Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
The Backpack Travel Journals
Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...
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The Importance Setting and Mood in Fiction
Seventh graders examine the setting in pieces of fiction. In this story analysis lesson, 7th graders investigate the setting in fictional stories and the importance it has. Students discover new vocabulary terms applying to...
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Comprehension Skills: Picture, Question and Summarize Using Fiction Stories
Students build a variety of comprehension skills through the nine lessons of this unit. Picturing events, monitoring understanding during reading, forming questions, and summarizing stories form the core of the lessons being taught...
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Character Baseball Cards
Create baseball cards for literary characters with this lesson plan. It introduces students to baseball cards, their components (stats, picture, etc.), and prompts them to draft and publish their own cards based on figures from...
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Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
A thorough lesson introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid,"...
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Creating Comic Strips
Students recognize the elements needed to create a comic strip. In this comic strip instructional activity, student understand that comic strips need words and pictures. Students find differences and similarities in comic strips....
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Historical Fiction: Persuasive Presentation
Fifth graders read a book addressing a specific historical time period that was chosen by their working group. They complete journal entries as they read the book. They create a group PowerPoint explaining the personal point of view and...
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fourth graders research and write an author report on Roald Dahl, including books written by him, birthplace, family life, and other information on his writing. Students read aloud chapters in the book. Students create a newspaper...
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Researching Using Books
Young scholars investigate researching techniques by exploring their library. In this literature references activity, students identify the different types and genres of books that are readily available at their local library as well as...
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Story Scrapbook
Students develop a comparison worksheet using one non fiction book and one fiction book they have read to be put into a class scrapbook. In their comparison students must have title, author, point of view, setting, characters, and other...
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Media Scrapbook
Students analyze the fundamental issues relating to Canadian parliamentary democracy through the exploration of media and public opinion. A scrapbook is created containing summaries of the work performed.
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Panama Canal
Students investigate a way to sail a boat around the world without touching land while learning about the Panama Canal. In this Panama Canal lesson plan, students learn about the relationship of socio-political continents and how the...
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Greenewables
Students form expert engineering teams working for the (fictional) alternative energy consulting firm, Greenewables, Inc. Each team specializes in a form of renewable energy used to generate electrical power: passive solar, solar...
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Health Education: Germs
Fourth graders take part in a germ simulation activity. In this personal health lesson plan, 4th graders summarize methods for preventing the spread of germs that cause communicable diseases.
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5 W Questions
Second graders practice asking the 5 W questions by reading a Boxcar Children book. In this journalism lesson, 2nd graders read a single story from the Boxcar Children series and answer the 5 W's about each specific chapter....
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Parts of a Story
Learners read a short fiction book and demostrate comprehension by identifying the main characters, setting, conflict, theme, and summarizing the main points. They organize the information in Inspiration and create a powerpoint to show...
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What Character Comes Next?
Students read the book Do You Want to Be My Friend? and then use pictorial clues to determine which animal would come next. In this character lesson plan, students look at the tail of the animal to predict it.
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Evaluate the Main Characters? Problem-Solving Processes
High schoolers read passages from several sources and evaluate the text for various criteria. In this problem solving lesson, students evaluate character problem solving processes after reading passages. They will use a Venn Diagram to...
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Coral Reef Ecology
Students explore coral life cycles. In this coral ecosystems activity, students view videos explaining the life cycle of coral, including examples of sexual and asexual reproduction. Students read a related article cooperatively in...
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Adventures in Wonderland: A Genre Study
Students explore the concepts of fantasy writing through this nine lessons unit. The unit presents semantic mapping, discussions, comparisons of various works of fantasy, and the opportunity to create their own fantasies.
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Open Sesame: A Magical World of Reading
Third graders, through six lessons, study tales of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin and the Lamp from The Arabian Nights.
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Genre Jeopardy
Young scholars play a Jeopardy game in which the questions are about different genres. They can use this activity as a review before a test.
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Escolas de Carnaval
Students create a carnival display displaying the different themes they have studied. In this carnival lesson plan, students display the work they have studied through the samba schools in Brazil. Students also incorporate music in their...