Lied Center of Kansas
The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare
Both The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare are great additions to an elementary language arts lesson. Young readers focus on the literary elements of each story, including characters and plot development, and apply...
Curated OER
New Vocabulary: The Ugly Duckling
The class hears the story of The Ugly Duckling to build vocabulary. They hear the story, then pull three to four vocabulary words from the text. The teacher then helps them use the context of each sentence to construct a meaning for each...
Curated OER
The Ugly Duckling: A Discussion of Human Rights
Students, after listening to The Ugly Duckling, by Hans Christian Anderson, become more aware of their relationship to human rights in regards to equality, justice, fairness, civil rights, and social justice.
Curated OER
Ugly Duckling?
First graders identify unique personal characteristics. In this character education lesson, 1st graders listen to the story Ugly Duckling and discuss the changes the animal went through in the story. Students bring in baby photos and...
BBC
Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
Fairy tales seem like quick, fun children's stories, but asking compelling questions about characters, plot elements, and literary themes can transform them into rich and complex tales. Use a series of eight lessons on Hans Christian...
Curated OER
Physical Differences
Pupils read the story The Ugly Duckling and discuss how all people are physically different. In this physical differences lesson plan, students read the book and then use flashcards and a hands on activity in order to explore people...
Curated OER
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
A thorough lesson introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid,"...
National First Ladies' Library
Ugly Duckling: Definitions of Beauty
Young scholars examine the degree to which physical appearance influences how one is viewed in society. They draw a timeline of the history of beauty and complete a visual scavenger hunt of history.
Curated OER
A PLAY ON WORDS
After making predictions about Janell Cannon's story Verdi, middle schoolers read through the book and make a new list of descriptions, personality traits, etc. They select an animal and write a narrative story about the animal, paying...
Penguin Books
Folklore and Fairytales: A Guide to Using Traditional Tales and Reimagined Classics
Every culture has its own stories to tell. An interesting educator's guide shares a large collection of fairytales and folktales, some from different cultures and some re-creations of classics. A summary and brief teaching ideas...
Curated OER
Folktale Quilt
Students read several selections of folktales from different historic periods and different cultures. Then they incorporate a folktale theme into a modern day story, using elements that parallel those from the original version.
Curated OER
Stella the Swan
Students analyze the telling of a story with props. They study similarities and differences between ducks, geese and swans, how wildfowl are adapted to life in water, how wildfowl move and feed, and wildfowl family life, how they nest,...
Curated OER
Character Education - Self Respect, Respect for Others
Students respond the story of Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and discuss the ways in which she showed respect for herself and for others.
Curated OER
ILLUSTRATING TALES AND FOLKLORE
Seventh graders explore tales, stories and folklore while practicing creative illustration techniques.
Curated OER
Fuzz Gets a Big Buzz
First graders recognize the short vowel u in written and spoken language. Through listening activities, they discriminate the vowel sound /u/ from other phonemes. Students identify the phoneme and letter in a decodeable story they read...
Polar Trec
Swan Savvy
Just like so many other birds, swans migrate during the cold winter months. Your class can gain a better understanding of migration and bird life as they act out some of the activities common to the tundra swan. They make a nest, sit on...
Curated OER
Ending a Famous Fairy Tale
Altering the ending of a famous fairy tale is a really fun way for kids to experience creative writing. The instructional activity here has them do just that! Learners listen to the famous fairy tale, "The Twelve Brothers," and change...
Curated OER
Bringing Up Birdy
Students explore biology by creating diagrams of animal life cycles. In this baby bird activity, students view video clips of birds being born from incubation to flying on their own. Students utilize the Internet to research birds and...
Curated OER
Kindergarten Holocaust Unit
Students determine that we are the same. They discuss that we have differences and realize our differences make us special. They recall the ways in which human beings and Sesame Street characters are alike. They create a second...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Fairy Tales From Life
A guideline for helping students to write their own fairy tales. This is a fun activity that will help students to analyze a literary style and follow a pattern.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Picture Books to Teach Plot Development and Confict Res.
Students read picture books to explore the concepts of plot development and conflict resolution. They first learn about the connections between reading and writing, and then revise their own writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4