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Japanese-American Internment/Relocation Camps
Learners create poetry and verse, using all 5 senses to paint a visual image of life in a Japanese-American internment camp.
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Kindergarteners Study the Four Seasons
Examine the weather of the four seasons, look at seasonal activities, and tell which months are part of each season with this lesson. Your class will play a game, sing a song, and write additional stanzas to seasonal poetry.
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Fish Banners
An art instructional activity involving fish can accent a wide variety of subjects. Here are the steps needed to create a fish banner with paint, shapes, cardboard, and paper. This would be a nice way to start or finish a unit on fish or...
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Flag Day
Students describe the symbolism, tradition, honor and power that flags bear and explore the stories of Civil War battle flags.
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Guardians of the Games
Young scholars create life sized figures in a sport activity. The figures are faceless to represent athletes or players of past present and future. They are created in full color and laminated, then cut and applied to cardboard to...
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Andy Warhol/Digital Self-Portraits
Middle schoolers research the life and art of Andy Warhol and create a digitally manipulated photographic self-portrait. Students conclude the assignment by writing a poem to describe the point-of-view taken in their digital photo.
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Conflicting Views
Students complete a Venn diagram comparing the United States and Afghanistan. They research the history of the Taliban and how they relate to the United States and its foreign policy. They write a paper on possible solutions.
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Mississippi Delta Blues Moves: Second in a Series of Three with Barb Hoffman and Steve Hoskins, MGM
Learners complete a graphic organizer reviewing Barb Hoffman's prior lesson plan," Slave Songs (1840-1876)" as well as listen to and discuss Delta Blues music samples. Students research one Delta Blues singer and write a "color coded"...
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Tropical Rain Forests
Fourth graders read a story about the Rain Forest, participate in a class discussion, and complete the Canopy picture match with poems.
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Nebraska's Wild Weather
Students examine the weather in Nebraska. Using this information, they describe the cause and effect relationships in the environment based on these changes in weather. They write various types of poems with weather themes and share them...
Curriculum Corner
7th Grade ELA "I Can" Statement Posters
Help your seventh graders relate the ELA Common Core standards to their own learning with these "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been translated into a statement that pupils can understand and placed on its own page for easy...
Curriculum Corner
7th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess, and...
August House
The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday
Turn your classroom into a pig sty with a instructional activity based on the Appalachian folktale The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday. Similar to the story of The Three Little Pigs, the folktale tells a story of four pigs who leave home—and...
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Similes, Metaphors, and Personification
Eighth graders explore figurative language, specifically focusing on similes, metaphors and personification. They work on the web to identify poems that demonstrate simile, metaphor, and personification, then analyze how it enhances...
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Greetings from Maya Angelou
Students investigate the life and works of Maya Angelou. They complete a Webquest, read poems, listen to a reading by Maya Angelou, answer discussion questions, and write a poem, short story, or essay based on a newspaper article.
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Say What?
Students explore the literal and figurative meanings of twenty-nine phrases and sayings. This unit of nine lessons integrates written expression and convention to demonstrate the value of idioms to the language.
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Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Fifth graders read a rewritten version of the Declaration of Independence, create a set of pictures illustrating the Preamble of the Constitution and create a version of the Declaration of Independence in the form of a song, a poem,...
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Where in the World is Flat Stanley?
Second graders analyze the proper form of a friendly letter and send flat Stanley letters all over the United States. In this letter writing lesson plan, 2nd graders read the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown and create their own Flat...
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Exploring Zoo Animals
Students research topics related to zoos and zoo animals. They compare and contrast the size of animals, make a book of facts about bears, draw snakes, and write animal stories and poetry. They complete a series of writing and creative...
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Apples
Second graders complete many cross categorical activities about apples. In this apples lesson plan, 2nd graders cook with apples, make a mobile, finger-paint, write a story about apples, and more. Students read poetry and complete math...
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"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love": The Prologue in Romeo and Juliet
Students participate in a guide close reading of the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet. They write a prologue sonnet to another piece of literature they have read.
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Trait Variations for Survival
Young learners examine how different traits could give one organism an advantage over another. In groups, they view two different organisms in different environments. To end the lesson plan, they complete a Venn Diagram on the two...
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Social Studies and Children's Literature
Young scholars write a journal in response to literature. The story that is read is about prairies. The subject of prairies becomes an object for research. The culminating activity is the making of a map where prairies exist in the...
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Adopt a Poet
Seventh graders research an assigned poet's life and times and read examples of their poetry. They prepare a word-processed paper analyzing the poems by their poet, and answering the essential question then they give an oral...