Sixth graders brainstorm various types of friendships prior to reading "Tezen," a tale about a young girl's friendship with a fish. After writing story reviews, they work in small groups to create dramatic skits based on the text and...

Students read Diary of a Worm by Foreen Cronin. In this journal writing instructional activity, students research an animal and write a diary by their animal. Students apply the research they've completed in their writings. Students...

Study history through photographs. In this visual arts and history lesson, students learn to analyze photographs to discover details about life during the Civil War era. Students write journal entries as if they are the African-American...

Sixth graders review literary devices. They use both fiction and nonfiction texts to review metaphor, simile, alliteration, imagery, symbolism and personification. This lesson has a scripted guide for the teacher to follow.

Students write garden inspired poetry. In this poetry lesson plan, students go out into the garden and write poems about how they feel, what they see, and what is going on in the garden.

Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...

For this first of four lessons on book design, students are introduced to the vocabulary of book design through the use of bookwalks and a non-linear PowerPoint presentation in game-show (Jeopardy!) format.

How is Louisiana connected to the Holocaust? After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders complete a research report about a survivor of the Holocaust who currently resides in Louisiana. Though the idea is a good way to...

Eleventh graders read and study Hamlet. Then they are introduced to close reading as a means of understanding what is being read--not only understanding the printed word, but also the nuances and connotations of language as it is used by...

Elementary learners identify adjectives in sentences. They read the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll and highlight the adjectives. A good supplemental lesson if you are studying Lewis Carroll and/or "Jabberwocky."

Create baseball cards for literary characters with this lesson plan. It introduces students to baseball cards, their components (stats, picture, etc.), and prompts them to draft and publish their own cards based on figures from...

Students research Chinese culture, the lunar calendar, and how the new year is celebrated in China. They research several different meaningful Chinese characters. Students paint animal figures and Chinese characters then cut and fold...

Students translate story characters into three-dimensional finger puppet figures. They tell tales with wiggles and words and utilize their finger puppets to convey a story in front of their classmates as the curtain goes up and the...

Young appreciators of art consider the sculpture, The Things I Have to do to Maintain Myself, by Roxanne Swentzell. Everyone gives their opinion as to what the figure in the sculpture is doing. After they learn that the image portrays a...

Young writers will literally step into art and creative writing as they become the figures featured in the sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On. Begin by showing your class a picture of the sculpture and having a discussion about its most...

Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...

Students identify figurative language in a proverb and write an interpretation of the proverb prior to reading The Witch of Goingsnake. In this The Witch of Goingsnake lesson, students read a native American proverb and determine whether...

Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the...

Students read the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". While reading the novel, they identify and discuss the figurative language used and use a passage of interest to them and analyze it in a written paper. They also discuss events...

Eighth graders create a digital poem using PowerPoint, Audacity.com, and www.freeplaymusic.com. In this digital poem lesson, 8th graders write and edit original poems. Students utilize figurative language and imagery in poems and review...

A simile is a non literal phrase that needs to be deciphered for contextual meaning. Similes are also fun to read and write. Third graders get cozy with similes found in the book If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M....

Students, in groups, identify the origins of a number of transportation idioms. They search for current transportation idioms to have a partner explain.

Students discuss methods of building forms with clay (ball and variations, snake, flat sheets). They draw a stick figure of what their sculpture may look like, including correct figure proportion.

Students explore the definition and derivation of the popular saying "get a life." Using worksheets and lecture materials, students provide meanings for the phrase when used in varying contexts. They also consider the dervation of each...