Curated OER
5 Senses Poem
Students discuss what characteristics they learned about each season through the story read aloud. They identify each season and come up with objects for each season, such as clothing, activities one can do, and describe the scenery....
Curated OER
The Emperor and the Kite
Fourth graders explore storytelling by reading a classic story. In this vocabulary identification lesson, 4th graders read the story The Emperor and the Kite and define the different vocabulary terms that appear in the story. Students...
Curated OER
Sonnet Project
Twelfth graders use the internet to examine how the Gutenberg press affected society as a whole. Using examples of illuminated type, they develop type in three different formats. They share their types with the class and answer...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Exploring Japan
Fourth graders examine the culture and environment of Japan, beginning with a KWL chart. They use clay and cups of water to construct representations of the Japanese Islands. After designing flags representing farming and food, 4th...
Curated OER
What's In A Name
Second graders read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. They then discuss where various names come from. They create a individualized biopoem and publish it on word processing software. Their poems are compiled into a class book and presented...
Curated OER
Song Writing
In this music instructional activity, students identify specific tips for composing a song. They use strophic form where each verse has the same melody. Students also select a chord sequence and use cadences at the end of each phrase and...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Novelinks
Words by Heart: Question Answer Relationship
Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...
Curated OER
Water
Third graders study different bodies of water and how they fit into the water cycle. They explain that materials exist in different states (solid, liquid and gas) and change from one to another, that there are systems, order, and...
Curated OER
Food and Dialect
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
Poets.org
Ghosts and Spirits
Connect poetry to a naturally kid-friendly topic: ghosts! Draw on your class's prior knowledge of the paranormal to help them access the classic poem "Haunted House" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After a fun warm-up activity describing...
Curated OER
Summarizing Key Information
Imagine the surprise when small groups present their Evidence Charts to the class and discover that each group has studied a different version of the Cinderella story. Irish, Ojibwa, Egyptian, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Mexican, and...
Curated OER
Literary Response and Analysis
Examine a variety of literary responses to Abraham Lincoln's death and the impact of perception. Your class can work in writing groups to analyze either poetry, eulogy, or a newspaper article. They retell the events of Abraham Lincoln's...
Curated OER
The Holocaust
Students comprehension widens on the subject of the Holocaust by focusing on two different, yet related, experiences of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. Those being death camps and life in major ghettos. They trace both commonalities...
Curated OER
Male Image Building Utilizing the Writing Process
Introduce your class to the techniques of proper writing. In groups, they brainstorm their ideas on family structures and discuss the importance of having a male figure in their lives. After listening to an African-American poem, they...
Curated OER
Rewriting Shakespeare
Have your learners play around with Shakespeare's language. For this plan, small groups examine and rearrange soliloquies from Othello, noting how the language changes and morphs. All groups have a chance to change each soliloquy, making...
Curated OER
Welcome Back to the Computer Lab: Starting a New School Year
Get kids re-oriented to the computer lab for back-to-school. The constructivist approach in this session allows children to exert ownership of their behavior in the computer lab. Read aloud a few books about good and poor manners, as...
Curated OER
Personification Lesson Plans and Resources
This resource on personification provides three different approaches aimed at different levels. The first, appropriate for upper elementary, provides examples of personification, followed by an exercise that requires replacing a word in...
Novelinks
The House of the Scorpion: Multigenre Research Paper
As the culminating project for a unit study of The House of the Scorpion, class members craft a multi-genre research paper to demonstrate not only their depth of knowledge of a topic of interest to them, but also their...
Curated OER
I've Just Seen a Face: Portraits
Young scholars examine portraits for different images they project, cite three purposes a portrait can serve, analyze portraits of historical figures, and relate biographical research to portraits.
Curated OER
Measurement
Students explore the concept of measurement. In this measurement lesson, students discuss what specific measurement tools such as an odometer measure. Students recite a measurement poem. Students make a foldable with conversion units...
Curated OER
When a Country Loses Its Songs
Students explore music as a cultural tradition. In this global studies instructional activity, students consider the implications of the loss of childhood songs to a cultural group. Students determine the type of musical "treasures" that...
Curated OER
Edgar Allan Poe Stories Quiz
When given a short summary of one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, can you choose the correct title? Try your best with this multiple-choice quiz covering nine different stories (one is actually a poem) by Poe.
Curated OER
A Song By Any Other Name Would Be a Poem
Students examine the poetic elements of a piece of music. They discuss favorite songs, select a song, and write a persuasive essay identifying the poetic qualities of the song lyrics.