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Desert Drama
Students read both fiction and nonfiction books with desert themes. Then they write desert stories and reports, reviewing texts for information to include in writing. Students also design desert scenes with details and setting elements...
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Folktales and Ecology: Animals and Humans in Cooperation and Conflict
Story elements such as conflict, character analysis, resolution, and moral are discussed and charted as elementary children read folktales involving animals. An element of science is also introduced as learners discover what a keystone...
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Writing a Short Story - Weather
Students write a short story based on the weather condition they chose. in this short story lesson plan, students must include a theme, setting, characters, and plot.
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Drama from Animal Characters
Learn about animal habitats, characteristics, and writing in a different perspective. The class composes a narrative from the perspective of a fresh water animal, they include a problem and the animal's reaction to the problem. The...
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Elements Commercials
Student teams use a digital camcorder and iMovie to create a commercial about an element. They also use the Internet and their textbook to gather the following information about their element: the name, the symbol, the atomic number, the...
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Stories of Hope: Dragonfly and Mosquito
Students identify and interpret the value of the dragonfly as a predator of the mosquito. They create their own folktales using the dragonfly or a creature of their choice to solve the malaria problem or another issue. Students also...
The New York Times
Writing Fiction Based on Real Science - NYTimes.com
Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...
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Rachel's Life is in a Hole
Explore how lack of access to water impacts peoples' lives in poor countries. Through text reading and discussion, middle schoolers are presented with the story of a young girl who lives and functions with limited water resources. They...
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Life's Lessons: Survival of the Fittest
Students analyze Jack London's use of anthropomorphism to identify the importance of adaptability in life. In this literature lesson, students use the novel The Call of the Wild to identify key elements in survival. Students...
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Totem Poles -- Storytellers of Long Ago
Third graders discover the main purpose for totem poles was to communicate with others. In groups, they compare and contrast the four types of totem poles and the various symbols used. They write their own stories based off of pictures...
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Properties of Color
Second graders explore the properties of primary color and investigate what happens when primary colors are mixed. They listen to the story The Crayon Box That Talked and list the colors. They experiment mixing primary colors and...
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The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind
Students investigate the relationship between the sun and wind. For this reading comprehension lesson, students read the book The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind, and observe the effect of the Sun and wind on our planet....
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Animals: Farm Animals
Students examine the different types of animals that live on a farm. They participate in online games and activities to help them explore the different types of farm animals.
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"Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Students complete a variety of activities that revolve around the book "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen. They view and discuss stills from the move "Hoot" and compose original storylines, conduct Internet research about the life of Carl Hiaasen,...
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Curriculum Connections with Keiko Kasza
Learners read books by the author Keiko Kasza and complete critical thinking skills, and connections to different subjects. In this language lesson plan, students connect the books to language arts, social studies, science, math, health,...
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Fitting Trash into Yesterday: A Fifth Grade Activity
Fifth graders explore the concept of waste management. In this recycling instructional activity, 5th graders discover the history of waste management and discuss how the U.S. should respond to the issue of ever-increasing waste.
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Creature Feature
Students work in pairs to create a creature and its habitat out of construction paper. Then students write a narrative to describe the animal and its habitat.
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Magical Images of the Estuary
Students investigate picture taking techniques while visiting an estuary. In this picture taking lesson, students examine the "Magical Images of the Estuary" handout. They think of and list important picture taking techniques before...
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Making Blood!
students research blood's components, and use their math skills to recreate a model of whole blood using commonly found food items.
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Plant Classification
Students participate in an experiment that involves plant classification. They identify and are able to employ three methods of classifying leaves. Each student classifies leaves by each of the following methods: K-I 4.b, d, & e;...
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The Inside Current
Eighth graders explore ocean currents and wind patterns. They discover the concept of systems to show how change in one component of a body of water, causes change in other components in that system. Students describe positive and...