Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Polished Poetry: Strange Zoo

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders use an online word list editor and software to create opening lines for a poem. They select and edit these into a complete, polished poem about an animal. They investigate parts of speech and alliteration.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Cubes

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Reading aloud can be scary, but it's an important way to build oral fluency. Break the class into groups of four or five learners. Each learner will roll a cube to determine which poem they read aloud to their small group. Feel free to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Clicking Your Way to Poetry: Composing Word Association Poems with the Visual Thesaurus

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Use a Visual Thesaurus to compose word association poems. Discuss poetry and word association, create word maps, then practice creating poems based on playful word associations. A perfect way to celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day" (April...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Shel Silverstein's Poems

For Students 1st - 8th
Check to see that readers recall specific details from Shel Silverstein's poems. The poems appear to be taken from the collection Falling Up. Bring this classic children's author to your class with this resource.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Holiday Poetry and Music

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Pupils discuss Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and family traditions. After brainstorming how holidays are celebrated, students write a poem about a chosen holiday and create their own hand-made instrument. They share their poems...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Definition Poems

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
“Hope is a tissue, wiping away your problems and fears.” Use a Definition Poem Web worksheet to model for your class how to craft a free verse poem based on an emotion. After brainstorming topics, groups use the sheet to make comparisons...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poe's Poetry and Prosody

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Motivate your class with this lesson! Learners use passages from Edgar Allan Poe's poetry to practice reading fluency. They read "The Raven" as a rap song to better understand the rhyming patterns and pauses.  
Worksheet
Curated OER

Figurative Language: Simile and Metaphor

For Students 4th - 6th
What is figurative language? Introduce your young learners to the most popular forms of figurative language: the simile and the metaphor. Start by reading "Willow and Ginkgo" by Eve Merriam, and identify where similes are used. Then look...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cinquain Syllables

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Young scholars identify and analyze various forms of poetry, then use information gathered from research to write their own cinquain poems. They then identify each syllable of their cinquain with a small icon that reflects the theme of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Colorful Creative Writing Rebus

For Teachers K - 6th
Learners read rebus samples from various sources. They write poems about colorful places, including detailed descriptions of people, scenery, and objects. Students create small, relevant illustrations to communicate meaning using symbols...
PPT
Curated OER

Let's Learn Library Language

For Teachers K - 4th
This PowerPoint presentation provides a review of 'library language', vocabulary associated with books and the library such as cover, title, author, illustrator, call number and fiction/nonfiction. Each slide of this PowerPoint displays...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Thanksgiving Acrostic Poems

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Learners watch streaming video, Holiday Facts and Fun: Thanksgiving, define and discuss acrostic poetry, complete circle map using words associated with Thanksgiving, and create acrostic Thanksgiving poems to be typed in Microsoft Word...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poems for Every Season

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students read and explore autumn poetry. For this poetry lesson, students read Autumnblings and are introduced to different poetic forms. Lesson includes ideas for exploring the poetic forms presented in the book and cross-curricular...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Christmas Tree Shaped Poems

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Young scholars think about ways in which they can spread joy during the holiday season. They create poems in the shape of a Christmas tree. Pupils use formatting tools in Microsoft Word to format the text of the poem. Students discuss...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Free Verse Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
In this language arts worksheet, students will focus on free verse poetry. Students will articulate a free verse poem about family, feelings, and a favorite place.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: That Long Jakes

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Cross-media analysis takes time and attention to detail. The class analyzes the painting Long Jakes and the poem "Backward Bill." They pay attention to the similarities and differences in each piece, looking for details that describe the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Giving with Imagination

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Demonstrate gift giving as an act of caring about someone versus gifts for show (or gifts from the purse). Elementary learners practice giving gifts from the heart by creating a poem for someone special to them.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: I Can See Clearly Now Practicing Careful Observation

For Teachers K - 5th
Poetry and art analysis go hand-in-hand. In groups, youngsters analyze a landscape painting, making careful observations. They use details found in the painting to inspire an original poem. The poem must include at least three objects...
Lesson Plan
Shutterfly

Photo Story Lesson Plan

For Teachers 4th Standards
After reading Loree Leedy's There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, kids create and illustrate their own poems that convey the meaning of an idiom. The poems are then transferred into Shutterfly's Photo...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: One of These Things is Not Like the Other

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Kids kick of the lesson by comparing and contrasting the focus painting to other similar paintings of Native American women. They then compare their own personal portraits (photographs) in a similar way. They use the differences in each...
Organizer
School District No. 71

Adding Written Detail: Using Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon as a Mentor Text

For Students 1st - 4th Standards
Access your senses with a worksheet on sensory language. Based on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, the worksheet prompts kids to find examples of each of the five senses, as well as phrases for inner emotion. 
Lesson Plan
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Roald Dahl

Matilda - The Weekly Test

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Readers take the main characters in Matilda and individually describe them through a mnemonic. To get there, group members create an acrostic poem describing the character they were given, and choose one of the words from the...
Lesson Plan
Roald Dahl

The Twits - Mrs Twit

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second instructional activity in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly...
Study Guide
Reed Novel Studies

Third Grade Angels: Novel Study

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
A million things to do, a ton of homework ... hyperbole sure does help get the point across! With the novel study for Jerry Spinelli's Third Grade Angels, scholars practice writing their own exaggerated sentences. Additionally, they...