Curated OER
A Poem for Nature
Students imagine what it would be like to enter a landscape painting and then write a poem on nature.
Carolina K-12
Affrilachia
What makes a culture unique? Learners research life in the Appalachia region of the United States. Poetry, music, and oral history create Affrilachia, the term used to describe the lifestyle of the area. African-American mountain culture...
California Academy of Science
Poetic Reflections
Poetry is a wonderful way to explore language, express topical understanding, and incite creative thinking. After a trip to the local natural history museum (or zoo), learners write an acrostic or a cinquain poem describing one of their...
Curated OER
Ocean Life Mural
How many oceans can you name? First, have learners try to name as many oceans as they can, and then have them locate and identify the oceans on a world map. They create a recognizable ocean animal using poster board and tissue paper....
Curated OER
Improving Descriptive Writing: Painting an Original Picture
Descriptive writing is rich in sensory appeals and paints pictures in the minds of readers. Show young writers how to use an on-line thesaurus and a cliché website to create fresh, descriptive writing. The presentation ends with an...
Wildwood Trust
Habitats
The circle of life is all around us, from the black bears in the nearby mountains to the pile of dead leaves in the backyard. Encourage young scientists to take a critical look at the world around them with a set of lessons about natural...
Curated OER
Creative Writing and Analysis
Learners read and analyze poems by Li Po and Wang Wei. They answer discussion questions, identify the elements of the poems, examine and discuss Chinese landscape paintings, write an original poem, and write a comparison/contrast essay.
Curated OER
Social Studies: Exploring Japan
Fourth graders examine the culture and environment of Japan, beginning with a KWL chart. They use clay and cups of water to construct representations of the Japanese Islands. After designing flags representing farming and food, 4th...
Curated OER
Poetry In the World Around Us
Students engage in a lesson which is designed as a literacy connection to science lessons on the effects of water on plants. This lesson uses an excellent Reading Rainbow episode on the effect of drought, and then rainfall, have on the...
Curated OER
Japanese Tanka Poetry
Students discover the techniques of creating Japanese Tanka poetry through in-class discussions and a fun group competition. This lesson is an excellent introduction to Japanese literature and/or poetry.
Curated OER
"I'm Thankful For..." Placemat
Students discover the story behind Thanksgiving through comparing and contrasting what pilgrims were thankful for, memorizing Thanksgiving poems, and creating a placemat that depicts the poem.
Curated OER
Chinese Landscapes
Learners explain some of the topographical features of China's landscape. They view a Chinese landscape and discuss their view of the harmony between man and nature, then create their own karst mountain scene.
Curated OER
Things to Remember
Pupils read the poem "For the Record in Memory Of" and then discuss the historical events in it.
Curated OER
Attitudes Towards Nature in Daoist Art
Students examine Daoist art. In this art appreciation lesson, students illustrate a poem, then create a second illustration in the Daoist fashion while focusing on depicting the harmonious relationship between humans and nature.
Curated OER
Make an "I'm Thankful For..." Placemat
Learners compare and contrast what they are thankful for and what the pilgrims were thankful for, and create a Thanksgiving placemat. They read and recite the poem "I'm Thankful For," and create a laminated landscape placemat that...
Curated OER
Forces in Motion-Science Puzzlers, Twisters & Teasers
In this physical science instructional activity, students complete 6 questions about forces in motion in the form of word puzzles, poems, riddles, scrambles, and brain teasers.
Curated OER
Nature and Haiku Poetry
Young scholars compose haiku poems and recognize how cultures value nature and
natural forces through the study of Japanese poetry. This lesson includes a bibliography of resources.
Curated OER
"Encounter with a Skull" by Koda Rohan
Young scholars, in pairs, develop two poems--one must be a haiku, the other must be a tanka. They recite their poems to the class.
Novelinks
The Giver: Biopoem
The characters in Lois Lowry's The Giver are rich and complex as they weave their way through the plot. Examine the character traits of one chosen person with a biopoem, which enables learners to follow a poetic format in writing a...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Patriots or Traitors - Point of View in the War for Independence
Patriots or traitors? Class members analyze images that present widely differing views of the Boston Tea Party, identifying the point of view of the image, the propaganda devices used, and the intended audience.
Curated OER
Unrolling the Landscape
Students create a landscape painting using traditional Chinese techniques. They review Chinese landscape paintings, paint an original landscape and write a poem to go with their picture.
Curated OER
Change Agents
Third graders experiment with three erosive change agents. They do an observation log, which they present to the class through a song, poem or skit.
Curated OER
Picture This!
Learners practice visualizing images as they read text to help improve their comprehension skills. The teacher models a visualizing technique, and the passes out two poems for the students to read silently. The class creates a Venn...