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A Community of Givers
Students explore charitable organizations. In this character development lesson, students read about children who have contributed to charitable organizations, research a variety of these organizations, plan a project, and prepare a...
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Education in Colonial New England
Fifth graders examine schooling now and in New England Colonies. In this compare and contrast lesson, 5th graders describe schools of the present to schools of the past. Students also investigate the goals of schooling and the part...
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Pets
Students participate in an after school program that promotes making decisions, getting along with others, decision-making, and being responsible. A pet survey is administered along with a variety of pet riddles with the students. They...
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5 Mother's Day Lessons and Activities
Students complete a craft project. In this Mother's Day lesson, students learn about Mother's Day around the world, write an essay about their mother, create a Mother's Day card, create coupons for meaningful time with their mothers and...
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Giving Advice
In this writing worksheet, students are asked to offer advice to new, incoming students. Completed at the end of the school year, students will analyze their year in writing this short essay.
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This I Can Do: The Drive
Students read The Garden of Happiness and discuss the importance of the common good in a community. In this common good lesson, students understand how overcoming diversity and working together for a neighborhood drive. Students create a...
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Kids Making News
Fifth graders correspond with one another regarding interesting global topics. They swap interview questions and collaborate in the publishing of an online newspaper. This should be a highly motivating lesson which get kids writing!
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Understanding Dialect as Used by Mark Twain
A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...
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Current Events
Learners explore different countries, their locations, and their cultures. Using an encyclopedia, they locate the information, then write a report. Ultimately, they create a paper doll to represent their chosen country.
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Lesson Mystery: The Game is Afoot
Students enter and experience the world of Sherlock Holmes and hard-boiled detectives in this unit on mysteries. They review and analyze the ""Whodunit Requirements" and the "Mystery Contract" that accompany this lesson. Each student...
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It's Magic: Understanding the Roles, Responsibilities, and Requirements of Workers
Fifth graders investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions. Then they break into groups to complete the training and education for two careers selected from a listing in the lesson....
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How Does a Friend Act?
Students brainstorm a list of characteristics that friends should and should not have. In groups, they are given a set of hand puppets in which they role-play different scenerios in front of the class. To end the instructional activity,...
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Read to Us!
Kids love being read to. Use these children's books and accompanying activities to engage young learners. Fun drawing print-outs and charts are included, and a variety of reading strategies are employed.
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Poetry In Motion
Explore poetry with your class by having them film themselves reading different types of poems. They explore different elements in all types of poetry. They choose images to accompany their poems and learn to create video presentations...
Read Write Think
Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading
Over the course of five periods, scholars create a poetry portfolio. They begin with a reading of the poem, Firefly. With a focus on vocabulary, learners reread the poem then look for sight words and other skills.
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Pre-Reading Preparation
Students research the English Renaissance era. In this research lesson, students complete this activity before reading the story The Prince and the Pauper to learn about the history. They pick topics and work in groups to research them.
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Random Acts of Kindness For Kids
Develop a world-wide, email chain on which class members can showcase their acts of kindness. After defining the meaning of random acts of kindness through discussion and through a reading of Random Acts of Kindness,...
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Sly Book Channel
Create a commercial for a favorite book and broadcast this pitch on the Sly Book Channel! Learners practice retelling, summarizing, comparing/contrasting, and evaluation skills as they prepare their scripts. The approved scripts are then...
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Encouraging Students to Embrace Their Inner Author
Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. For this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...
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Technopoet - Poetry Lesson Plans
Practice word processing while writing different types of poems. First, elementary and middle schoolers use Word templates to write poetry. They use rhyming and descriptive words as they work with clipart, text wrapping, and picture...
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Giving Thanks for Food and Farms
Sarah Stewart’s The Gardener and Food from Farms by Nancy Dickmann display the importance of community farms. After reading these short picture books, class members draw connections between farms and the food we eat each day. As a...
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What a Character!
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
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Persuasive Writing -- Commercial Style
Students create persuasive TV commercials for common products. They develop a list of products, write the script for a commercial, and act-out and videotape the commercial to present to the class.
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Expressing Thoughts & Feelings
Students discuss an ordinary apple. They pass the apple around the room, whacking it on the floor at their turn. Students watch as the teacher cuts open the apple showing them it looks the same on the outside, but is bruised on the...