Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring the Mystery Genre

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students determine the story elements of typical mystery stories including characters and plot structure. They look at vocabulary that is common to mystery stories before reading and responding to mystery chapter books. Working in guided...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Elements of a Mystery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners write mystery stories. In this writing lesson, students review the definition and components of a mystery. They look at a photo and write a mystery to explain the picture. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Picture the Process!

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students read "Chasing Vermeer," and then study the author's writing process. They make connections between the book and the author's real life experiences. They then write an original mystery story, following the writing process.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders read and discuss the book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. They create an original story that follows the Harris Burdick formula, and illustrate the story in the style of Chris VanAllsberg.
Lesson Plan
Science 4 Inquiry

The Classification of Living Things

For Teachers 6th - 12th
It's a classification sensation! Demystify why we classify using an inquiry activity that helps your class sort things out. Groups begin by classifying a variety of shoes before they research organisms and design their own dichotomous...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Do I See When I Picture Saturn?

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students create their own Saturn Discovery logs. They draw pictures of the planet and its founder. They share their drawings and writings with partners.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Think of an Ending

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Good endings are hard to find. And write. This, the final lesson in a six-part series devoted to study of the ingredients of a good story, focuses on crafting endings. Class members draft ideas about what should happen to each of their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Harriet The Spy

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
Unit Plan
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Surprise!: Challenge Activities (Theme 2)

For Teachers 1st Standards
Surprise! is the theme of this series of challenge activities. The surprise comes from the information your scholars will discover when researching topics such as alligators and crocodiles, living in other countries, becoming a...
Unit Plan
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program

The Backpack Travel Journals

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Spy Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students identify and interpret the rhythm and form of the I Spy poem. They then integrate art, music, literature, technology, and writing with poetry. Students also write their own poem based on the picture they printed from the I Spy...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Studying Fossils

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young scholars compare and contrast key skeletal differences between chimpanzees and humans: brain size, teeth, hand and thumb, trunk, pelvis, lower limb, foot and big toe. They then sort and group a set of mixed "fossil bones" of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Five Senses

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students recognize how each of the five senses works and define the related terminology. They compare and contrast the means by which the senses gather information about the world. In addition, they research how an assigned sense works...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Yo-ho, Yo-ho a Viking's Life for Me

For Teachers 3rd
Students complete a unit of lessons on the Vikings. They analyze maps, read and discuss myths, summarize the main ideas from resource materials, watch videos, sing a song, draw a picture to illustrate Norse mythology, and define key...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Westward Expansion and the Frontier

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students explore U.S. history by researching a historic map. In this westward expansion instructional activity, students discuss the mystery of the western U.S. in the early 1800's and the impact expansion had on Native Americans and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mystery Photo!

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine an original engraving of a piece of equipment called, The Grasshopper Catcher. They describe how technologies developed in Iowa during the Industrial Revolution influenced farming practices, and develop hypotheses about...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mystery Pen Pal

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate different cities and states in the USA, and practice their letter writing skills while corresponding with a pen pal.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

On the Surface of Things

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students create a Claris slide shows from pictures they have taken of items close-up in nature after studying the works of M.C. Escher and Georgia O'Keefe. Slide shows includes captions for clues to the identity of their nature picture.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Alaskan Eskimo Collection

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Students analyze mystery photographs to determine key characteristics about the Alaskan environment and Eskimo culture. In this Eskimo lesson, students read an Eskimo folktale and write their own in response. Lastly students complete a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Still Life Predictions

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read part of the story "Balto, the Dog Who Saved Nome". They make predictions about the story ending and identify the picture clues and textual information they used to form their predictions. They discuss the story's ending.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Banana Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree!

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Learners research their family history and make a family tree. In this family tree lesson plan, students are given an example of a family tree with names, pictures, and descriptions of each person. They then are instructed to research...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Microscope Mania

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students examine parts of a microscope and how to use a microscope at five lab stations. They identify parts of a microscope by describing the differences between low power and high power. They visit Internet sites (included in the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ecology Integration Using IMovie

For Teachers 5th
Amazing! Any 5th grader would be more than willing to participate in this project. Students are broken into groups, each group reads one book from a list of five. They use their book as the basis for choosing an animal and environment to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Spy Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Explore the components of rhythm and form through a reading of Jean Marzollo's I Spy books. After discussing Marzollo’s format, the class agrees upon a theme for a class book and topics that fit with that theme. Pupils write a poem,...

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