Student Handouts
Graphic Organizer: Reference Citations
Pupils practice researching sources and logging citation information with this graphic organizer. After posing a general topic, groups of students are asked to devise general questions about that topic, and to research sources that they...
Curated OER
Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension Exercise
Looking to increase reading comprehension? Teach this lesson, which is flexible enough to use with either informational texts or with literature. Teams of boys and girls work together to answer a comprehension question after listening to...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Rain School: Text-Dependent Questions and Vocabulary
The engaging story Rain School is further explored in the third lesson of a larger unit that explicitly teaches close reading skills by answering questions whose answers can only be found inside the text. Through teacher modeling and...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Text-Dependent Questions, Main Ideas, and Key Vocabulary about the Bullfrog
As your 3rd grade class finishes reading Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the eighth lesson plan of this unit helps readers from an understanding of the very specific information on the final page of the book. As with the entire unit,...
Curated OER
Because of Winn-Dixie
Readers analyze an excerpt from Kate DiCamillo's novel Because of Winn-Dixie. They read silently, and then hear it read aloud. Definitions for underlined vocabulary words are in the margin, and other potentially difficult words are in...
National Institutes of Health
Open Wide and Trek Inside
Don't underestimate the value of a clean mouth! Here is a six-lesson unit that details everything a youngster needs to know about oral hygiene. It includes lessons on the purpose of a mouth and teeth, the nature of oral bacteria and the...
University of Wisconsin
Designing a Rain Garden
Now it's time for all of the data collected in previous lessons to be applied to the design of a rain garden. This resource can only be used as part of the greater whole, since learners will need to rely on gathered knowledge in order to...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in learning about the...
Education World
St. Patricks Day Lesson: The Real Story of St. Patrick
Fun St. Patrick's Day facts abound. The lesson plan tells the story of the most famous icons associated with the holiday: the shamrock, snakes, Celtic religion, Irish history, and St. Patrick himself.
Museum of Disability
Taking Visual Impairment to School
What is the world like when you can't see, or when your vision is impaired? Learn about how Lisa communicates with the world around her with Taking Visual Impairment to School by Rita Whitman Steingold. Learners answer discussion...
ESL Holiday Lessons
Christmas Day
Celebrary the holiday season fluently with a packet designed for English learners. The resource includes reading comprehension, spelling, scrambled sentences, and writing worksheets focused around Christmas.
Curated OER
Animals Galore
A well-designed instructional activity which covers the characteristics of the animals found in the six animal groups is here for your young biologists. In it, learners divide up into six groups; the amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds,...
Curated OER
Levers and Wedges in the Human Body
Young biologists identify parts of the body that serve as wedges (teeth and fingernails), and as levers (jaw, arms, and legs). The hands-on activities described here should be exciting for learners to perform, and should also lead to a...
Scholastic
A Reading Guide to Sarah, Plain and Tall
Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to reading comprehension...
Indiana Department of Education
Social Emotional Toolkit
Looking for some tools to help you incorporate social and emotional learning into your curriculum? Then check out this 79-page kit packed with ideas for developing social-emotional learning competencies. The first section provides...
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson plan on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
UTSA Institute of Texas Cultures
Teaching Through Kamishibai and The Art of Chinese Calligraphy
Young learners discover kamishibai, a popular Japanese storytelling art, and explore how these Japanese folktales illustrate the country's cultural themes and values through discussion and storyboarding.
Curated OER
Patriotic Symbols of the United States
Young historians take a close look at the most famous patriotic symbols of the United States and determine what they actually stand for. Symbols such as Uncle Sam, The Statue of Liberty, The Bald Eagle, and The Liberty Bell are studied....
Curated OER
Pocket Full of Posies: Ceramics
After studying the plant or flower life cycle, have the class create a basket of flowers out of clay. They hone their ceramics skills while they push, pull, then paint clay to look like flowers they've seen in nature. There are several...
Curated OER
Clowing Around: Ceramics
Clowns are a big hit with kids! Explore a few circus related websites to get an idea of how clowns look and what they do. They then build sculpting skills by creating expressive clown faces out of clay. Web links, materials list, and...
Curated OER
Pollution
Young ecologists investigate some of the many ways that human activities adversely affect the environment. After identifying the main types of pollution (air, water, soil), 3rd graders fill in a Venn Diagram by pasting cut-out pictures...
Curated OER
The Same, But Different
Third graders examine the phase change between solids and liquids and determine it to be a physical change. Ice is the perfect item to use to demonstrate this phase change. Pupils experiment with measuring and weighing solid ice and the...
Curated OER
The Same, But Different Part II
Learners characterize a physical change as something that changes to a different size, but retains its basic substance. They measure volumes using milliliters, and perform an experiment that proves that gases expand when hot and contract...