Curated OER
Vocabulary Development
By utilizing a graphic organizer called a bubble map, young readers work toward developing their vocabulary. After reading a story, a word that has something to do with the story is put in the middle circle. Then, other words that have...
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The Tell-Tale Heart
Bring Edgar Allan Poe's spooky story to life! After reading the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," middle and high schoolers identify the theme, character traits, irony, and other story concepts. During pre-reading, they take notes,...
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Pass the Painting
After reading a story or informational text describing an animal, your class gets creative and collaborative with paint. In groups, they brainstorm all the parts of an animal, they then take turns painting those parts. One child starts...
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Geo Shapes
First graders listen as the book, "Try It With Triangles" is read to the class. They name the geometric shapes that they see in the story and view the Shape Vocabulary Cards as they name them from the book. They then cut out the...
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Worksheet 7/7 A Pride of Collective Nouns
Play around with collective nouns! For this activity, learners read and study a story about a band of thieves coming to an island. Readers look for the collective noun groups in the story and circle all 40 of them. This exercise includes...
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Introduce Vocabulary: I Hate To Be Sick
Engaged in a read aloud, kids use the story to define new vocabulary words, raising their hands when they hear new words in the story. Additionally, individuals refer to the text to show how the word was used in context....
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Realism and Fantasy
Second graders listen to the story, Bruno the Baker, where some parts seem real and some seem fake. They must identify the parts of the story as realism or fantasy. An interesting way to teach young readers these two concepts.
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Cruise the News
Students utilize newspapers as a resource to complete various tasks. They read articles, write summaries, investigate the classified section, write commercials, and circle spelling words.
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Dinosaurs
Students are introduced to the various types of dinosaurs and write in their journals about their favorite one. After listening to a story and watching a filmstrip, they color a few pages in their Dinosaur Friends Book. They also examine...
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Chinese New Year
Students complete a variety of activities as they study Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac. They act out a story of the Chinese Zodiac. They make several crafts including Chinese lanterns and paper fortune cookies.
Education Outside
Nature's Treasure Map
Youngsters construct a map of treasures that they find along a nature trail as they hike. They also make sketches and create place names of some of the spots along the trail. Once back in class, pupils use their treasure maps to help...
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Civil Rights: Rosa Parks Centers
Research the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks. Set up different centers and have learners rotate through the activities aimed at researching Rosa Parks. They read The Bus Ride that Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks, write a...
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The Catcher in the Rye: Found Poem Activity
After concluding The Catcher in the Rye class members create a found poem using words drawn from J.D. Salinger’s “Both Parties Concerned.” The story, and directions for crafting a found poem, are included with the resource.
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Experience This!
What would you do if you had to go to school all day every day? Tillie tackles this problem in Sharon Creech’s A Fine, Fine School. After a discussion of how Tillie got the principal to change his ways, brainstorm with your class...
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Guide Words in a Dictionary
Second and third graders match the five pairs of guide words to the words in a list that should appear on the same page in a dictionary. They look at a second set of five pairs of guide words and circle the word (from three choices) that...
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Graphing Memories
Mem Fox’s Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge provides the labels for a graphing activity. Class members create an illustration of a memory item brought from home, and place their illustration in the proper column of a graph. When the...
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Capitalization and Punctuation
These passages don't look right! It's your grammarians to the rescue as they correct capitalization and punctuation issues in two informational paragraphs. They must circle all words missing a capital letter and fill in blanks where end...
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Shaping Up!
Kindergartners are introduced to basic shapes. Learners spend 45 minutes a day in geometry centers carrying out the activities outlined in this ambitious plan. There are games, hands-on activities, interactive websites, art projects,...
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Using Personification
Young readers listen to the story The Three Little Pigs, and discuss what abnormal characteristics the pigs and the wolf have. They relate these characteristics to personification, and practice writing sentences using personification.
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Spelling Activities
Use this list of spelling activities all year long to help your class spell each week's list of words! This list provides 12 different ways for class members to practice their spelling. Learners identify vowels, consonants, synonyms, and...
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I Am Special and You Are Special Too #6
We are All Alike…We Are All Different is the springboard for the creation of an illustrated book in which young writers record their impression of themselves, their families, and their interests. Sharing the completed books in circle...
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"A Sound of Thunder" Vocabulary in Context
Ray Bradbury does it again, providing a story full of symbolism and interest. After your class reads "A Sound of Thunder" and studies the difficult vocabulary, quiz them with this sheet. Example words include aurora, expendable, and...
Novelinks
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Concept/Vocab Analysis
Considering using Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for book circles or whole-class study? First time teachers, and those who have used the text before, will find some interesting tidbits in this overview.
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Pablo Picasso Collage
Students read the story SAIL AWAY by Donald Crew to show different pictures of water and oceans. They are then introduced to a collage showing examples of Picasso's work. They construct a collage using different methods.