Smarter Balanced
Effects of Water
To prepare for a performance task assessment, class members review the stages of the water cycle and then individuals assume the roles of drops of water for a Reader's Theater exercise. The script, a graphic depicting the water cycle,...
Walden Media
Charlotte's Web: This Christmas, Help is Coming from Above
Studying Charlotte's Web in your class? Included here are worksheets and activities for pupils, and lessons for teachers. Learners examine the text, create their own little play using paper cutouts of the characters, complete a crossword...
Macmillan Education
Happy 40th Birthday Brown Bear
What do you see? Wish a happy birthday to Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The lesson includes six extension activities for the books and its companion stories, including a maze and animal...
Penguin Books
The Curriculum Guide for The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer
The death of a parent can turn a child's world upside down. A curriculum guide for The Secret Hum of a Daisy explores defining moments in the main character's life, including the loss of her mother. Chapter-by-chapter discussion...
Curated OER
It Takes Two
Third graders examine various exercises in order to distinguish between exercises designed to increase muscular strength and those designed to improve muscular endurance. Groups create a presentation for their "clients" to explain the...
Curated OER
Communication Methods
Students explore communications by participating in a science class activity. In this communication technology lesson plan, students discuss the process of morse code, its history, and the electromagnets used to create the device....
Curated OER
A Paragraph Organization Exercise
Students examine sentences and rewrite them in the most logical order. Each sentence should be connected to the next, both logically and rhetorically.They look for methods the author has used to organize and develop his ideas.
Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Let your writers take a break from formal writing and experiment with undirected freewriting. First they'll discuss the difference between directed and undirected freewriting. Then they'll put their knowledge to work and create some...
Academy of American Poets
The Immigrant Experience
The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...
Curated OER
Socratic Questioning
If you are new to the technique of Socratic questioning, check out this resource that details the five steps in the Socratic method. The examples of each step are drawn from Brave New World.
Curated OER
Consistent Point of View (Avoid Pronoun Shifts)
He to you? She to they? Are your young writers starting their sentences with one type of pronoun and then shifting to another? Provide them with a worksheet that lets them practice maintaining a consistent point of view. The 14 exercises...
Curated OER
Writing and Scholarship Planning For College-Bound Students: Overcome Writer's Block
Learners examine methods for overcoming writer's block. They complete a worksheet, write personal statements, and participate in a class discussion.
Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Eighth graders practice pre-writing skills using brainstorming methods. Using music and meditation, they examine the difference between directed and undirected free-writing, as well as how and when to apply them to the pre-writing process.
Curated OER
Dream Kitchen
Advanced ESL students can engage in this lesson designed to practice compiling lists, adding costs, and describing why they chose a particular item. They will choose items from a magazine that they'd like in their dream kitchen. Next,...
Curated OER
Method for Teaching the Blending of Sounds: Train Technique
Students explore the blending of individual sounds to make words and, using visuals and manipulatives, equate this process to the hooking up of railroad cars to make a train. They link individual letters/sounds to make short words.
Curated OER
Grammar Exercise: Question Words
In this question word worksheet, 2nd graders choose the correct question word (what, when, where, who, whose, why, which, or how) to complete a question. There are ten questions to do.
Curated OER
Science and Art Museum
Imagine each one of your learners on task and interested in scientific material. Learners investigate science related art by creating a small museum! Using digital cameras, pupils photograph different scientific actions that look...
Curated OER
Overcome Writer's Block
Students review methods for overcoming writer's block. They are asked if they have ever experienced writer's block, what the experience feels like, and discuss some strategies that they use to deal with writer's block. They are given a...
Curated OER
Gandhi's "Good Life": The Spiritual Dimension
Young scholars investigate awareness and spiritual transformation by researching the life of Gandhi. In this philosophy lesson, students discuss living in an aware state by practicing yoga, eating vegetarian, and becoming immersed in...
Curated OER
Understanding Self-Esteem
Young scholars describe self-esteem and what it means to them. In this health related lesson, students work through 4 exercises to become more aware of what self-esteem means to them and others in the classroom. The lesson ends with an...
Curated OER
A Sense of Place
Students read "Fish Tale: Falling For a Live One" from The New York Times and discuss the methods and techniques the writer uses to create a strong mental image. Students pick a place in their community they wish to write about and...
Curated OER
Balancing Equations and Using a Pyramid
Sixth graders complete worksheets and make journal entries to interpret mathematical expressions about the pyramids. In this equality by balancing equations lesson, 6th graders participate in groups or by themselves to complete exercises...
Curated OER
How to Improve Eye Tracking to Make Reading Easier
Children with dyslexia may have issues with their eye tracking ability and this may cause problems when they read. Here is a set of three easy steps you can use to improve a learner's eye tracking. The idea is that some kids need help in...
Smarter Balanced
Importance of Nutrition
Prepare your class members for the performance task assessment on nutrition with an activity that asks class members to rank images of foods from least nutritious to most. Participants also offer reasons for why they ranked the foods the...