
What is a homophone for aloud? Or right? Fifth graders complete a list of 24 homophones, choosing another word that sounds like a given word but has a different meaning. At the bottom of the page, they write punning sentences to practice...
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Prefixes Micro- and Mega-
Explore vocabulary context clues with a prefix activity. Using the prefixes micro- and mega-, fourth graders complete sentence frames. They then make up their own word with the correct prefixes. Helpful as homework or during a writing...
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Big, Bigger, Biggest
Which turtle is big, and which one is biggest? Add variety to your third graders' writing with a comparative adjective activity. Given eight adjectives, young writers find the comparative and superlative forms of each. The last two are...
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Chocolate
Here is an amazing lesson on story writing for young writers. After listening to a history of chocolate, learners utilize the many worksheets embedded in the plan to construct their own stories about chocolate. They must cut out the...
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Mission Complete, Houston
It was a bittersweet event when the space shuttle Atlantis touched down for the last time on July 21, 2011. Space science learners read an article about this event in The New York Times and then write answers to who, what, where, when,...
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What Science Suggests About 'Weather Weirding'
Here is an activity that you can use to help upper elementary or middle schoolers to meet Common Core literacy standards for science and technology. Youngsters read the article on extreme weather patterns, "Weather Runs Hot and Cold, So...
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Culture Commotion
Exposing young children to the wonders of world cultures is very important. Here is a sweet activity which does just that! In it, learners listen to music, and stories from cultures around the world. They learn greetings in different...
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Once Upon a Time...
Model for emergent readers how to write a story by interpreting picture clues. For guided practice a second book is used, and then pupils work independently or with an adult to write their own stories based on illustrations.
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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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Act it Out: Dramatizing Asian American Stories
Read and act out folktales, fairy tales, or myths from various Asian American cultures with your class. Each group reads a story aloud and then works together to create a short play or skit about the story. Suggestions for stories are...
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Animal Diaries
Launch this lesson with Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm! Discuss the format and content of a diary, and ask learners if they've ever kept a diary before. Then, after an introductory discussion, have learners choose an insect or another...
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Biographical Poems
Students write a biographical poem about themselves. They observe a teacher-led demonstration, write an autobiographical poem and a biographical poem about a famous person using a template form, and display the poems side-by-side.
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Teasing Is Tough
Teasing happens in school. It's a fact. So, teaching your children about the evils of teasing, and also how to cope with it when it happens to them, is a very important. Pupils talk about how it feels to be teased, and they work together...
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Magnet Mania
Youngsters go on a magnetic fishing trip! Use an engaging and clever language arts lesson to reinforce the recognition of the letters of the alphabet with very young readers. A fishing pole is made of a ruler and a piece of string with a...
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Weddings Around the World
Weddings are a big deal for children. Most kids are very intrigued by them, and many have already been to one. The teacher reads the book, Weddings by Ann Morris to the class. Then, a discussion takes place regarding the basic traditions...
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Memory Book
Young writers create memory books. They think of important events in their lives from the past year. Then they draw pictures that depict these events, and dictate captions to an adult who writes them down in their books for them. These...
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Conjunctions
In this grammar worksheet, students choose a correct conjunction to complete six sentences. Students write sentences by combining given groups of words. Students combine sentences by using a conjunction.