Curated OER
Strong Verb Image Makers
Students use description language to clarify ideas and create vivid images in an essay focusing of strong verbs. They discuss weak verbs and explore that the better image the words create, the better the reader understands the text.
Curated OER
Build an Indoor Compost Bin
Students write an essay to describe the contents of a compost bin. In this composting lesson, students create a compost bin. Students examine soil for its contents and explains in an essay the impact of the soil on the environment.
Curated OER
Working on the Slant
Compare and contrast a major news story from various newspapers. How does the perspective change? Are certain things included in some of the stories and left out of others? Have pupils complete a graphic organizer to compare how...
Curated OER
Pioneer Women of Florida's Frontier
Fourth graders read the passage, "Florida's Fabulous Frontier Females" and write two narrative essays, one expository, using examples of differences in life in Florida during frontier times and today. They then complete one descriptive...
Curated OER
Strategies for Organization and Elaboration of Personal Narrative
Personal narrative writing is usually a favorite form of writing for youngsters because they get to write about a personal experience. The instructional activity here asks pupils to take a piece of narrative writing and improve it by...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
Could You Elaborate on That?
Fourth graders engage in a lesson which teaches the parts of an expository essay and how to organize and write an expository piece from a given topic. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan which...
Novelinks
The Lightning Thief: Problematic Situation Strategy
In the novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Percy is faced with a major decision. After reading, chapter 19, discuss the decision-making process Percy took, what he decided to do, and what your...
Curated OER
The Magical Ring
In this creative writing worksheet, students read about finding a ring with magical powers, write a description of the ring and its powers, and tell the who, what, where, when, and how details. Students write 1 essay.
Museum of Tolerance
Oral History Activity
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a activity that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate where they...
Novelinks
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Problematic Situations
When is it okay to go against authority and what can happen if you do? This is the leading question in this activity to accompany your classroom reading of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. After reading chapter eight,...
Curated OER
Valentine Cinquain
Young scholars review parts of speech by using Inspiration. They brainstorm vocabulary that fit a Valentines theme. Students watch as the teacher demonstrates the parts of a cinquain poem. Young scholars write their own poem and create a...
Curated OER
Favorite Character Report: Charlotte's Web
In this fill in the blank and essay worksheet, students analyze the personality and appearance of their favorite character from E.B. White's story Charlotte's Web. Students write a description of the character and then discuss why the...
Curated OER
Thankful List
Students practice using free association as a pre-writing technique as they list things that they are thankful for. They share the lists of words and apply them when they write a descriptive essay or poem after identifying commonalities...
Curated OER
The Timeline of a Lifetime
Students create a timeline which includes four important events from their own life, two national events and two world events. They write an essay highlighting the four events included on the timeline.
Curated OER
Countries and Cultures
In this countries and cultures worksheet, students write definitions for various terms, complete a description of a trip around Europe by adding articles, and write an essay about places to visit in their own country.
Curated OER
A Boring/Fascinating Worksheet About Adjectives
In this adjectives learning exercise, students read the sentences and choose the best adjectives out of the two to complete the 15 exercises.
Curated OER
How Close Can We Get?
Fourth graders guide themselves through the traditional outline structure by reassembling papers, which have been cut into separate sentences. They see how close they've come to the original paper and evaluate their achievement.
Curated OER
Inner Circle/Outer Circle Debate Strategy
Arranged in facing concentric circles, half the class discusses an issue. The other half of the class takes notes which are then used to fuel a class discussion and to prepare editorial opinions on the topic at hand. So much emphasis is...
Curated OER
Venerable Inventors
Students discuss important historic inventors and read their biographical information. In this world history lesson, students describe Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, and Guglielmo Marconi using vocabulary terms used in their text....
Curated OER
Keeping Yourself Organized During Writer's Workshop
Writer's Workshop can be a wonderful way to develop a classroom of authors.
Curated OER
Down the Knoll Without the Water
Students use a thesaurus to find synonyms for selected words in fairy tales.