Lesson Plan
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Text Features of Fiction, Poetry, Drama: Story Matrix

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...
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Dancing through Poetry

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...
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Dusty Locks and the Three Bears

For Teachers K
Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture...
Unit Plan
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Positively Poetry

For Teachers 6th
Students complete a unit on poetry. In this poetry lesson, students complete 19 lessons that focus on reading and writing poetry as well as learning about literary elements and sound devices. Students read poetry orally, debate poetry in...
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Wilderness Lesson Plan

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students investigate the wilderness by reading magazine articles and discussing with their peers.  In this wild life lesson, students read a page from the Natural Inquirer magazine and examine photographs online of wilderness...
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Clerihew Dances III, 4 and 5

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders relate dance movements to chants. They tap out the rhythm of poetry on different body parts.
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Clerihew Dances II

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders explore rhythm and quality of word and phrased to that of dance. They move to the rhythm of poetry.
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What Are Elements?

For Teachers 3rd - 7th
Students investigate elements by by defining scientific terms.  In this Periodic Table of Elements lesson, students utilize a glass of water, and powdered fruit drink to perform a lab activity demonstrating properties of certain...
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Heaven or Ground Hog Day?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers discover the ideas of enlightenment by reading historical poetry. In this philosophical lesson, students read poems by Sir Walter Scott and Sergeant Joyce Kilmer while discussing the themes of the writing with classmates....
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Comparing Two Poe Classics

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students read and discuss The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart. In this poetry lesson, students construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two pieces of literature.
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You Too Can Haiku: How to Write a Haiku

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students explore language arts by writing their own poems. In this haiku lesson, students investigate the Japanese culture and their beautiful music, poetry and art. Students count the syllables in every line of a haiku poem and write...
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Cherokee Leaf Printing

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars investigate their local creeks and forests and practice identifying trees.  For this ecology identification lesson, students utilize a pad and pencil while on a field trip near their school and describe their trip...
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Just "Who" are the Three Little Pigs?

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast various versions of the story The Three Little Pigs. They write a Cinquain, and then act out their version of the Three Little Pigs in a skit.
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Satire Witch Project

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students examine the use of titles with video. They create a short horror film based on a classic work of literature or other subject area writing. Students use a single camera and a single shot. Using Adobe Premiere Elements, students...
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Planet Dance

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine Anna Halprin's philosophies and choreography and perform one of her Planet Dances. They find a site that inspires them to create a dance based on the environment's design, levels, textures, and atmosphere.
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Tales to Live By

For Teachers 1st
Students explore the concept of theme. In this fairy tales lesson, students read several tales and complete hands-on activities, art projects, and dramatic play that lead to an awareness of the themes of the tales.
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Thornton Wilder's Our Town: The Reader as Writer

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students read a play and create their own play using Thornton Wilder's Our Townas a resource. In this play lesson, students analyze how theatrical elements contribute to a play's meanings and effects. Students recognize differences...
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Legends of the Fifth

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders discover the difference between myths, legends, and folk tales. They summarize legends. They work together to dramatize legends and then create their own legend using the writing process. Handouts and worksheets are included.
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The Tell Tale Heart

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explore storytelling by listening to a reading of a classic poem.  In this language arts lesson, 8th graders listen to an audio recording of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.  Students examine the life of...
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Clerihew Dances I

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders demonstrate locomotor movements and define non-locomotor movement. They discuss a story and perform a "name" movement.
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M.C. Bard: Hip Hop and Shakespeare

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students compare lyrics from hip hop songs with monologues from Shakespeare's plays, and perform both for the class.
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Japanese Noh Masks

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students examine Japanese theatre and create their own face masks which display certain emotions, props, costumes and perform in improvisational theatrical games.