Smithsonian Institution
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...
Curated OER
Research a Severe Weather Pattern of Interest
Young scholars select a severe weather pattern of interest (tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, lightning, hail, and thunderstorms) and research these patterns to collect data for a report they write in the next lesson plan.
Curated OER
Art: Weaving Based on Draft Patterns
Fourth graders observe the process of drafting a pattern on graph paper. After creating their own patterns, they create their own weavings, and explain its title to the class.
Curated OER
Window of Words
Students imagine that they are looking out (or in) a window with four panes and write about what they see using a variety of sentence structures. They create a paragraph about what they see looking through their window on Thanksgiving day.
Curated OER
Beauty: Patterns in Nature
Learners explore the patterns of nature. For this interdisciplinary lesson, students examine beauty in nature and participate in a hands-on simulation that demonstrates how human preferences for beauty have led to an increased frequency...
Curated OER
Animal Migratory patterns
Students use field research and traditional research to identify migrating species of birds as well as their migratory patterns. Students generate a list of questions regarding migration and a plan to research the questions. A field...
Curated OER
Spelling Endings
In this categorizing spelling patterns worksheet, learners sort words with their correct endings in groups with ack, ick, ock, and uck patterns. Students write 15 words.
Curated OER
Art -- The Secret to Freedom
Fourth graders create a coded message in a quilt. In this art instructional activity students demonstrate the communication used by the Underground Railroad. Students work in a group to make a quilt with a code in it.
Curriculum Corner
Roll, Read, and Color
Familiarize young readers with consonant digraphs using a collaborative phonics activity. Working in pairs, children take turns rolling a die and reading a word from the included chart that corresponds to the number they rolled....
Curriculum Corner
Be a Speed Reader
Young learners speed their way toward fluent reading with a hands-on consonant digraph activity. Using the numbered grid included in this resource, children roll a die and choose a word corresponding to the number they rolled. They...
Curated OER
Creative Art
Students examine the difference between creative and patterned art. They identify the role of the teacher in planning developmentally appropriate activities for young children. They
Curated OER
Bee a Good Reader
Being able to distinguish between the sounds for short vowel e and long vowel e is an important skill. Young readers are introduced to the /ee/ vowel pattern that makes the long vowel sound. They practice reading and identifying a...
Richland County School District One
Falling Into Geometry Through Paper Art
New-to-school learners create a fall quilt consisting of three different paper geometric quilt squares. They use various geometric shapes that when assembled will form a scarecrow, pumpkin, and a crow. Assembly will require sorting...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
McGraw Hill
Phonics Teachers Resource Book
Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the...
Curated OER
Using Poetry As Inspiration for Composition
A reading of Robert Frost’s "The Road Not Taken" launches an interdisciplinary study of the connection between the meters of a poem and a melody. After identifying the number of beats in each line of the poem, young musicians use...
Curated OER
Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Scholastic
Literacy Activities for Any Time
As the title suggests, this packet is loaded with activities that can be used at any time. The common element in all the exercises is that they are connected to books by Dr. Seuss.
Curated OER
Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Roll, Who Art Thou?
Students discuss gender role stereotyping and males and females in non-traditional work roles. They debate and discuss opinions as a group, and then as a class, concerning "men only" and "women only" jobs
Curated OER
The "Write" Stuff: Strategies and Conventions for Imaginative Writing
A comprehensive and immersive series of lessons that examines various aspects of story development leads learners into writing a narrative of their own. Writers develop an understanding of the writing process as they use the learning...
Scholastic
Making a Mini Book
Introduce your youngsters to -ig words with this mini-book that breaks the words into onsets and rimes. As kids read, trace letters, and pronounce each word, they get the chance to watch a big pig put on a wig and dig! (PS: The pig is...
Curated OER
Dear Diary
Work on narrative writing with this lesson, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view of the...
Curated OER
Secrets of the Mummies
How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Canned Sort
Give your budding readers practice with vowel sounds using a sorting activity which will especially appeal to kinesthetic learners. They examine two cans, each with a header card attached. The header card words have the same vowel...