West Virginia Coal - Pen Pals

Fifth and sixth graders follow Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the Pacific and back again. They read online journal entries made by Lewis and Clark to gather information. The official Lewis and Clark website is used by learners to...

Class members are each assigned a state's natural resource to research. In pairs, they engage in silent debates: they pass a paper back and forth, writing a line on each turn about why their resource is most important. At the end,...

With resource links, a detailed procedure, embedded primary source documents, and a Readers Theater script, you're ready to teach! Re-enact historical events in order to boost historical perspective, discern main ideas, and draw...

Students examine the Wild West as it was depicted in films and books. In groups, they compare this information to what it was really like as they find out in books. They also discover the role of the Native Americans in the Wild West...

Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to reading comprehension...

Elementary writers practice writing descriptive paragraphs by adding adjectives and sensory words to their writing. They use a picture of a monster for their descriptive paragraph. This 12-page instructional activity should increase your...

Learners study the life of a child living at Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello contrasted to the life of child living on a Quaker settlement. In this early Virginia history lesson, students read background information about the life...

Young scholars write letters to soldiers overseas with correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They learn three facts about the geography of the area where the pen pal is located and about the pen pal.

Students explore literature about coal mining. In this vocabulary, grammar, and conventions lesson, students listen to excerpts from The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales and add vocabulary from the story to their...

Young scholars design a service-learning project with pen pals. For this philanthropy lesson, students research various charitable organizations with a pen pal and collect cans in order to get money for a donation. Young scholars write...