Curated OER
Hatchet: Predicting the Outcome Guide
What will happen in Hatchet by Gary Paulsen? Kids read a series of possible events that will occur in the novel and mark whether they agree or disagree with the probability of each event happening.
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Writing Assignment
As a culminating assignment for a unit study of heroes that uses The Hobbit as the core text, class members engage in a multi-genre writing project.
Curated OER
Test Your Spelling Skills: Dolch Sight Vocabulary
In this vocabulary worksheet, students will read and practice the Dolch basic sight vocabulary list. There are a total of 220 words in ABC order that frequently appear in written English.
Curated OER
Sounding Out Accuracy: Word Swatter Game
Students explore word fluency by participating in a language arts game. In this vocabulary identification lesson, students collaborate in two small teams, each armed with a fly swatter, in order to swat vocabulary words spoken by their...
Curated OER
Word Pairs
Fifth graders practice the trait of word choice and create a narrative writing with appropriate word choices. They work in pairs to write a story using as many word pairs from their imaginations as they can.
Curated OER
A Character's Decalogue Using "Because of Winn Dixie"
Students read the book Because of Winn Dixie and then create a personal decalogue, which is a list of 10 personal beliefs. In this decalogue lesson plan, students then write a decalogue of a fictional character and write a story based on...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Activity
Four weeks of vocabulary words are provided here! Each week has between six and seven vocabulary words for your young learners to master. First they hear each word, and then they get a short definition for each word. The second activity...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Activity
The four worksheets here are provided to introduce your learners to new vocabulary on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Each list contains seven vocabulary words focused on a specfic vowel pair. First the learner hears the word,...
Novelinks
The Cure: Vocabulary Bingo
As part of their study of the vocabulary used in Sonia Levitin's The Cure, class members create a card, filling in words from the novel, and then engage in a bingo game.
Curated OER
Whittling Out Haiku
Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...
Lakeshore Learning
Fun in the Snow
Celebrate the arrival of winter with a reading of Jack Ezra Keats' book The Snowy Day. Engaging children by asking them about their own experiences in the snow, the teacher goes on to read the story...
Curated OER
Thesaurus Power
Give your class the advantage of Thesaurus Power! They will use a thesaurus to understand word meanings and relationships. They focus on how a thesaurus functions and how it gives the entry word, definition, synonyms, antonyms, and part...
Curated OER
The Outsiders: The K-W-H-L Strategy
What does your class know about the 1960s? Introduce your unit on S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with a K-W-H-L chart, which encourages kids to list what they already know about the time period, what they would like to know, how they...
Reading Is Fundamental
Summer Fun...
Extend learning through summer with these activity ideas! Individuals can choose one or all nine of the activities, which range from a summer reading goal to an examination of local insects (with accompanying story prompt). See the...
Curated OER
Tangerine: Vocabulary
Here's a great way to make vocabulary words drawn from Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine memorable. Kids create a word square, and in one quadrant write the word. A picture goes in a second quadrant, the definition in a third, and a...
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Surprise!: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 2)
Surprise! is the theme of a unit covering such topics as consonants, blending, short vowels sounds, high frequency words, and number words. The unit's lessons also include teachable moments covering story structure, illustrations,...
Novelinks
Wildwood Dancing: Vocabulary Squares
As part of a study of Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing, class members create vocabulary squares for words drawn from the story.
Curated OER
Poems
Thud! Squiff! Create sound effects with words. Introduce your youngsters to onomatopoeia with these fun, rainy-day poems. They write down sound words, discussing rhythm and rhyme. You can also incorporate the author's use of capital...
Curated OER
Predicting the Meaning of Unfamiliar Words in a Text
Middle schoolers develop strategies for what to do when they come upon words in a text that they don't know. After a class discussion, pupils are given a selection of text that contains some very difficult words. They are instructed to...
Helping Dyslexia
Picture Pairs Blends
Challenge your pupils to match words to images with these 29 pairs. Each word includes a consonant blend, either initial or final, and should be matched with its corresponding image either by simply putting two correct cards together or...
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: The K-W-H-L Strategy
Make note of what readers know, what to know, and have learned during a unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As class members read the book, they jot down their ideas on a KWHL chart, and consider what they have...
Curriculum Corner
Coniferous and Deciduous Trees
What are the differences between coniferous and deciduous trees? Supplement your tree lessons with a set of activities that has learners describing, naming, comparing, and reading about deciduous and coniferous trees. The activities are...
Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, University of Texas at Austin
Lesson 7 - Letter Combinations
Individually, letters have their own sounds, but when combined with other letters, those sounds completely change. Introduce letter combinations with a lesson that asks learners to search for combinations in familiar words and use oral...