California Department of Education
Gaining by Giving
Community service is a win-win! Scholars discover how to gain valuable career skills through helping others using a lesson about volunteer work. Second in a six-part career and college readiness series, the activities focus on...
Curated OER
Elizabeti's Series--Classroom Guide
Second graders explore the books in the Elizabeti Series. In this reading comprehension lesson, young readers discuss pre-reading focus questions about their feelings on the first day of school. They investigate the book and describe the...
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Don't Mess with Mercury (Lesson B)
At one point, people thought mercury was therapeutic for humans, but now we know it is highly toxic. The second of three activities covering mercury focuses on its health hazards if humans are exposed. Pairs research and answer questions...
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Lawyers, Guns and Meaning
Students examine why they either do or do not have guns in their own household and how guns affect their sense of safety. They explore the controversy surrounding how best to interpret the Second Amendment by reading and discussing the...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Welcome to our Classroom
Second graders create a classroom resource book for substitutes to help them feel more comfortable and familiar with faces and procedures in our classroom and school. They develop skill in using a digital camera and computer technology.
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Unlocking Word Meanings
Fourth graders investigate eponyms in the English language. In this eponym lesson plan, 4th graders participate in a teacher led lesson plan on the definition of an eponym. They complete a worksheet in which they determine which eponym...
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ReQuest and Motor Imaging with My Side of the Mountain
Fifth graders read "My Side of the Mountain." They create a pantomime using vocabulary words from the story. Students create three questions about the reading. They discuss the passage they read and act out words to help them better...
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The Story Project: A Lesson Plan for the Combining Voices Literary Competition
Students analyze Simple Answer, by John Cleaveland, and use this image to inspire a short story. They use both verbal and visual language to help them create the characters and the plot. The lesson plan contains steps that helps the...
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Compound-Go-Round
Students make compound words by putting together cards with whole words on them. In this language arts lesson plan, students play a game where they match up words in an attempt to make compound words that make sense. A fun, meaningful...
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Let's Edit!
Students in fourth grade pair up with students in second grade to edit writing convension.
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Honour killings: What do we need to understand in looking for solutions?
Students prepare a chart with four columns: things we know, things we think we know but need to check, things we wonder about, and new things we have learned. Each group is given a case study and they discuss the three cases of "honor...
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Score a Homerun for Reading!
Students form the ability to be able to read text smoothly, expressively, and faster. By being able to do this, students are able to concentrate more on the comprehension of the text instead of on the decoding of each individual word....
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Testing DNA and the Death Penalty
Students explore issues surrounding death penalty debate and participate in a values-clarification activity to help them form their opinions on this topic. They create a talk show to discuss issues involved with DNA testing and the death...
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The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plains
Pupils review the concept of vowel digraphs. They identify the digraph /ai/ in spoken language. After a brief discussion, students apply the rule for reading and spelling words containing the /ai/ digraph by creating a word chart.
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Musicians and Vampires
Students practice techniques and strategies for understanding the parts of a story to help them remember what they've read. They review and analyze the elements of a story and how to find them first in a paragraph and then in a book.
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Sum It Up!!!
Students main goal of reading is comprehension. They encounter one main strategy of summarization. They comprehend that summarization is the process of finding the most important information from a reading. Students must follow several...
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The Witch of Goingsnake
Students identify figurative language in a proverb and write an interpretation of the proverb prior to reading The Witch of Goingsnake. In this The Witch of Goingsnake lesson, students read a native American proverb and determine whether...
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Acting Out as we Go
Fourth graders use motor imaging to remember the definitions of words. In this vocabulary instructional activity, 4th graders work in groups to make a pantomime to help them remember a word. Students document the experience in their...
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MYSTERY PICTURES (Following Oral Directions)
Students draw pictures while following simple instructions. They discuss the importance of following directions explicitly. They discuss the differences between each child's work. They follow a second set of directions.
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Frankenstein
Students use an outline of the story "Frankenstein" to identify mistakes in English. They practice making corrections to make the sentence correct. They answer questions to end the instructional activity.
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Anticipatory Set Picture Walk
The teacher models a Picture Walk by using a "think aloud" method while reading a picture book to the class. On the second day, 3rd graders use a worksheet as a guide for a second picture walk. This time, students complete the "think...
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Cloze Word Story
Fifth graders complete a cloze word story test. In this listening skills lesson, 5th graders listen to a story and follow along with their own copy. Students listen to the story a second time and fill in the missing words as they go.
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The Ogre Bully
Second graders read the story The Ogre Bully and complete language arts activities connected to the story. In this language arts lesson plan, 2nd graders complete activities including discussion, reading, writing, sequencing, analyzing,...
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Who is Harriet Tubman?
Second graders read A Picture of Harriet Tubman, by David A. Adler. In this Harriet Tubman lesson plan, 2nd graders explore the concept of slavery and discover how Harriet helped free slaves in the past. The book is read out loud. They...