Curated OER
Paper Making and Stories
Students create a handmade paper using pre-soaked paper pulp and a screen. They then decorate the paper using water color paint and brushes in a style that expresses ideas from a reading of, "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney.
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The Class Garden Essay
Fifth graders use a class garden as inspiration for a specific writing assignment. They conduct research into different types of flowers in photo images taken with a digital camera. Students write a creative essay and draw a picture to...
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Putting It Together in Writer's Workshop
This lesson about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.
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Imagery
Ninth graders explore poems, various poetic devices, and identify imagery used in poetry. In groups, they examine poetic devices, define them, paraphrase and summarize poetry. Students study poetry by Robert Frost as they explore...
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I Just Want to Say
Eighth graders study poetic devices included in conversation poems and explore their eloquent messages. They read and discuss poems by Langston Hughes and Don Marquis.
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Breaking the Chains, Rising Out of Circumstances
Discuss the history of slavery by analyzing historic photography depicting slavery. Learners write fictional stories based on these photographs. This is a creative and motivating way to launch a discussion of these topics.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Winogradsky Columns: Microbial Ecology in the Classroom
Winogradsky columns are ideal for observing the role of bacteria and other microorganisms in an ecosystem. This student activity guide is complete with data tables for observations and analysis questions for processing what was observed....
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Descriptive Writing
Third graders have fun using descriptive words in an expository format to describe a food that they hate. They utilize a planning worksheet that's imbedded in this plan before they begin their drafts.
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A Bug's Journey
Students examine the artwork of John Baldessari that was inspired by a 16th century drawing of a beetle. They analyze a drawing of a beetle, discuss the insect's characteristics, and write a story from the perspective of a bug. Also,...
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Putting It Together
Students read aloud the book "Courage" by Bernard Waber and discuss the examples that compromise the defintion of courage. They describe another word such as joy and work with a partner or group to brainstorm and write sentences of...
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Amazing Adjectives
Fourth graders compose sentences that use descriptive adjectives to describe a specific food and day that they both like and dislike. They should really enjoy coming up with words that describe their favorite and least favorite foods!
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Show! Don't Tell!
Students write a descriptive paragraph. In this writing lesson, students define elaboration and discuss the characteristics of an elaborate paragraph. Students write a paragraph that contains vivid adjectives, strong verbs and exact nouns.
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Enhancing Poetry with American Memories
Students explore poetry using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project. They compose their own unque "found poetry" based on the stories found in the collection.
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Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems
Students explore the basic elements of poetry through Appalachian life poetry. In this poetry lesson, students read seven poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems and complete poetry analysis activities for each poem.
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Technology as a Design Tool for Abstract Artwork
Learners manipulate pictures using Adobe Photoshop and digital cameras to produce unique abstract works. This lesson can be modified to include a painting/mixed media element. State standards are addressed in this lesson.
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Applied Science - Science and Math Lab
Students explore the senses. In this Applied Science lesson, students investigate the items in "feely" boxes with their hands, both touching the items and shaking the boxes to hear the sound the items make. Students also smell and taste...
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See Spot Run
Young scholars identify several properties of water as a universal substance, describe the composition of several complex color mixtures and separate the components of dye using chromatographic technique.
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Stain My Days Blue
Students read several poems related to the life and culture of the Appalachia region. They are introduced to the poetic forms of simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia and respond to the poems through journal entries and poetry of their own.
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Nerve Racking
Fifth graders study the components and function of the nervous system. They investigate how engineers design biomedical equipment to assist the nervous system and explain how the five senses are affected during spaceflight.
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Contour Wrapped Animal Portrait
High schoolers will select a high interest animal portrait. After completing an n accurate light line drawing, the portrait will be finished using contours lines constructed of implied wrapping using pencil and pen. The eyes will be...
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Haiku: Observation and Writing in the Japanese Garden
Students observe a Botanical Gardens. Upon returning to the classroom, students write their own Haiku based on their observations.
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Castle Builder
Fifth graders discuss the importance of castles in medieval times. Using the internet, they research the parts of a castle and design their own using the components. They use everyday materials to build the castle to a specific scale.
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Drawing Into the Imagination
Sixth graders examine the work of artist Saul Steinberg by visiting online galleries of his work and looking at photo reproductions. After viewing and interpreting Steinberg's work, they write and illustrate fantasy stories which are...