Jessica Winston
Tacky and the Winter Games
Helen Lester's wonderfully wacky, Tacky and the Winter Games, is the core text featured in a resource packet that includes a prediction exercise, an activity menu, vocabulary flash cards, and book review worksheet. A great way to cheer...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this instructional activity into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own...
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help...
Global Oneness Project
Recording a Dying Langauge
Is there value in preserving indigenous languages that are almost extinct? That's the question posed to viewers of a short film about the attempt of one Native American woman who is creating a dictionary for Wakchumni, the language of...
Curated OER
One Grain of Rice
Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
8th Grade Poetry: Narrative Poem
The first lesson of a five-lesson unit designed for eighth graders has class members reading and watching a video of Edgar Allen Poe's narrative poem, "The Raven." They then craft their narrative poem, illustrate it, and share their work...
Curated OER
Launching Your Ship with Citizenship Lesson 4: Hoisting the Flag
Students discuss the U.S. electoral process and brainstorm solutions to increase voter turnout in their community. For this democratic citizenship lesson, students identify keywords in speech and video related to freedom of speech and...
Curated OER
Goals And Objectives for Units of Study And Lesson Plans
Students determine the role that goals and objectives play in lesson planning. They identify the difference between goals and objectives.
Curated OER
Conventions: Strong Verbs
Fifth graders practice using strong verbs. In this conventions lesson, 5th graders brainstorm words to complete sentences and list lively and exciting verbs. Students act out meanings of certain words. Students come up with new ways to...
Curated OER
We Are the Government
Students read primary documents to find the motivations of the founding fathers of the United States. In this primary documents instructional activity, students discuss the meaning of the Preamble to the Constitution, read parts of the...
Curated OER
Polar Pals: Polar Bears & Penguins
First graders complete a variety of activities about polar bears and penguins including the "Blubber Mitten" experiment. They culminate the unit by creating a visual representation comparing and contrasting the two animals.
Curated OER
English in Mind Unit 4: Grammar Practice
For this grammar practice worksheet, students complete fill in the blank sentences using will/won't, might/might (not). Students circle the correct verb in a sentence, and complete conditional sentences. There are thirty three...
Curated OER
English in Mind Unit 12 Grammar Practice
In this grammar practice worksheet, pupils match adjectives to the correct adverb, practice using too and very, and ing ending. Students complete twenty seven fill in the blank and matching questions.
Curated OER
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
"The Gettysburg Address" is the basis of a series of activities that not only model for learners how to conduct a close reading of a text, but also how a close reading can help them comprehend a difficult text. The detailed, step-by-step...
Curated OER
Dr. King's Dream
Students explore life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., reflect on section of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, discuss inequities that still exist in the United States, and create picture books about their own dreams of freedom for...
Great Schools
My First Presidential Election
Register, establish a platform, make campaign speeches, and design campaign advertisements with a study of presidential elections. Young citizens engage in various activities that mimic the election process.
Curated OER
Language and Dialect
Practice listening skills while studying oral story tellers from different parts of Louisiana. Consider the regional dialects and insider language of folk groups with your class. Identify language as part of folk life and recognize that...
Edible Schoolyard
Pan de los Muertos
Accompany instruction and the celebration of El Dia de los Muertos with a loaf of Pan de los Muertos. Here, scholars measure ingredients precisely to create tasty bread, write a remembrance for someone who has...
Curated OER
Story of Self
What a great beginning-of-the-year activity! Get your class to identify their values through a three-page worksheet (included). Each speaker will craft a two-minute description that includes their story and how they can help their...
Curated OER
Understanding Dialect as Used by Mark Twain
A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...
Curated OER
Attracting an Audience With Purpose
High schoolers discuss the attributes of a good speech and a bad speech, and listen to Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, I Have A Dream. They rewrite a speech, directing it to a different audience than it was intended for.
Curated OER
All's Well That Ends Well
Students examine and discuss the parts of a speech and how to organize them. They read sample speeches, then write a short presentation to read to the class, identifying the beginning, middle, and ending of their speech.
Curated OER
Adverbs
Fifth graders complete a worksheet where they must fill in the blanks with the correct adverb. For this language arts lesson, 5th graders learn all about adverbs and when and where to use them. Students cut action pictures out of a...
Curated OER
Conventions-Interjections
Fifth graders discuss interjections reviewing them to be words or phrases that express excitement or strong emotion. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders understand that commas or exclamation marks are used to separate interjections...