Curated OER
The Mighty Apostrophe
Here is a well-designed presentation on apostrophes and their many uses. The apostrophe is used in many different ways, and this PowerPoint does a great job of showing how it's used. There is a nice interactive component built in, and...
Curated OER
Our Picture and Word Book
Create a fun song for your young learners! It should include each of their names and use rhyme to make it memorable. Then show the class a picture dictionary, and have learners make their own class dictionary! If you have time, consider...
Curated OER
"The Beaches of Agnes": Planning a Video Self Portrait
Agnes Varda’s autobiographical “The Beaches of Agnes,” models for young filmmakers the cinematic self-portrait. Far from “old and plump,” Varda is a giant of filmmaking and will inspire your pupils. After watching a clip of this famous...
Curated OER
Character Traits: Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear
Lensey Namioka’s Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear provides an opportunity for young readers to observe how writers bring their characters to life. Each class member selects a character to trace through the novel, recording...
Curated OER
Kids Can Make a Difference
What is a philanthropist? We can all be philanthropists! After assessing the needs of the school and listening to literature about how they can help others, primary learners develop a class project and maintain a journal of their...
Curated OER
Everyone Can Write Poetry
Embark on a journey of writing several different types of poetry. Fifth graders read several examples, and use the examples to model their own writing. Each poem is to be accompanied by a different art visual representation. In the end,...
Curated OER
Journalism: Technology and Teen Abuse
Learners investigate the link between technology and abuse among teens. They research dating abuse when cell phones or the Internet are involved. Working as a team of reporters, photographers, graphic artists, and page designers, they...
Curated OER
Comedy Across the Curriculum
The New York Times Learning Network provides the resources that permit pupils to examine and then write and perform a fake news broadcast in the vein of “The Daily Show” or “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update. The generated reports...
Curated OER
A Look Through My Antonia's Eyes
Thoroughly delve into My Antonia by Willa Cather with a plethora of activities. Engage scholars with videos and web sites in this week-long unit that explains the historical context and creates pioneers in the field of research. An...
Curated OER
Fragments, Comma Splices, and Fused Sentences
This excellent resource has the audience focus on ways to create complete sentences. As the presentation progresses, they see many examples of sentences that are fragments, run-ons, and ones that are punctuated incorrectly. They then...
Curated OER
President for a Day
Students imagine they are president of the United States for one day! students study general information about the duties of the president of the United States. They create a schedule for one day as president.
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Equipment Ad
Students create a one-minute advertisement for a piece of sports safety equipment. They define the terms ad, advertisement, and commercial and demonstrate creative-thinking and creative-writing skills.
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Mapping Your Identity: A Back-To-School Ice Breaker
Identify the unique personal attributes of your class members. Begin by viewing the Visual Thesaurus and discussing displayed attributes associated with famous American leaders. Using these identity maps as models, pupils generate nouns...
Curated OER
Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
Curated OER
Tell a Ton of Tall Tales
Elementary schoolers read many tall tales. They create their own tall tale about a specific event of their choosing. They must act the part of the author. This well-designed lesson takes three class sessions to complete, and is...
Curated OER
Ad Busting
Debunk advertising myths by creating an opposing image. First, find an ad with a persuasive and emotional pull. Once you have identified the message, create a counter-advertisement that shows the opposite message. For example, if an ad...
Discovery Education
Mood Music!
Grouchy? Sad? Here's a great resource that shows kids how music can be used to lift their spirits. Kids collect and chart data on the effects of music on emotions. After analyzing the results of their experiment, they develop...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Artist’s Challenge Coins
Make 'em, trade 'em, share 'em. Kids create artist's challenge coins to celebrate personal achievements, as mementos, or as encouragement. Originally designed for service personnel, these coins are a great way to recognize achievement.
Curated OER
The Little Red Hen
Young readers access prior knowledge of how wheat becomes bread. Using "The Little Red Hen" story, learners make predictions of the events. Extension activities include singing a song about the story and making a list of...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
Curated OER
Writing Classroom Agreements using Inspiration & Word to Go
How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...
Curated OER
Teaching Appositives
Explore appositives, phrases that immediately follow the noun they modify, using sentence strips, examples, and collaborative learning. The class works together to identify appositives and use commas to properly punctuate them. Partners...
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Discovering Japan Through Cooperative Research
Search a variety of sources to create a multimedia or book project about Japan. Learners use the independent investigation method to plan and conduct research about Japan. They use the information they discover to create a computer book...
Curated OER
Mapmaker, Make Me a Map!
Here is a well-designed, very thorough lesson plan on mapping for very young children. Within the six-page plan, you will find everything you need to implement the lesson plan. They will identify various landforms found in Colorado on a...