Curated OER
Persuasive Writing -- Commercial Style
Students create persuasive TV commercials for common products. They develop a list of products, write the script for a commercial, and act-out and videotape the commercial to present to the class.
Curated OER
"Polly"gon Pockets
Explore polygons with your elementary learners. Divide the class in 12 to configure the polygon puzzle before them. They list the attributes of each type of polygon they see, and if there's time, they jump on the interactive website...
Scholastic
Connecting with Ruby Bridges
When Ruby Bridges entered an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, she also entered history. Scholars consider what the experience must have been like for the young girl using two books that document her experience as well as a double...
Curated OER
Commas 101: The Basics
Clear up common questions about commas with this handy resource! Useful as a reference page as well as a grammar activity, it presents six different rules for comma usage, including fanboys, lists, and parenthetical words and phrases. A...
Scholastic
Hill of Fire Teaching Plan
Some books are perfect for drawing connections between multiple subjects. The book Hill of Fire becomes the hub for three very different, yet related activity ideas. First the class hones their oral language skills by creating an...
Scholastic
Quick as a Cricket Lesson Plan
Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts lesson. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of a simile...
Curated OER
What Contains Carbon?
Students explore elements by analyzing everyday objects and materials in class. In this carbon lesson, students define several vocabulary terms such as carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon, and carbonate. Students view a group of items,...
English Worksheets Land
A Tale of Two Gardens
Gardening is fun, no matter what you're growing. A reading comprehension activity encourages learners to compare and contrast two gardens that grow different items.
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: June 2015
Many teachers and districts want to give their pupils test-taking practice before state standardized testing occurs. Here's a resource that features a complete exam with numerous passages, a variety of item types, a conversion chart, and...
Scholastic
Frindle Lesson Plan
"Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?" Inspired by this quote from the award-winning novel written by Andrew Celements, this lesson allows children to invent their own...
Illustrative Mathematics
Movie tickets
This is a good Common Core question that relates inflation to operations with decimals and rounding. Young learners are asked to find out if an amount of money can purchase the same amount of movie tickets in 2012 as it did in 1987. They...
Curated OER
Picture Hunt: R Control O
Students use the r controlled o sound to sound out words and identify items and people in a picture. In this r controlled o lesson plan, students use the internet to complete their activity.
Curated OER
Classifying Items
In this classifying worksheet, students read about grouping similar objects into categories based on similarities. They determine how the groups are related and they draw a diagram showing categories and subcategories.
Curated OER
Creative Classroom Creatures
Students are introduced to the five kingdoms and discover why there is a need for a classification system. Using the internet, they examine how scientific names are created and practice putting animals into their correct classification....
Curated OER
ESL: Common School and Office Words
In this ESL vocabulary worksheet, students read names of common school and office items to become familiar with them. Page has a link to exercises.
Scholastic
Ruby Bridges: A Simple Act of Courage, Grades 3-5
Through character trait graphic organizers, a vocabulary sorting activity, class discussion, and a civil rights movement slide show, your young historians will be introduced to the amazing story of Ruby Bridges and her experiences as the...
Curated OER
Technological Grand Conversations
Conduct a written literary discussion and diminish stress about public writing. Class members, already arranged into literature circles, compose and post responses to novels, signing with initials or class number. The process continues...
Curated OER
Writing Diagnostics and Introduction to Literary Terms
Assess your new learners' writing abilities and knowledge of literary terms with these diagnostic activities. Part of a back-to-school unit, this is meant to provide the teacher with information about the ability levels of their class....
Curated OER
Group Product-Pitch Presentation
Are you just about to teach persuasion in your class? If so, you should consider this short unit. In small groups, learners create a product, develop a magazine ad for the product, and pitch this product to the class using a visual...
Curated OER
Writing with Writers for Grades 9-12
Have your class examine the characteristics of various writing genres using the Writing with Writers online project. Detailed instructions for how to introduce, discuss, and develop a piece of writing for each genre are included. Class...
Curated OER
Two Truths and a Lie: Internet Research Skills
It's tough for high schoolers to assess what is a credible resource and what is not. A helpful resource prompts class members to research a particular topic and record two facts—and create one lie—while documenting the sources. They...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing: Using Art to Inspire description
Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...
Curated OER
Critical Thinking Strategies
Teach your readers to be critical thinkers. A strategy is outlined that can be used to compare and contrast entities. An example lists four states. The learner removes one state that "does not belong" in the list for some reason, and...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Nonfiction
Examine the elements of nonfiction writings in this lesson. Learners list common features of nonfiction and compare nonfiction and fiction books on the same topic. Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two genres.