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Mythical Beasts
Students explore literature and art forms containing creatures that are part human and part animal, such as the Greek Sphinx, Neptune, or the Green Centaur. Individually, students write a poem or short story to create a character with...
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Family Origins and American Cultural Pluralism
Students explore, analyze and discuss family origins, special legacies, and racial/cultural groups in literature and art that exposes them to positive examples in African-American history and culture. They encounter examples from dance,...
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The Lorax
Third graders identify environmental problems. In this natural resources lesson students participate in several activities that support critical thinking about the environment and natural resources. The students write, list, and verbally...
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Mini-Unit: Natural Resources
Students explore how their choices affect others. In this character development and ecology lesson, students debate choice-making issues. Students listen to The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and identify choices the characters made...
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Music of the Civil War
Students gain insight into the Civil War era by exploring the art, music, and literature of the time.
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Native American Heritage Month
An exploration of Native American culture can lead to art, literature, and poetry activities.
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Behind the Cover
Students develop questions they would have liked to ask an author about their written works. They read an article about their forefathers and research a back story to a written work of their choice. They create posters to illustrate the...
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Frederick Lesson Plan
Students enjoy Leo Lionni's illustrations in Frederick and watching how Frederick uses his imagination. In this Frederick lesson plan, students practice dramatic techniques as they retell traditional literature.
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Can We Switch Genders of Story Characters?
Students read and review the main elements of a story. In this language arts lesson, students predict what the story read to them would have been like if the genders of the characters had been different. Students write a new...
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A Journey To Japan Through Poetry
Third graders gain an appreciation for writing, analyzing, reading and listening to poetry, viewing poems as a motivation for studying Japanese culture and tradition. They study and create their own haiku and tanka poems with illustrations.
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Visualizing Jazz Scenes From the Harlem Renaissance
Learners identify themes of selected nonfiction, fiction, poetry and art to Harlem Renaissance jazz and describe the impact of jazz on African-American literature of the Harlem Renaissance
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The Book of Life
Students discuss the factors that make a good children's book. After reading an article, they explore the prevalence of science in children's literature. In groups, they research a topic and translate it into easy language for a child...
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Egg to Butterfly
Students examine the life cycle of the butterfly through literature. In this butterfly life cycle lesson, students listen to a read aloud of Eric Carle's, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and discuss the life cycle shown in the story. They...
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It's in the Elements - Lesson Four
Young scholars compare and contrast story elements in two versions of Cinderella. In this literature elements lesson, students are read two different versions of Cinderella, they identify the characters, plot, and setting, then...
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Early Settlements
Students embark on a journey through colonial times. In this early settlement lesson, students come to understand what life was like for the settlers in the early colonies. Students research and create projects illustrating their...
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Comparing Fiction and Nonfiction
Fifth graders compare and contrast an informational article with a fictional story. They read the story "The Contest" as a class, and discuss the different types of literature genres. Next, they complete a vocabulary worksheet and a...
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Disease & Epidemics: Architects of History
Students explore disease and its relationship to history and literature. They investigate issues that range from early biological warfare and historical disease treatments, to observing today's race for the cure against current emerging...
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Under the Spell of Spiders
Young scholars examine spiders. In these spider lessons, students will view spider images and live spiders to determine physical characteristics, habits, and habitats. Young scholars will examine fantasy and folklore about spiders to...
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Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. For this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
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Picture This!
Students explore and generate story elements for wordless picture books. In this collaborative writing lesson plan, students review wordless picture books and write a story based on the illustrations. Students use post-it notes to...
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Portrait of a Place, Portrait of a Family
Students act out stories based on lives of famous people from Harlem. In this memoirs lesson, students compare the life of the people in Harlem in 1930 to the people of today. Students explore how "home" is different for different...
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Cooperative Comics
Students create comics identifying conflicts and their resolutions. In this conflict resolution lesson, small groups of students follow specific mapping instructions to illustrate a conflict and its resolution. Students present orally...
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Anansi and The Tug O' War
Students complete activities with the story Anansi and the Tug O' War. For this literature lesson, students listen to a story, answer comprehension questions, and complete three worksheets. They discuss facial expressions and try to...
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The Friendship Book Questions
In this literature study worksheet, students answer eleven short answer questions based upon the book, The Friendship.