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Creating Sentences with Onomatopoeia Words
Third graders create sentences. In this sentences lesson students use onomatopoeia words to write sentences. They make a movement to match their onomatopoeia word. The students discuss why an author might use onomatopoeia in their writing.
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Sea-ing More Clearly
Students explore historical importance of fish as food source, examine works of Robert Harris, create their own fish, and compose accompanying poetry. Students then explore dramatic tradition of Chorus inspired by Greek theatre,...
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Order, Order
Third graders practice creative writing by making a book. In this book publishing instructional activity, 3rd graders investigate the steps needed to publish anything by researching the Internet. Students collaborate on a list of 5...
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Activity Plan 3-4: Dreamy Rhymes
Students write a story about an animal using rhyme. In this literacy lesson plan, the teacher shares different versions of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with the class and that becomes the basis for the creation of a picture and story for...
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Reliving History Through Slave Narratives
Students read slave narratives and retell the stories to the class, identifying sensory details. In this slavery lesson, students discuss the importance of sensory details, then read the slave narratives looking for specific examples. ...
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Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
Dramatic activities promote enjoyment of literature, increase reading comprehension, and help develop oral expression. It is important for children to engage in activities which help to develop their creative potential. Drama allows...
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Decades
Students work cooperatively to research the people, places, events, and things that represent their assigned decade. They creatively, write and present ten minute dramatizations of information about their assigned decade.
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Summer Fun Activity: Dream Vacations
Students can turn the block area into a travel agency. In this early childhood problem solving lesson, students use creative-thinking and language skills as they design a play environment.
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Pancake Express
Students participate in a variety of manipulative skills in cross-curricular activities (dramatic play, reading, problem solving) to improve creativity and health education.
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Sound Effects
Students listen carefully so they can say their "part" during a reading of a Cinderella story. In this listening and speaking lesson, students saying their "part" on cue during a reading of a familiar story. They actively listen to the...
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Short Story Framework
The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...
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Geo Jammin' - Day 2, Lesson 6: Rhyme and Reason
Students listen to the poem "Shapes" by Shel Silverstein in order to accurately and specifically describe shapes' rules/traits in their journals. They illustrate the poem and take turns reading during a creative shared reading session.
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In Search of Caesar's Ghost
High schoolers collaborate in small groups to choose a scene that they write in place of a scene in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar". In this dramatic expression lesson, their scripts include roles, lines and stage directions. Students...
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A Tree Grows-Narrative Pantomime
Discover pantomime! Young mimes assume the identity of the seed as they listen to a story about the growth of a seed throughout the seasons. After a discussion of the performance, the class writes about and illustrates their favorite...
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Writing Prompt "Living With Fame"
Fourth graders practice their creative writing skills by describing fame. In this writing prompt lesson, 4th graders identify fame and how their life would be dramatically different if they were wildly famous. Students utilize a four...
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News Poetry
Third graders select a small item in a newspaper and then dramatize it in a well-constructed poem. They share their poems with the class.
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Creating Your Own Story
Students think about a dramatic moment in their lives and imagine how to translate it into a work of art. They write their own personal experience as a story. They describe a visual image of their personal experience and/or story.
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Language Arts: Writing Diamante Poems
Third graders discover how to write diamante poems and review the parts of speech contained in them. After writing poems about their teacher, they create ones about themselves. The poems, assessed for creativity and handwriting, are then...
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Wacky Weather Stories
Students observe, identify and creatively express their ideas through literature and dramatize an original story that features a type of weather in the plot.
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Miming
First graders perform a pantomime for their classmates. After a discussion of the items needed to go on a camping trip, each student selects one of the items to pantomime for the rest of the class. The remaining class members guess...
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Israel
The class creates and performs a movement performance of the creation story found in the Jewish tradition. This instructional activity begins with the research of Israeli culture and culminates in a performance of the narrated creation...
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Those Fabulous Fables
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
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Touring the Museum
Second graders create a living sculpture using their peers. Working with a partner, they manipulate their partner's arms and legs to create a living statue. They create a story to go along with their sculpture, explaining what the...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples for drama...