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Understanding Stories
Students engage in a lesson that is about the increase of reading comprehension. They read the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and then list the main characters of the story. They discuss some of the main ideas in the story like having...
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Movie Making
Students use a program titled Movie Maker to create movies on the computer. In this movies lesson plan, students create scenes, add background music, and more.
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"Julie of the Wolves"
Fifth graders research life in Alaska and compare life there to their lives in this lesson. They read "Julie of the Wolves." They research through the novel and other reference books facts about the Alaskan climate and geography. They...
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The Master Puppeteer
Students write a diary from Jiro's point of view that includes dates and locations. Jiro is the main character of the book The Master Puppeteer. They role-play their favorite scenes from the book using dress-up, and correct accents....
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Introduction to Musical Theater
Students made oral presentations of a famous muscial theater performance. They research the musical, view selections, and listen to music.
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Sheila Rae, the Brave
Students read Sheila Rae, the Brave, and make predictions about the main character.
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Faces of the Family
Students and teachers share their individual concept of families to begin the lesson. As they read different pieces of literature, they keep a journal of the activities and problems each main character gets into. To end the lesson,...
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Not for a Billion Gazillion Dollars
Students discover what debt, saving, and credit are. In this personal finance lesson, the teacher reads Not for a Billion Gazillion Dollars, and the students discuss what the main character does in the book in relation to debt,...
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Metis
Fourth graders examine the Metis culture. In this Metis living lesson, 4th graders read Things I did Last Summer by Martin Shulman and discuss the life of the main character, Bonnie. Students recreate their favorite scenes of...
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Immigration: Marijana's Story
Second graders explore world geography by researching U.S. history. In this immigration lesson, 2nd graders read the book Marijana's Story and discuss the main character, her goals, and the plot. Students complete a worksheet about U.S....
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We Garden: My Life as a Fruit or Vegetable
Students explore agriculture by participating in a role-play activity. In this farm to fork lesson, students ask and answer questions as though they were a specific plant about to be eaten. Students write responses to critical thinking...
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Bridge to Terabithia
Students read Katherine Paterson's book, A Bridge to Terabithia, and select small groups to complete a project based on a chapter of the book. They create a story web for the chapter, summarize it, design a brochure or advertisement,...
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Multicultural Fairy Tales
Third graders explore the elements of a story using fairy tales from all over the world. They compare and contrast story elements, key ideas and concepts found in a variety of texts from around the world.
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Make Way for Ducklings
First graders use skills to collect, organize, and interpret data. They compare and contrast two stories, Make Way for Ducklings and Chibi: A True Story From Japan. Students create a duckling.
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Cubby Bear's Big Responsibility
Learners continue their examination of character by being introduced to the concept of responsibility. As a class, they are read a story and identify when the main character was being responsible. They share wha they are responsible...
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Create Learning Experiences with The Polar Express
Center content-integrated lessons around the timeless holiday book, The Polar Express.
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Cinderella
Reading fairy tales is so much fun! Learners use dramatic play to assist them in defining and expressing the main theme found in the story of Cinderella. Each group is given a story card and will create a tableau based on the main point...
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Investigating Fables
Time for a story! Learners of all ages enjoy listening to stories, so read them some common fables and have them work cooperatively to create a fable. Differentiate for varying ability levels by providing sentence frames, graphic...
Curriculum Corner
“I Can” Common Core! 3rd Grade Reading
Third grade readers are given clear learning goals with this Common Core checklist. By turning each reading standard into an I can statement, children can focus on mastering the required grade level skills.
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The Outsiders
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
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Author's Purpose Lesson Plans
Why do we practice identifying the author's purpose? Read this article to gain a better understanding of this reading strategy, and then peruse the attached lesson plans!
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Scripting The Great Train Robbery
Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the...
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Persona in Autobiography
A talkative old man? A naïve believer in Human Perfectibility? A Sage? Who is this guy, anyway? The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin launches a study of the way Franklin uses structure, style, and purpose, as well as different...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
How does climate change affect you? First in a three-part series, the activity focuses on how individuals living around the world are affected by climate change. Individuals take on the role of a given character and share their...