Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
Curated OER
Bird and Breakfast
Students examine winter birds. In this KWL chart instructional activity, students fill out the chart and view a PowerPoint presentation. Students then complete the chart and discuss winter birds.
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Falcon KWL Chart
Students create KWL charts about falcons. They write what they know about falcons and what they want to know about them. They read for information on falcons and complete the last column of their chart with the information they...
Scholastic
Lesson Two: The Earth, Introductory Activities
Determine what young pupils already know about earth science with a brainstorming activity. After class members work together to complete a KWL chart about the Earth, they craft an acrostic poem to demonstrate their understanding.
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A House for Me- Ocean Environments
Young scholars explore ocean environments. In this ocean environment lesson, students identify the things ocean animals need for survival. Young scholars use KWL charts and search the Internet collecting information about ocean...
NASA
What Do You Know About Mars?
Learn exciting facts about Earth's neighboring planet—Mars! Young scientists collaborate on a KWL chart about Mars, adding information as the activity progresses. Scholars listen while teachers read an article about Mars and watch...
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I Can Preserve My Planet
Students explore renewable and nonrenewable resources. In this ocean preservation lesson, students use KWL charts to understand ways the ocean is important to our daily lives. Students create a poster or wirte a letter to someone...
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Encouraging Inquiry-Based Research
Students categorize questions they generate in preparation for pursuing answers that expand their existing knowledge. They create KWL charts and respond to journal questions to enable them to inquire to their fullest capacity.
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Tree Seedling Planting- My Relationship and Responsibility to our Forests
In this trees lesson, 4th graders read the book, A Tree is Growing and complete a KWL chart on how trees grow and how they are used. Students research the symbiotic relationship of humans and trees, create tree collages, plant a...
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Solar System: Let's Take a Trip
Third graders consider outer space. In this introductory solar system lesson, 3rd graders complete a KWL chart and listen to the story The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen. They will contribute...
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Get the Facts
Students explore spiders. In this spider instructional activity, students fill out KWL charts, discover facts about spiders and how to identify different spiders. Students research spiders on the Internet and do online activities.
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The Air We Have Around Us
Students listen to story, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss, discuss air quality and how people affect the earth and its atmospheric cycles, and give oral reports on what they have learned.
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Who? Who? Whoooooooo?
Students read Poppy by Avi and then dissect an owl pellet. They complete a KWL chart and play vocabulary games to prepare for the dissection. They examine what the pellet can tell us about the owl's life.
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Ladybugs
Third graders keep and report records of investigations and observations of ladybugs utilizing tools like journals, charts, graphs and computers. They discover and study the life cycle of ladybugs and complete a KWL chart about ladybugs.
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Pond Theme Unit
In this pond theme worksheet students research facts on pond life. Students complete comprehension questions, crosswords, word search, and math puzzles. Students write a short report.
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The Parts of a Tree
Students create a tree model. In this parts of a tree lesson, students read A Tree is a Plant, then discuss what trees are used for. Students use various materials to build and label their own tree.
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Wetlands in Our State
Fifth graders access prior knowledge to create a KWL about the wetlands. In this wetlands lesson, 5th graders research to answer the questions in their KWL.
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Stewardship
Learners explore deforestation and cultural mandate. In this stewardship lesson, students complete a KWL chart about deforestation and discuss how stewardship relates to the cultural mandate after reading silently in...
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The Great Kapok Tree Debate
Learners participate in a read aloud of the story, "The Great Kapok Tree" in which a logger decides not to cut down a tree. In small groups, they discuss and write about their opinion on the logger's decision. Each group then presents...
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Dinosaurs - Physical Characteristics
Students describe the physical characteristics of dinosaurs, compare and contrast the evolution of land, and they explore the extinction of dinosaurs.
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Dino Hunt
Learners use the Internet to gather information about dinosaurs. They practice navagating through the different websites. They also practice listening to directions and also explore how to fill out a KWL chart.
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Ecology: Trees
Fourth graders read the defintions of renewale and nonrenewable resources and discuss any incorrect responses. They view a sample of work for the class to see which they describe posting responses on the board in their respective columns...
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Rain Forests
Students investigate the animals and plants of the rainforests. They define rainforest, watch and discuss a National Geographic video, and write a short story.
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Remarkable Reptiles
Students will develop a KWL chart with the class to assess prior knowledge. The students will be given five-ten minutes to individually fill out the Know and Wonder sections of their individual charts. They will then participate in...