National First Ladies' Library
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights
Students hold a Thousand and One Nights storytelling festival with each one memorizing a story to relate to classmates. While examining provided resource links, they select and practice a story they would like to retell. As a dress...
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Using Words to Work Things Out
Students explore appropriate ways to communicate feelings. In this character development lesson, students listen to Hands are not for Hitting and several other books about expressing emotions appropriately. Students observe puppet...
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Rhythmic Movement Skills
Students practice using their physical skills while performing physical activities. In this physical education lesson, students participate in musical orchestrated dances with their classmates. Students utilize a jump rope and musical...
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Native American and Greek Myths
Fifth graders identify seven different constellations and explain a myth that accompanies it. As a class, they listen to myths associated with the Greek and Native American cultures. To end the activity, they write their own myth...
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Alphabet Adventure Lesson Plan
Young scholars explore the alphabet. In this Alphabet Adventure lesson plan, students work with their prior knowledge of the alphabet to discuss different print and non-print sources.
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The Letter Aa
Students explore letter Aa. In this letter recognition lesson, students participate in country, state, food, literature, physical education, colors, careers, music, and game activities that are linked to the main lesson page....
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Feeling Flashbacks
Students investigate feelings with their class. In this feelings lesson, students mingle with their class and share a specific personal feeling with a random student. Students record their experience in their journal.
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Exploring the Families of Instruments
Students investigate the families of instruments. For this instrument lesson, students discuss how each instrument family makes their sound. Students then make their own instruments. Students write a paragraph about their favorite...
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Lyric Poetry Lesson
High schoolers synthesize the "textbook" definition of lyric poetry and discuss various forms (love lyric, complaint lyric, loss lyric, satiric lyric). They discover the relationship of poetry to musical selections.
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Using Rock to Teach Literary Devices: Jimi Hendrix “The Wind Cries Mary”
Students explore literary elements through music. In this figurative language lesson, students examine imagery and personification in "The Wind Cries Mary" by Jimi Hendrix.
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The John Travolta Syndrome
Students examine the influence of music and film on contemporary fashion. In this popular culture lesson, students research select films featuring John Travolta. Students research selected time periods in American history as well....
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The Wonderful World of Colors
First graders imagine what life would look like in one color, then many. They play a game with colored cards where students call out the names of colors. They match colored cards with objects of same color. They read "The Color Box."
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A Travel Journal for Homer's Odyssey
Students identify their favorite excerpts from "The Odyssey". They add graphics and music they find on the internet to the words. They share their creation with the class.
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Live Performance!
Students in groups create, produce and perform as many poems as there are members of the group. They choose between recording them, reciting them orally with music or interpreting them with dance or acting. Each group attempts to add in...
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Presenting final product
Students in groups present their research as a group and each student delivers a shoe box of their total work. They assess the process of how to research a topic and present it in a meaningful multimedia presentation. Each group chooses...
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Illumination of a Text
Students create a movie using pictures and words to illustrate the content of a sonnet. In this illumination of a text activity, students choose six to twelve words in the sonnet that are vitally important. Students record their text on...
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All Quiet On The Western Front
Students create a poem on the subject of war. In this All Quiet on the Western Front lesson, students create poetry using phrases or lines that they brainstorm during a pre-writing session. Students enhance their poetry with sensory...
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What Does This Song Really Say?
Students investigate communication by analyzing lyrics from a song. In this music arts lesson, students discuss slavery, the Underground Railroad and African American traditions while listening to a song called "This Train." Students...
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Harlem Renaissance: Pivotal Period in the Development of Afro-American Culture
Students examine the time period of the Harlem Renaissance. In groups, they compare and contrast the type of art before and after the movement along with the state of society at the time. After reading a book on the topic of their...
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Reader's Theater
Students act out and interpret the story for their peers. They study the simplest form of an organized reading to a more elaborate activity involving props, costumes, or a reinterpretation of the narrative into another art form.
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Song Singing Activity
Students discover their musical talents by singing with their class. In this musical appreciation lesson plan, students attend a camping trip with their classmates and sing songs from memory around the campfire. Students are graded...
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Going on a Bear Hunt
Students investigate pantomiming by going on a fictitious bear hunt. For this performing arts lesson, students collaborate in groups to sing songs and perform pantomimes based on a hunting trip. Students create their own dance to...
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Watsons Go To Birmingham--1963Patricia Wachholz
High schoolers research the 1960s to prepare for reading the book, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, by Christopher Paul Curtis. They watch a documentary, create a timeline, and listen to music from the 1960s.
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Generosity
Students listen to music and imagine caring about others and wanting to show them your love. They hear the story, "Giving Isa," and answer a given set of questions. Students discuss their question answers with the class then they...