+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Description and Modifying: What's On Your Plate?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create a food product and an advertisement promoting it.  In this description and advertising lesson, students read children's book for inspiration and discover advertising techniques.  Students complete their ads and use...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson 5:Web Page

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students create a webpage. In this technology lesson, students choose a topic and work in groups to create their own webpage using Microsoft Frontpage.  This lesson includes directions on how to make webpages and cover pages. 
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry: What's on Your Plate (Part 2)

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students write a short paragraph using strong descriptions.  In this using modifiers lesson plan, students define modifier, adjective, adverb, metaphor, and simile.  Students then write a journal entry in which they write about a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shades of Meaning

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
Examine and distinguish between words that have similar definitions but different connotations. Middle schoolers define connotation and denotation and participate in a "shades of meaning" contest in small groups. Groups use the Visual...
+
Lesson Plan
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Geometry in Architecture #1

For Students 9th - 12th
Discover how to analyze architecture from a geometric standpoint. The fourth installment of an 11-part unit on architecture first provides a presentation on axis, balance, basic form, formal, pattern, proportion, symmetry, and tripartite...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Become an Expert

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students are assigned a separate species of plant or bird to research. Using a worksheet, they are responsible for finding a variety of information on their assigned plant or bird. They also complete a mini-poster and give an oral...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Roald Dahl

Matilda - The Weekly Test

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Readers take the main characters in Matilda and individually describe them through a mnemonic. To get there, group members create an acrostic poem describing the character they were given, and choose one of the words from the acrostic...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Writing Using the Senses

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders, utilizing a thesaurus to identify alternative word choices and meanings, eat a sweet treat and then list eight different adjectives for each of the five senses. They then describe a sweet with at least then adjectives...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mammal's Around the World

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders, exploring all the ins and outs of using a computer, publish their own mammal papers with the use of word searches, thesaurus and spell checks. While in the computer lab, they research their mammal and country on the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson One: Decoding Strategies

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Review decoding strategies to read a chosen text. Readers tape themselves reading out loud, listen to the recording, and mark where they have misread words or phrases. They then discuss which words were misread and review how to correct...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Learning Vocabulary by Using Reference Materials

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Change

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Young learners record observations about different coin denominations and create a song about coins to the traditional song, "The Wheels on the Bus." This lesson is based on the Tennessee Quarter Reverse, and has all sorts of excellent...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Salinger and the Vocabulary of the Vernacular

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Writers explore vocabulary and expressions used in the English language. They use visual word maps to become aware of the different uses of words which will allow them to more readily interpret texts. Then they listen to/read excerpts...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Down the Knoll Without the Water

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students use a thesaurus to find synonyms for selected words in fairy tales.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"To Be Or Not To Be" And the VT

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Using the online Visual Thesaurus, nascent actors work in groups to analyze and interpret Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" monologue. Individuals then craft a contemporary version of this famous speech and present their adaptation to the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Continents and Oceans of the World

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students explore world mapping skills. In this world geography instructional activity, students identify and label the continents and oceans on a world map using the Visual Thesaurus. Students generate mnemonic devices to help memorize...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Know Your Polygons!

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students identify and categorize different polygons. For this polygons lesson plan, students research and identify properties of polygons,  identify different polygon shapes, and categorize different triangles and quadrilaterals.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Sense of Homographs

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
What is a homograph? Develop your students' vocabulary with a word association tool.   Language arts classes discover what a homograph is and how it can be used as a visual thesaurus. They discover the other uses for homographs such as...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Take the Prefix Challenge

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students form words using prefixes.  In this prefix lesson, students compete in a "prefix challenge" to see which team can combine a set of twelve prefixes with a set of twelve words fastest.  Students enter their words in a word log and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Figurative Language in Toni Morrison's "A Mercy"

For Teachers 9th - 12th
In order to read and respond to Toni Morrison's A Mercy in this figurative-language instructional activity, students discuss the differences between a literal and a figurative interpretation of a text.  They explore figures of speech...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cite Your Sites

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
What information would you find in an almanac that you would not find in an atlas? What is the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus? Using a Cite Your Sites worksheet on which they record their observations, groups participate...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dictionary Work - Entry Words

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders examine the use of entry words in the dictionary. In this dictionary use lesson, learners look at guide words in a children's dictionary as the teacher/librarian describes the characteristics of each entry. They complete...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making an Argument: Effective use of Transition Words

For Teachers 5th - 9th Standards
Work on using transition words in context by prompting elementary and middle schoolers to write their own persuasive essays using transition words. They explore new forms of transition words and examine how they are used in an editorial...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Nym Family

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
List and identify words for each part of the "Nym" family: synonyms, antonyms and homonyms. Middle schoolers place words in the correct category, then find the corresponding mate in a dictionary or thesaurus.