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The Is No Such Thing as a Perfect Pumpkin
Students explore using descriptive words to describe physical appearance. In this appearance instructional activity, students look at pumpkins and discuss how there is not a perfect pumpkin. Students also hypothesize about what the...
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The Sorcerer's Apprentice: 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons
Upper graders view the animated short, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and analyze how the music score was chosen to express the scene. They create an animation as they listen to a classical recording to experience the connection between...
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Fairy Tales Unit Ideas
Students listen to children's fairy tales and watch them on a video. Afterward, they list the heroes from each story. Students write a short paragraph about a typical day for the hero. Students dress up like their character and give a...
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Concluding Activities for an Author Study of Marc Brown and His Arthur Books
Everyone loves Arthur, the friendly aardvark! Emerging readers explore Arthur books by Marc Brown. They use the Internet to research Marc Brown and share information with their class. They work independently to conduct research and then...
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Moving West With Pioneers
Fifth graders read a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder to examine the hardships that were endured by pioneers traveling during the Westward Expansion of the US. They predict, summarize and participate in literature circles. They visit...
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Reacting to Literature
Students summarize a book which they have read. A slide show depicting an action scene in their chosen book is created and three main characters described using a web.
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Living Yesterday's History Today
Students explore the colonial period to describe and contrast the life and experiences of people who lived at that time with the lives of individual's in the current era. the lives of researched characters are dramatically enacted and...
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MACBETH and the Themes of Ambition,
Students describe and compare characters and situations in dramas from and about cultures and historical periods, illustrate in improvised or scripted scenes, and discuss how theater reflects a culture.
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Civil War Diaries
Fifth graders examine excerpts from a diary of a Confederate soldier and his experiences in a Union prison camp. After receiving character cards, they write diary entries from the perspectives of their Civil War identity. As an...
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Singing: Mi, So, La
Little ones learn the tones mi, so, and la by singing an answer to a sung question. They play a name game to identify beat, then discuss songs with no beat. If there is time during this musical instruction instructional activity, they...
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Writing to describe
Students examine descriptive writing. In this writing instructional activity, students listen to an audio version of the diary of Lt. Polly Hatchard and her expedition to the South Pole. Students explore the components of descriptive...
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Pirate Wanted Poster
Students investigate the character traits of a 17th and 18th century pirate by internet research and the creation of a Pirate "Wanted" Poster using iPhoto and a program called Comic Life.
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Storytelling in the Oral Tradition
Seventh graders research Greek mythological characters. They write about problems faced by middle school-aged children and how the character would handle them. Students also create story boards to accompany their oral narratives.
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Geometry Library
Fifth graders write and illustrate books to make a class library of math term books. They utilize vocabulary associated with geometry to make their books. For example, one character may be, Mr. A Cute.
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Dream Houses
Learners imagine and create their dream house. In this comprehension and interpretation lesson plan, students read The Big Orange Splot, answer comprehension questions about the story and complete a character traits web. Learners...
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Understanding Characters
Young scholars analyzing characters from a story by creating an article about one. In this story analysis lesson, students read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and pick one character to write descriptively about. Young...
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The Civil Rights Movement
Students learn about the civil rights movement and create a timeline to understand events in chronological order. In this history lesson, students work in groups to choose one activist from the Civil Right era to research. Students then...
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Celebrating Canada
Fourth graders investigate Canadians of diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds. They describe the multicultural, multiracial and multi-ethnic character of Canadian society and take age-appropriate actions to demonstrate their ...
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Read a Map ... It's a Snap!
Students are introduced to map and globe skills. They use grids and are able to construct their own simple maps of familiar places. Students are able to define a map, globe, and symbol and use the direction words north, south, east,...
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Masks and Aesop's Fables
Students study and perform Aesop's fables. For this Aesop's fables lesson, students read and/or listen to a number of the famous fables. They make masks based on the characters and perform a fable using the masks. They write about the...
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Keith Haring & Social Awareness
Students view four sections of one of Haring's paintings. They describe the people and characters they see. Students participate in a variety of classroom art activities such as: Making a treasure box modeled after Keith Haring's work,...
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Creating Dramatic Monologues from The Grapes of Wrath
The characters in The Grapes of Wrath come to life through an activity that asks groups to craft a dramatic monologue for a character in John Steinbeck's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Writers are challenged to...
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Analyze The Learner; Chocolate Fractions
Third graders describe, represent and compare fractions using pieces of a chocolate bar. In this fractions lesson, 3rd graders demonstrate how to read and write fractions correctly. Students then integrate technology by using the...
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Teaching Descriptive Word Usage
Second graders practice their creative writing by using descriptive words. In this language arts lesson, 2nd graders utilize their best descriptive writing to elaborate on one of 20 different bean bag characters. Students listen to...