Curated OER
Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this instructional activity which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher...
Curated OER
"Swamp Monsters" by Mary Blount Christian
Using the book Swamp Monsters by Mary Blount Christian, young readers discuss key vocabulary terms and make predictions about swamp monsters. They complete a Cloze activity, explore past-tense verbs, and categorize vocabulary words.
Curated OER
Buoyant Behavior
Combine science and literature with this instructional activity on buoyancy. Read There's an Ant in Anthony by Bernard Most to examine words containing the letters a, n, and t. Then introduce your class to the word "buoyant." Demonstrate...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Bingo: Fever 1793
Prior to reading Fever 1793, class members are introduced to vocabulary drawn from the text of Laurie Halse Anderson's novel with a bingo-style activity. The vocabulary list, a teacher copy with definitions, and the bingo template are...
Scholastic
Summarizing: Using Hand Motions for Key Words or Points
Learning to summarize texts takes practice. Jump into the training ring and guide your learners through a summarizing practice session. The classic direct instructional practice of "I do, you do, we do" is used to help them identify key...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
A basic lesson on personal narrative writing is here for you. In it, learners are asked to imagine they're going to share an experience of their own with someone who did not participate in that experience. They verbally tell the story to...
Curated OER
Hermeneutics: Teaching Students Author's Purpose
Your developing literary critics discuss 'perspective' and discuss how the same occurence can be interpreted by two different people in two different ways. They read Ryszard Kapuscinski's untitled poem, infer meaning of the poem, and...
Curated OER
Vocabulary 2c - Life Science: From Parents to Young
This life science vocabulary list and definitions will be useful when teaching a parent and offspring unit. Some nice ideas are included in the plan about the word origins, word structure and definition testing methods. There is also a...
Curated OER
Similes and Metaphors
Use the Civil War and important figures from that period to help your class write poetry. You'll need to create a list of similes and metaphors, but you could also consider having your learners create this the day prior. They will use...
Curated OER
Life Science: Plant Life Cycles
Practice defining words that have to do with plant life cycles. The list included here is mainly for structural units, but could be used to review their relevance and the process of the life cycle.
Curated OER
To Your Health
Students read articles on health and read about how storks and other animals are cultural icons in bringing good health. In this health lesson plan, students also list ways to live a healthy lifestyle.
Curated OER
Using Commas: Interactive Practice
Learners read an overview of comma usage rules and then take an online interactive quiz. First they answer 10 multiple choice questions in which they identify the sentence with incorrect usage. On the next page, they retype a given...
Curated OER
Cardinals vs. Rangers, Game 6
So what happened in game 6 of the 2011 baseball World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers? Read this article and find out. A simple fill in the blank activity to use perhaps on a rainy day.
Curated OER
What's So Bad or Good About Conflict?
Learners of all ages discuss how conflict can be negative and positive. First, they create a class bulletin board about conflict, and provide their thoughts and connotations surrounding the word. In a class discussion, they ask questions...
Curated OER
Whole Language Approach to Map Making
Fifth graders, after reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, explore map making using the Whole Language Approach.
Curated OER
Historical Fiction: Island of the Blue Dolphins
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell's classic tale of Karana, a young girl stranded on an island off the California coast, is the focus of a 16-slide presentation that includes a list of vocabulary words, guided reading questions,...
School Magazine
Horrible Homonyms!
Park/park, spring/spring. do your class members need extra practice with homonyms? The first exercise on this worksheeet asks learners to identify the homonym, while the second asks kids to identify at least two meanings of the word listed.
Curated OER
Learning About Prepositional Phrases
What is a prepositional phrase? Read through the first page of your packet to give your budding grammarians a better sense of what a prepositional phrase is. Then, have them complete the two activities provided. The first asks them to...
Curated OER
What's In a Name?
Students examine the origins of the names of U.S. states, focusing on names that were derived from Native American words. They are provided with lists of the names of the 50 states, and then research online or in library resources the...
Curated OER
Mexico Field Trip
Explore how the library or Internet resources function as textual information. Young writers research a chosen topic then read and comprehend the collected information. They structure the information with texts and graphics for a...
Curated OER
Manifest Destiny
Students explore the Manifest Destiny. They interpret quotations, study point of view in writing, research English words that derived from Mexico, and analyze reasons why settlers moved west. After writing journal entries in first-person...
Curated OER
On the Farm - Enrichment 18.1
In this square unit learning exercise, students read the word problem about the pens Farmer Mathman wants to build for his animals. Students then use the table to guide them. Students draw their answers on grid paper and then answer the...
Curated OER
Shorten the Length
Learn how to summarize by identifying main ideas and supporting details. Readers cross out unimportant information as they read through a text. Is it a random detail? Cross it out! They then draw a concept map, placing the main idea in...
Curated OER
Prepositional Phrase Recognition Practice
Print the preposition chart on one piece of paper, and give your learners the exercise on a separate piece of paper. After reading through some of the prepositions listed on the chart, let learners try to identify the prepositional...