Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
Reflecting/Writing after a field trip or other experience
Students reflect on field trips in writing. In this journal writing lesson, students write about a recent experience by using 4 of their senses to tell what they remember. They turn these into poetry.
Curated OER
Color Poems
Students describe colors. In this descriptive writing lesson, students brainstorm color descriptions using all of the senses except sight. Students write poems including similes, sensory images, and interesting word choice. Examples are...
Novelinks
Zach’s Lie: Guided Imagery
Close your eyes and picture a time where you decided to tell the truth to someone. What were you wearing? How did you feel? Such prompts begin a guided imagery activity for Zach's Lie. Directions for creating an environment conducive to...
Curated OER
Blogging to Create a Community of Writers
One of the keys for successful teaching is connecting curriculum to real-life experiences. This instructional activity on blogging does this, by making writing, revising, and publishing a reality. Pupils create a character for a story,...
School District No. 71
Adding Written Detail: Using Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon as a Mentor Text
Access your senses with a worksheet on sensory language. Based on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, the worksheet prompts kids to find examples of each of the five senses, as well as phrases for inner emotion.
Global Oneness Project
Understanding Blindness
Gaia Squarci's photo essay, Broken Screen, turns viewers attention to the challenges faced by those with visual impairments. After viewing the images, class members discuss why they believe the photographer structured the album as she did.
Curated OER
Paper Dragon Fairy Tale
Imagine a beautiful rainbow-colored dragon flying free in the air. With powerful imagery and sensory language, a reading passage prompts learners to follow the plot of a short story and answer five comprehension questions.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing
Fifth graders develop compositions on self-selected topics. They choose a topic based upon their ability. Individual pupils earn points for each activity completed. Students use descriptive writing as they support their composition...
Australian National Schools Network
Habits of Mind Posters
If you are implementing the 16 Habits of Mind into your class and curriculum, check out this set of posters that you can display in your room. Each poster highlights one Habit of Mind and includes a brief description of its objective.
Curated OER
Here's My Family
Family traditions help to instill personal values, social norms, and the warmest of childhood memories. Elementary and secondary learners share their favorite family traditions with a fun diorama project. Using modeling clay, they create...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: I Love You the Purplest (Joosse)
Use Barbara Joosse's heartwarming story I Love You the Purplest (which can be found on YouTube if you don't have it) to practice vocabulary in context with emerging readers. This sensory text is an excellent opportunity to learn new...
K5 Learning
Humming Birds
Seeing a hummingbird in the wild can be a magical experience. Learn more about these delicate members of the animal kingdom with a short reading passage, complete with four short-answer questions.
Curated OER
The Middle Passage
Fifth graders explore slavery conditions by viewing a video clip on the Internet. In this slave ship instructional activity, 5th graders discuss the transportation of black men and women from Africa to the United States in the 1700's and...
Curated OER
Message in a Bottle
Sixth graders write a short story about being stranded on a deserted island. After a brief geography review of locations at various latitudes and longitudes, 6th graders draft their story about being stranded. They use sensory and...
Curated OER
Building Believable Characters
Students use descriptive strategies such as physical descriptions, background, and comparison of characters when writing narratives. They develop the topic with supporting details and precise diction to paint a visual image in the...
Hachette Children’s Group
Our Five Senses
Show your class how to experience their world with the five sense. With worksheets on each sense, learners investigate their surroundings and categorize them into sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.
Curated OER
Outline a Travel Narrative
Fourth graders are taught how to outline a fictional narrative essay. They review the definition and structure of narrative essays. Students use the activity to brainstorm specific ideas for narrative essays. They are given a...
Curated OER
A Geopoem About Alaska
Sixth graders conduct Internet research on the physical and human characteristics of Alaska. They compose and write geopoems about the state of Alaska, using a template.
Curated OER
The Princess's Point of View
Everyone wants to be part of a royal family. Let your pupils experience the privilege of royalty by rewriting the story The Frog Prince from the point of view of the princess. While the story line remains the same, perspective is bound...
Curated OER
Next Stop, the Watsonville Wetlands
Middle schoolers study bird migrations and the importance of wetlands. In this migration lesson students play a game and complete a computer activity.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Third Grade Writing Lesson #1/ Descriptive Prompt
Given a descriptive writing prompt, 3rd graders will include precise word choices and sensory language in a piece of writing about their favorite place.