Curated OER
My Brother Sam is Dead: A study of the Revolutionary War
Fifth graders complete an analysis of the Revolutionary War through literature. After "My Brother Sam Is Dead," students create a time capsule containing items that would be relevant during the Revolutionary War. They identify key...
Curated OER
Dear Presidential Diary
Students discover how a president spends the day. In this presidential history activity, students research primary sources in order to write their own diaries for presidents that include suggestions of laws, managing personnel,...
Curated OER
Take a Breath, Steal Some Time
Students explore the art of haiku's by listening to, modeling and creating them. In this haiku poetry lesson, students choose an object to focus their haiku on. After hearing a brief history of the haiku; students make a list of what...
Curated OER
How Owly And Wormy Became Friends: Using a Silent Comic To Inspire Creative Writing
Students view a wordless comic before using it as a story starter. They access a story that uses the same characters at a website in order to better understand the nature of the characters. They write a story inspired by the comic and...
Curated OER
The Words that Surround Us
Students investigate writing that we read daily by analyzing advertisements and articles. In this language arts instructional activity, students discuss the images and writing they see daily, where it comes from, and what it represents....
Curated OER
I Just Drank George Washington's Water!
Guide your learners through the water cycle with this lesson plan. Over the course of the instructional activity, they read two Magic School Bus books, discuss the water cycle, come up with water facts, complete a diagram of the water...
Nemours KidsHealth
Human Body Series: Immune System
When you work with school children, teaching about immunity and illness prevention is a priority! This approach includes a discussion, kid-friendly online articles, a creative writing assignment, and a quiz on the role of leukocytes and...
US Institute of Peace
Becoming a Peacebuilder
"Be the change you wish to see in the world!" The 15th and final lesson in a peacebuilding series uses this quote from Gandhi to prepare pupils for their own action projects. Individuals research a global issue, then brainstorm a method...
Curated OER
Creating Transitions
Fourth graders analyze the use of transitions in text. In this transitions lesson, 4th graders determine how and why a transition is used at a specific time in a piece of writing. They show transitions by using movements before...
Curated OER
What Do Writers Do?
Pupils learn about honing their writing through editing. They write the beginning of a story, paying attention to vocabulary and detail. Then they split into groups of two to peer edit. After discussing ways they can improve their...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Colonial Craftspeople
In the first lesson plan of this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders gain background knowledge of different jobs performed by early colonists. The class begins with a slide show presentation that includes a variety of great...
Curated OER
Typing, Reproducing and Distributing the Job Pamphlet
Students use a word processing program to make a job pamphlet that is suitable for reproduction. This lesson help students write for a purpose. They use the skills of organizing, pre-writing, and revising with a word processing program.
Curated OER
Said Is Dead
Young scholars revise writing to improve organization and word choice. They check for logic, order of ideas and precision of vocabulary. Students list different verbs for the word "said." They write dialogue in which the speakers tell a...
Curated OER
Personal Adventure Stories
Pupils examine the characteristics of an adventure story. Students write an adventure story of their own based on a true personal experience. After drafting their story, pupils use a word processor to write, edit, and revise their work.
Curated OER
Letter Sound Accuracy, Musical Chairs
Students explore word structure by participating in a game of musical chairs. In this phonics instructional activity, students discuss the letters of the alphabet and identify words that begin with each letter and the sounds they make....
Curated OER
The Correct Use of the Articles "A" and "An"
Young scholars discover the grammatical rules regarding articles. In this grammar activity, students study the rule regarding the use of "a" and "an" in writing. Young scholars are encouraged to discover the rule on their own and apply...
Curated OER
Creative Writing
Learners write in their journals at the beginning of class. They create a poster of what they just wrote about in their journals. Pictures are to be labeled and dictionaries are encouraged.
Curated OER
Captions: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Learners examine a picture for details, write questions they need answered about the picture, create lead-ins and captions appropriate for a picture and write captions appropriate for other pictures.
Curated OER
Words into Pictures
Students discover the history of writing through images, and the universal themes that are still relevant. In this communications lesson, students analyze a group of symbols on the black board and must translate them into a complete...
Curated OER
Sounding out accuracy, Mix, Mix, Match
Young scholars explore English by identifying segments of words in class. In this phonetics lesson plan, students utilize flash cards which contain letters and mix them in order to create a "match" word. Young scholars sound out the...
Curated OER
Phonics and Vegetable Books
Students participate in phonemic awareness and phonics activities and develop a list of vegetable vocabulary words. They break up words into beginnings and endings, and trace and write the letter s. Students then create a Vegetable...
Curated OER
Reduce Reuse Recycle
Students discover methods that can save the planet by recycling. In this sustainable planet lesson, students read The Berenstein Bears Don't Pollute Anymore, and practice memorizing the 3 R's. Students write commitment letters...
Curated OER
Fairy Tales
Students explore fairy tales. For this fairy tales lesson, students analyze the main idea of a fairy tale and interpret it. Students then re-write the story from the point of view of another character or object in the story.
Curated OER
Mountain Creation: A Drama Exploration
Students explore mountain formation. In this cross curriculum earth science and legend writing lesson, students listen to the poem "The Way to make Perfect Mountains" by Byrd Baylor and identify examples of vivid language used. Students...