Curated OER
Preparing for Poetry: A Reader's First Steps
Students examine denotation and connotation in language, and paraphrase a poem. They read and analyze a sonnet by iam Shakespeare, analyze the attitude and tone, paraphrase a poem, and create a thesis about a poem based on textual evidence.
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Shadows & Light, Science & Puppetry
Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...
Curated OER
Cover Up: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
Blend art, adolescent snacking habits, and math to create new cereal boxes. Secondary learners review scale drawings. They use this information to construct cereal boxes to scale and will compare their creation to the original product to...
Curated OER
Bridge to Terabithia
Students explore scenes from Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia. For this visualization lesson, students listen to the story read aloud. The students then choose words and phrases that paint a picture in their heads....
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Sense Poems
Students explore 5 senses poetry. In this poetry writing lesson, students visualize a special day and brainstorm related vivid adjectives and phrases. Students create mindmaps of the five senses to go with their visualization and write...
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Character Study
Third graders work in pairs to choose two characters and find their similarities and differences. For this character lesson, 3rd graders compare characters by their actions and attributes. Students individually complete a graphic...
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Plan Ahead for Professional Development
You can learn something new this fall and winter by attending a conference or seminar.
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Reference Materials
After a class discussion where kids share how they find answers to their questions, learners explore the world of reference materials such as, an atlas, an almanac, and an encyclopedia. The Internet is also discussed as a way to access...
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Transition Words in Writing
Transition words in writing are the focus of the language arts lesson presented here. In it, learners cut out the word-sort cards (embedded in the plan), and put them into four categories: time, examples, space, and summary. They find a...
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Narrative Writing vs. Explanatory Writing
The class discusses the different purposes an author has for writing. The focus of the discussion is on writing to tell a true story and writing to give information about a specific topic. There are writing purpose sorting cards embedded...
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Media Literacy Analyzed
Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...
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Organizing Info into Short Reports
The class brainstorms a list of prominent people from their knowledge of social studies. Groups of two pupils get together and select one of these people to research. They create five questions to research on their person and record them...
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Roots and Affixes
Fourth and fifth graders review how words can have several parts, including; roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Pupils receive a word building tiles worksheet, embedded in the plan, and they record selected roots, prefixes, and suffixes in...
Safe Routes to School
Pollution & Evolution
Bring together a study of two major scientific topics with a lesson on the relationship between pollution and evolution. With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, hands-on activity. and class demonstration young scientists learn how...
National Security Agency
Going Green with Graphs
For this unit designed for second graders, youngsters are introduced to conducting surveys and creating tally charts based on the data they gather. Students then construct bar graphs, and observe the relationships between the two types...
Curated OER
Imperialism in Africa
Students study imperialism in Africa. In this Imperialism lesson, students consider how democratic revolutions around the world led to imperialism in Africa.
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Math Games
Fourth graders participate in a lesson that is involved in the breaking of codes using computer games. They access the internet to play math games. The teacher uses powerpoint to help guide students with common problems in loading and...
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Democratic Revolutions
Students study the Age of Revolutions. In this Latin America instructional activity, students consider how democratic revolutions around the world led to imperialism in Latin America.
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General Introduction To Microsoft Word
Fourth graders investigate the fundamentals of using Microsoft Word. They practice using the common word processing techniques. Students practice composing a document and experiment with changing font sizes, editing tools, saving, and...
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Microsoft Word - Similies
Fourth graders complete an attached simile worksheet. The teacher models the lesson on a LCD screen. They then open a simile template in the correct folder on Microsoft word. They insert similes, spell check their work, and then save...
Curated OER
Cataracts of the Nile Reviewing Egyptian History
Students investigate and answer questions about the people, places, and events of ancient Egypt and their contributions to world civilization. In small groups they participate in a game answering review questions about ancient Egyptian...
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Chemical and Physical Changes
Young scholars experiment, identify and apply the concepts of chemical and physical changes utilizing real-world examples. They discuss and model physical and chemical changes, answer guided questions and play a game that reinforces the...
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Building Staircases: Understanding Slope
Students recognize the importance of slope. They use blocks to model the slope of a line and calculate the slope of a line on a coordinate grid. Afterward, they describe objects they encounter in their everyday lives that have slopes.
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Building Fiction: Elements of a Short Story
Students define and interpret the elements found in a short story. Then they identify the elements of plot found in a short story. Students also apply knowledge of plot to an original work of fiction. Finally, they identify the...