Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Songwriting Skill - Elaboration: Jesse McCartney - “How Do You Sleep?”
The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in the...
Curated OER
How Do Authors Use Imagery to Shape Their Writing?
Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Background notes about the novel, The Great Depression, and The Dust Bowl
If your class is reading the historical fiction novel, Out of the Dust, then you are in luck. Here are a few slides that will help you provide historical context for the book, as well as define main characters, setting, symbolism, and...
Curated OER
Setting Worksheet
Set your class up for success with writing descriptive settings with these two graphic organizers. On the first page, writers note specifc details about their chosen setting and comment on how each character views the setting. The second...
Curated OER
Improving Descriptive Writing: Painting an Original Picture
Descriptive writing is rich in sensory appeals and paints pictures in the minds of readers. Show young writers how to use an on-line thesaurus and a cliché website to create fresh, descriptive writing. The presentation ends with an...
Curated OER
Rejoice, It’s National Poetry Month!
Cultivate an interest and enjoyment of poetry school-wide!
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The Shadow Knows - Creating Shadows
Young learners recognize a shadow and witness how shadows occur when light is blocked. They access streamed video, standard video, and websites in order to engage in their study of how light is naturally blocked to create shadows. An...
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Tree Identification - Up Close And Personal
Fourth graders go to an outdoor area and are assigned a specific native plant to observe. They read about and answer questions about their tree. They draw the tree. Finally, 4th graders teach the rest of the class about their tree.
Curated OER
Reading Examples
Young writers read excerpts from Gary Paulsen's memoir to identify figurative and literal language that contain sensory details. They determine which selections are examples of sensory language and fi the language is used literally or...
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Chemical Wonders
Students read about and discuss how chemical engineers use different states of matter to create substances. In this chemical engineering lesson plan, students also give examples of the 3 kinds of matter.
Curated OER
U.S. History: Our Constitutional Amendments
Eighth graders conduct Internet research about Constitutional Amendments and present oral reports on their findings. Their reports also include visual representations depicting their chosen amendment's focal point. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Using Descriptive Language
Students examine the use of adjectives in a product review, then write their own descriptive review. In this writing and word usage instructional activity, students first analyze the choice of adjectives in a New York Times article about...
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Being There: Exploring China And Japan
Students discover the culture, society, geography, and history of Asia through games, food, art, and literature in this multi-day lesson about China and Japan. An exciting lesson for upper-elementary or lower-middle school classrooms.
Curated OER
Wild Wonderful Walk
Students explore the outdoors. In this poetry lesson plan, students spend time outdoors and write a poem about what they felt and saw. Students can do this activity in pairs or alone. Students blindfold their partner to focus on sounds...
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Math, Music and Architecture: Kindergarten Geometry and Aesthetics in Music and Architecture
Students identify and name different geometrical shapes. In this math lesson, students distinguish odd from even numbers. They describe the properties of 2 and 3 dimensional objects.
Desert Discoveries
Nocturnal Navigators
Young biologists take a look at some of the unique ways that nocturnal animals survive in the dark. After reading a terrific student handout which is embedded in the plan, learners work together to answer questions about what they have...
Curated OER
A Rat's Life
Here is a two-page worksheet on rats and mice. Learners answer nine true/false questions about rats and mice, then compose answers to seven short-answer questions about these two rodents. Finally, they must compose a fictional story...
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Edible Bug Project
Students recognize the characteristics of insects. In this edible bugs instructional activity, students observe the body parts of an insect. Students create an edible insect using a grape, carrot sticks and sorrel stems and...
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Honey Bees and Communication
Did you know that honey bees dance to communicate information? Do you know why bees use hexagons to build their hives? The Honeybee Man, Brilliant Bees, and Show me the Honey provide background information on how honey bees communicate....
Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Curated OER
Salmon Homing Instincts
Students study the conditions of salmon imprinting as the fish returns to spawn in its native waters. Scented cards are used to mimic the imprinting process as the student fishes search for and identify obstacles to reaching their native...
K12 Reader
Identifying Adjectives
Support your bright young grammarians with identifying adjectives using these simple, yet effective skills practice worksheets. Presenting with a series of 18 sentences children are asked to first circle the...
Curated OER
Abstract Nouns and Concrete Nouns
Practice identifying concrete and abstract nouns with a instructional activity that offers three different ways to show what enthusiastic grammarians know. First, pupils read a passage and identify the nouns; second, they think up three...
Curated OER
Nutrition and the Elderly
Study the nutrition of elderly people and how it helps them to remain independent and healthy. Learners investigative the nutrition concerns of the elderly. MyPlate, vitamine requirements and sensory changes in the elderly are...