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Who Wrote That?
Scholars creatively respond to writing prompts. They respond to writing prompts that reveal clues regarding their personalities and then use the prompts written in class to guess the prompts that belong to their classmates.
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Do Heroes Have to Wear a Cape?
Young writers choose a person from American history, their community, or their family to use as the subject of a persuasive essay. The process begins with a discussion of the characteristics of a hero, the completion of a prewriting web,...
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Spider "How To" Make a Spider
Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies. After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...
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Beacons of Light
Students research Internet sites for lighthouses. In this lighthouses lesson, students learn facts about lighthouses in the United States. Students complete a related worksheet and share their information with the class.
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Where Are You Coming From?
Pupils examine and discuss author's purpose and the influence of an author's perspective in his or her writing. In groups, they read scenarios and respond to them from the perspective of a designated character. Materials are attached.
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Tall Tales and Urban Legends
In this creative writing worksheet, students sort through old pictures and discuss the characterization in each. Students create characters, a setting, and their own tall tale or urban legend based on the pictures.
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Simple Machines
Here is a good four-page worksheet designed to get your young inventors thinking about a simple machine they could design and build. They must answer some basic questions about their machine, draw a sketch of their idea, and write a...
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Create Your Island Paradise
Sixth graders create a descriptive essay and map describing their island paradise. They try to evoke the reader's senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. They revise their paragraphs using their partner's feedback.
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Show! Don't Tell!
Students write a descriptive paragraph. In this writing lesson plan, students define elaboration and discuss the characteristics of an elaborate paragraph. Students write a paragraph that contains vivid adjectives, strong verbs and exact...
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Descriptive Writing
Fifth graders use descriptive words to write a recipe. They use the theme of Spring describing what would make for the perfect spring break, vacation, or day. They write their recipe on a recipe card and display their recipes on the...
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Performance Event
Students examine the media by writing a compare/contrast paragraph. In this mass communications lesson, students identify and discuss the main sources of information for Americans in today's age. Students analyze pictures of people...
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The Difference is...You
Students think of a way to change the world and write a descriptive paragraph about it. In this change the world lesson plan, they view a clip from a movie such as Pay It Forward and then choose their own way to change the world.
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"The Voice"
In this descriptive paragraph activity, students write a descriptive story from the poem "The Voice." Students answer ten questions before they start to aid them in their writing and use quotations from the poem.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Eighth graders read and discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then they invent a candy bar, name it and draw a picture of it. Finally, they write a short descriptive paragraph about it.
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Compare and Contrast
Students learn about similarities and differences between different types of weather patterns. For this weather lesson, students read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Weather. Students create a word search puzzle,...
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Shell Graphing
Fifth graders explore the four quadrants of a coordinate grid. In this graphing lesson, 5th graders trace sea shells in each of the four quadrants of a coordinate grid and then label the ordered pairs on each shell. For the...
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Jamestown
Seventh graders examine life at the Jamestown settlement. In this colonial America lesson, 7th graders visit the noted Web site to analyze artifacts from the settlement. Based on their findings, students write descriptive pieces about...
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Harvesting a Forest: How Would I Do It?
Third graders design a machine for clear-cutting an area of forest. In this agricultural technology instructional activity, 3rd graders are read selections from American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osbourn, discuss how trees are...
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What's Behind that Mask?
Learners use a "spider web" graphic organizer to record information about different types of masks they are familiar with. They write a paragraph about masks. Students read about Native American cultures and compare/contrast the...
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Robots All Around Us
Student work in design teams to research robots, create a drawing of a robot they want to make, build a prototype of their robot, present their prototype and research, and write a descriptive paragraph about their creation.
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Lighting Instruments from the Inside Out
Students examine theatrical lighting instruments to see how light is controlled, and write a paragraph telling of their discoveries.
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Tornado!
Students create tornado proof buildings. For this weather lesson, students review tornadoes, discuss creation of tornado proof buildings, and learn about the Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity. Students research tornado proof...
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Design Your Dream Room
Students determine length, width, perimeter, and surface area, and work with two-dimensional representations of three-dimension objects to design and write descriptions of their dream bedrooms.
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Tall Tale Rollers
Students explore American tall tales. In this tall tale lesson, students discover the six characteristics that are included in tall tales. Students survey their class to find each student's favorite tall tale character and organize the...