Utah Education Network (UEN)
Patterns and Shapes In Our Community
Shapes in art, shapes in stories, shapes in the environment, shapes all around. A multi-part lesson that includes looking at the artist Paul Klee's work, reading books about shapes, taking a walk in the neighborhood and identifying...
Curated OER
Sarah, Plain and Tall - Intro to Literature Circle jobs
Learners read a book with each student having a specific job for the class. In this literature lesson, students read Sarah, Plain and Tall over 10 days, dividing up responsibilities for each student to make sure everyone...
Curated OER
Fast Food Nation: Study Questions
Are you introducing your class to the horrors of eating unhealthy? This lesson contains 24 reading comprehension questions relating to the non-fiction book. Readers are encouraged to copy these and answer them in their reading...
Novelinks
Lord of the Flies: Outlining and Begin Drafting
Help young writers with the daunting prospect of a five-paragraph essay. Using William Golding's Lord of the Flies, learners work through a short process to shore up their brainstorming and prepare to write a longer essay.
Take the challenge
Connecting with Natural/Open Spaces
Get your class outside, away from the television, and maybe even learning something about nature while they're at it. Individuals will chose an open, natural space to spend time in for several days. Each day they will complete a page in...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 14: Dedication
Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....
Penguin Books
White Fang Teacher's Notes
If you're looking for a way to structure your unit on Jack London's White Fang, use a well-organized guide to bring the intrigue of the novel to your middle school classroom. Covering a biography of the author, main background and...
E Reading Worksheets
Main Idea Worksheet 5
Did you know that Marie Curie's papers, as well as her cookbook, are radioactive and stored in lead-lined boxes? Did you know that Nikola Tesla developed a death ray? Famous scientists and inventors are the subjects featured in a series...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas
You can keep this printable idea sheet and use when you're in a tight spot. It contains cross-curricular ideas that span every subject while relating to the African tale, "Anasazi the Spider." Learners will act, write, move, count,...
Curated OER
No Taxing of the Tea for Thee
Research the history of the Boston Tea Party. Learners read the book The Boston Tea Party and write down important facts. They use the Internet to continue their research and construct an art project of a boat that contains a tea bag.
Curated OER
What's In a Phrase? Finding Historical Understandings in an Immigrant Guidebook
Using a Chinese-English phrase book from the late 19th century, learners view a glimpse of life on the frontier for a Chinese immigrant. They work in groups and on their own to analyze and summarize the content of various phrases, given...
Curated OER
The Study of Theme and Figurative Language in Poetry and/or Prose
Identify and analyze the use of figurative language used in select pieces of writing. These pieces of literature will represent at least two pieces by one writer and at least two pieces by different writers. This lesson would be a great...
Curated OER
Identify Genre, Subgenre, and Author's Purpose
Explore genre, subgenre, and author's purpose in this helpful activity. Middle schoolers read several summaries of books and short stories, and identify the genre and subgenre. They also determine if the author's purpose is to entertain,...
Curated OER
Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale
Providing a wonderful way to explore reading and vocabulary skills, this resource takes your class on a journey to understand the accomplishments of Lewis and Clark through the eyes of their dog Seaman. It focuses on using the book Lewis...
Curated OER
What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...
Curated OER
Fashion Strategies
Discover fashion terms with your class, they will design details while examining the top designers and world fashion centers. Among the topics discussed are: marketing, specializing, and designer labeling. To complete the assignments,...
Curated OER
Mastering a Student's Personal Information in a Special Education Classroom
Your special education students can memorize their personal information. In order to master their personal information, they create a photo book to help them remember names, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, then take pictures to...
Curated OER
James and the Giant Peach Plot Analysis
It's all about the plot, main events, and story mapping with this lesson. As the class reads the novel James and the Giant Peach, they create an excitement graph that actually charts key events and moments of excitement. After...
Energy for Keeps
The Energy Times
Extra! Extra! Read all about past and present energy use in a classroom-made historical newspaper. Useful as a cross-curricular assignment between science, history, and language arts, the project is sure to get young journalists...
College Board
The Departure
Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...
American Museum of Natural History
Fossils
Sixteen slides showcase an average day on the job for a paleontologist, Ross MacPhee. Engaging images include world maps and real-world photographs from an archeological dig in Antarctica. A brief description accompanies each slide.
Curated OER
Creating Summaries
Fourth graders generate written summaries from non-fiction articles. In this writing lesson, 4th graders determine what must be included in writing a good summary and then work in small groups to construct summaries after reading...
Curated OER
It's Raining Meatballs
Learners participate in activities to determine their macro process and elaborative process abilities. During macro processes readers organize and summarize ideas as they read. They look at the big picture of the entire text as well as...
Curated OER
Recycling for Raptors
Students write persuasive letters in support of the Recycling for Raptors campaign. They review raptor groups and names and categorize the raptor species and the groups which they belong. They research businesses, schools, and...