Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Students create new sentences using adverb clauses identified from a book. In this narrative writing lesson, students write new sentences from some of the dependent clauses used in a book read to them by the teacher. Students...
Baylor College
About Air
Give your class a colorful and tasty representation of the components of the mixture that we call air. Pop a few batches of popcorn in four different colors, one to represent each gas: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. The...
Curated OER
Let's Learn About the Fire Station!
Students study and write about the fire station and fire safety. They take photographs to create a page for a class book after visiting a fire station.
Curated OER
Creating a Caring Culture: Appreciating the Diversity of Your School
Young scholars explore community diversity. In this character education lesson, students read the book Is There Really a Human Race? discussing it with their classmates and teachers. Young scholars design paper dolls to represent...
Curated OER
The Interactive Read-Aloud
Youngsters participate in interactive read alouds about immigration.As they listen to teacher-chosen books that highlight the concept of immigration, they will be provided with opportunities to interact. They can respond to the...
Curated OER
Harry Potter and the Spellbound Children
Help your class explore the world of Harry Potter. Learners visit selected websites to learn the background about the book series, discover details about the marketing of the books, and investigate book banning.
Curated OER
Going Buggy
Students identify the parts of a dragonfly that they drew. They write a very short non-fiction story (mainly with pictures) about the adventure of a dragonfly. They interview a person dressed as a dragonfly to find out some things about...
Curated OER
Fact Versus Opinion
Students differentiate between fact and opinion. They define fact and opinion, then listen to and identify examples of each. Students identify different books where facts and opinions can be found, and cut out newspaper and magazine...
Curated OER
New to School Student Booklets
Students complete a booklet that describes their experiences in school. They read books about going to school and complete pages about themselves, their teachers and the types of activities they most enjoy.
Curated OER
Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
Curated OER
The Little Children That Can: Growing Independence and Fluency
Get ready to boost fluency in the classroom with this lesson geared toward elementary readers. Listening to the first half of The Little Engine That Could, learners focus on how voice changes create expression. They then...
Curated OER
Express Yourself
Youngsters practice retelling a part of their favorite Native American tale to a small group of their peers. Peer partners assess each others performances. To keep comments positive and constructive, consider giving your class sentence...
Curated OER
Whales
First graders investigate two different types of whales; toothed and baleen. They describe what the different types of whale eat. They listen to a cassette of Dyan Sheldon's, The Whale Song before making stick puppets to dramatize the...
Curated OER
Atomic Structure
Students explore atomic structure. They observe a video on atomic structure and complete a Venn diagram on the parts of the atom. Students create their own graphic organizer on the parts of the atom using Inspiration software.
Curated OER
Sea Changes: A New England Industry
Students conduct research in order to use primary and secondary sources. They interpret and analyze information from textbooks and nonfiction books for young adults, as well as reference materials, audio and media presentations, oral...
Curated OER
Research Skills: Information Retrieval and Evaluation
Focus on research skills, specifically identifying key words and concepts on a specific topic and evaluating information for relevance and authority. This is part of a multi-step lesson on Ancient Rome; however, it is useful for any...
Curated OER
Introduction to E-Discussion
Here's an interesting way to incorporate technology into your classroom. Have your young readers conduct an e-discussion of a story they are currently reading. Learners can post and/or respond to the comments of others reading the same...
Curated OER
Cyber Memory--Let's Hope Not
Sixth graders continue to read excerpts from "The Last Book in the Universe". In groups, they discuss any questions they have about the material. They research an endangered threatened species and make a plea to the rest of the class...
Curated OER
Prairie Find Outdoors
Students take a field trip to a local prairie. Using identification books, they identify various forbs and grasses in the prairie. As a class, they discuss the importance of forbs and grasses to the ecosystem and review the various types...
Curated OER
Perception and Observation
Students use common and unusual objects to make observations of details, design, and functionality. They describe and draw each object while working in small groups. The differences between observation and perception is covered as part...
Curated OER
Realism and Fantasy
Second graders listen to the story, Bruno the Baker, where some parts seem real and some seem fake. They must identify the parts of the story as realism or fantasy. An interesting way to teach young readers these two concepts.
PBS
The Caterpillar or Larva
The larval stage of the butterfly life cycle is quite exciting. Start a discussion about the specially designed body parts unique to caterpillars. After examining images of caterpillars, learners use plastic soda bottles, string, and...
Curated OER
Monkey Business
Students practice reading with expression, decoding and word recognition to become fluent readers. They read the book, "Not me!" Said the Monkey," by Cohn West and view drawings of a lion, snake, rhino, elephant and a monkey from the art...
Curated OER
Arranging Patriotic Songs for Chorus
Students examine the melody of a patriotic song by playing it on the piano and having them sing it back to the teacher and are assigned a specific patriotic song to arrange for voices. They create their own four-part choral arrangement...