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Creative Writing: Children's Building Blocks
Your class can participate in a writing program involving four building blocks. By exploring words, sentences, writing forms, and story organization, they improve their creative writing skills throughout this year-long unit. Early in the...
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My Favorite Holiday
Young scholars create a My Favorite Holiday Calendar Page. They recall the months of the year and identify the various components of a calendar. Students also apply their learning about holiday customs to consider their own favorite...
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Here's My Family
Family traditions help to instill personal values, social norms, and the warmest of childhood memories. Elementary and secondary learners share their favorite family traditions with a fun diorama project. Using modeling clay, they create...
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Clowning Around: Drawing
Kids create a clown out of shapes. They work to show emotions while practicing their drawing skills. Pupils use circles, triangles, squares, oil pastels, and their imagination to draw, color, and decorate a sad or happy clown. Tip: Have...
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Leaf People
Kids create leaf people out of sticks, glue, and leaves. They use their imagination to construct leaf people and then glue them onto construction paper. Tip: Extend this craft by incorporating writing. Have learners write a short story...
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Happy Holidays
Learners create holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups, using Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express as a writing prompt.
Kiwi Crate
Paper Chain Countdown
Is your class looking forward to an upcoming event or holiday? Print links to a paper chain that inspire kids to use their waiting time to complete creative and fun activities.
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Online Project Center
Students write two haiku poems in appropriate form. Writing haiku allows students to practice in the skills of dividing words into syllables, counting syllables, and searching for words to fit a structure.
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Cinnamon Ornaments
Students create keepsake cinnamon ornaments to hang on the family Christmas tree or in a window. They mix ingredients to form dough, create an ornament and write a message to accompany the ornament.
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What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...
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Making Christmas Cards
Students construct Christmas cards for loved ones. In this holiday instructional activity, students use various art materials such as construction paper, sequins, buttons, cotton balls, and felt to decorate a Christmas card.
Hubbard's Cupboard
The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving
Students explore holidays by participating in class singing activities. In this Thanksgiving history lesson, students discuss the importance of Thanksgiving Day and read several poems which discuss the history of Thanksgiving. Students...
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3 Holiday Projects
Pupils explore the concept of reusing and recycling everyday materials and make holiday-oriented decorations and gift wrapping. Letters containing environmental issues are composed and sent to political and corporate decision-makers.
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The Popcorn Book
Pop, pop, pop! Can you hear the sound popcorn makes when it's being made? Start the day by reading The Popcorn Book. Youngsters will love stringing together popcorn necklaces and learning about popcorn. There are separate prompts and...
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Let's Celebrate Ramadan!
First graders explore the holiday of Ramadam. They listen to stories, create a class penny jar to collect pennies to give to a charity, and write a class letter to parents explaining about Ramadan and the penny jar.
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A Thanksgiving Language Lesson!
Sixth graders, in groups, create restaurants, menus, and advertisements to attract Thanksgiving Day customers.
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Holiday Timeline
Students create a timeline to represent state and national holidays. In this social studies lesson, students use colored popsicle sticks along a line drawn on a piece of paper to illustrate when holidays occur.
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Mixing Colors with Corn Syrup and Food Coloring
Anyone who has worked with small children know that color identification and color mixing can be fun! This simple idea has a lot of potential. It suggests to mix food coloring with corn syrup to provide an opportunity for color mixing...
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Memorial Day
Pupils examine the events and individuals that led to the observance of Memorial Day as a national holiday. They research Memorial Day with time-lines, writing projects, editorials and other creative projects.
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El Dia de Los Muertos: Mexican Celebrations
Students research Spanish speaking individuals and the holiday, The Day of the Dead, using Internet and print resources. They orally present their research. Students engage in Mexican traditions by making either a lapida (headstone) or...
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How Many Ways Can You Say Merry Christmas?
Students create a multicultural holiday bulletin board map! students research and study saying Merry Christmas in different languages. They correctly locate the countries on a world map.
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Once Upon a Castle
Students complete a variety of activities surrounding castle communities and fairy tales. They write a letter to a fairy tale character, write a fairy tale, create a model of a castle, and draw a map of a castle community.
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Comparing Cultural Holidays
Third graders explore art that reflects their cultural background. In this writing and research lesson students compare and contrast the Halloween with El Dia de los Muertos. Students study the visual art of these holidays. Then students...
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A Vacation Expedition: Universal Design and Differentiated Instruction Lesson
Students plan a vacation to either a mountain, deep-sea location, rainforest or to the moon. In this vacation planning instructional activity, students research information about the location of their choice. They watch video clips on...