Jessica Winston
Gingerbread Friends Lesson Plan Guide
Full of activities for Jan Brett's story "Gingerbread Friends," this resource will get your kids in the mood for some snacks, fortify their need for vocabulary, and fill their minds with story elements.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School
What if the Gingerbread Man was trying to catch you, rather than the other way around? Pupils can find out what happens by reading the story The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray and enrich their experience with the...
National Park Service
The Poet's Toolbox
If you need a lesson for your poetry unit, use two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Rain in Summer" and "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp") and a resource on Elements of Poetry. The lesson plan guides you through activities on...
Curated OER
A Season for Chapters
Art, music, poetry, and the beauty of the seasons is what you'll find in this very nice unit idea. You can use any of the suggested books and activities to engage your second graders in an exploration of the changes that take place...
Curated OER
Writing a Shape Poem
Shape poems can be fun! Give your writers this example of a poem shaped like a fir tree, then give them the chance to try one of their own. This can be a fun poetry-style exercise to let visual learners experience a new side of poetry.
Growing Minds
Apple Exploration
Turn your classroom into a farmers' market! Reading Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson or Monica Wellington’s Apple Farmer Annie, launches this investigation of apples, farmers' markets, and the people selling products. The class...
Harper Collins
If You Give...Series Teaching Guide
If you give teachers a few good ideas, they can really bring a story to life. Included in this resource are dozens of activities to use as your class reads books in the If You Give... series. From holding puppet shows and creating comic...
Curated OER
Farm Animals
Why are farm animals important to the community? Expand young farmers' knowledge of furry and feathered friends through stories and a video. There are several books recommended; however, you could use any book about farm animals. A video...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Author's Voice in a Poem
Second graders use the title and text clues from a poem to determine what the author's voice is. In this author's voice instructional activity, 2nd graders participate in a directed instructional activity using the poem "Amazing Bats."...
Curated OER
Oklahoma's Berry Best
Ask your learners to complete activities related to Oklahoma's agriculture, berries in particular. The lesson is cross-curricular and has class members investigate an article about berries, write an acrostic poem, and discuss new...
Curated OER
Pizza for Everyone
Pizza is the inspiration for the cross-curricular instructional activity detailed here. Start out with a poem about pizza and move into a discussion about balanced eating. To close the language arts portion of the instructional activity,...
Curated OER
Pumpkins By the Pound
Use pumpkins of various sizes to experiment with weight and perimeter. First the class lifts the pumpkins one by one, estimating each pumpkin's weight. They arrange the pumpkins from lightest to heaviest, and then string weigh each one...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Seven Selfish Shellfish
This video segment from Between the Lions features a classic tongue twister: a type of wordplay that helps children tune their ears to language and the sounds within words. [0:29]
Free Reading
Free Reading: Identifying and Generating Rhyming Words: A Story About Fred
A fun poem about "Fred" that the teacher reads to the class and students guess what the missing words are. When they guess correctly, they are able to draw the character.
Free Reading
Free Reading: Find the Rhyme: Identifying and Generating Rhyming Words
A game in which students are given a word and must hunt around the classroom for a word that rhymes with it.
Free Reading
Free Reading: Make a Big Book of Rhymes: Identifying and Generating Rhyming Words
In this teacher-led activity on this site, students work together in the classroom creating a book full of rhymes.
Free Reading
Free Reading: Rhyme Rally Game: Identifying and Generating Rhyming Words
A teacher-led activity teaching students to identify whether it contains rhyming words. This site also contains links to Rhyming Books.
Free Reading
Free Reading: The Ship Is Loaded With: A Game Identifying and Generating Rhyming Words
A fun classroom game that helps students come up with words that rhyme with a word given to them by the teacher. Students sit in a circle, the instructor gives them a sentence and asks what word rhymes with the last word. Students raise...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Poetry Writing With Jack Prelutsky
Here you will find awesome poetry guidelines from Jack Prelutsky! You will also find a teacher's guide.
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: National Poetry Month
This site offers extensive resources for teaching poetry. Find interviews with poets, ideas for poetry lessons, book lists, and ways to use poetry across the curriculum. There are also resources specifically for National Poetry Month....
Scholastic
Scholastic: Poetry Writing
This site comes from the Scholastic website and provides a teacher's guide to writing poetry. This lesson plan is put together very well and provides an outline of the project, learning objectives, assessment information and much more.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Rhythm and Rhyming
This lesson engages students in the shared learning of different poems of the month. Students will clap different rhythms and then apply clapping patterns to different poems of the month. Each poem will contain different rhythms and...
Academy of American Poets
Poets.org: Curriculum and Lesson Plans
This collection of resources assists educators in teaching students about the art of poetry. Includes links to poetry with grade level, lesson plans, discussion suggestions and classroom exercises. RL.9-10.10a&b text complexity,...
Read Works
Read Works: Poems & Questions for National Poetry Month
[Free Registration/Login Required] This site contains a collection of sets of poems with comprehension questions. The poems were joined as a resource for teachers who are recognizing National Poetry Month during April of each year.