Curated OER
Bucket List Poetry
What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The lesson prompts...
Curated OER
A Monster of a Metaphor
What do Jeep advertisements and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have in common? They both employ the art of the extended metaphor! Using the Six-Trait Writing model, learners begin to work on their own extended metaphors. Development...
Curated OER
A Hurricane Blowing In
Young scholars write a scene. In this creative writing lesson, students read The Lightning Thief and discuss the sentence fluency and word choice in the writing. Young scholars complete a writing assignment where they create an...
Curated OER
Combining with Participial Phrases
Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...
Curated OER
Impersonating Great Poets Using "Science Verse" by Jon Scieszka
A great way to bring poetry and parody into your language arts classroom, this lesson mimics famous poems based on Jon Scieszka's Science Verse. The activity not only allows the class to see examples of poem parodies, but to create their...
Curated OER
Painting Places with Words Using John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Useful in an Of Mice and Men unit, or in a unit that focuses on descriptive writing, this lesson prompts young authors to impersonate John Steinbeck's writing style in the opening passages of the novel. A Six Trait writing activity...
Curated OER
Counting Sentences' Words
Explore language arts by completing a worksheet with class. They read the story Owl Moon and discuss the rhythm of the writing and how action verbs are used appropriately. Then complete a writing worksheet which discusses writing...
Curated OER
Assessing the Traits: What is Good Writing?
Students assess samples of writing for each trait and discuss the rationale for scoring. They understand that the traits of writing offer a common language for revision. This lesson includes a scoring rubric for the students to use.
Curated OER
Assessing the Traits: What is Good Writing?
Young scholars examine samples of writing and discuss the score it received. They brainstorm what qualities make a good writer and stories.
Curated OER
Eudora Welty Internet Scavenger Hunt
Students use the Internet as a research tool. they read, comprehend, identify, evaluate, and select the correct answers to contextual questions.They write a rough draft, edit/revise, and a final draft summarizing the information located.
Curated OER
Ain't Gonna Rain No More
In this creative writing lesson, pupils listen to the song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More", read the book adaptation titled I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, and pay close attention to the rhyming scheme, punctuation and illustrations. They...
Curated OER
What is Good Writing
Students identify the qualities of good writing. In this writing lesson, students use the 6+1 Traits of Writing and use a rubric to discuss samples of writing on the overhead. Students discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each writing...
Curated OER
What is Good Writing?
Students assess samples of writing for each trait and discuss rationale for scoring. They comprehend that the traits of writing offer a common language for revision. Students are shown how to asses their writing and what makes good...
Curated OER
Creating a Story that "Stacks" on Itself and Repeats a Catch Phrase
Students explore language arts by reading a classic children's story in class. In this story structure lesson, students read the Judith Viorst book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Family Stories and Personal Narratives
Fourth graders read various stories in their literature books about families. Individually, they make a timeline showing the most important events in their lives. They bring in one artifact from their lives and write a paper about it...
Curated OER
Bingo!
First graders practice and reinforce phonics and/or math skills by creating Bingo! game using computer spreadsheet. Students incorporate phonics or math skills class has been practicing onto Bingo! cards, which can be printed and made...
Curated OER
Cell Pizza
Students identify parts and functions of microscope. Students watch video, Cells and Life about cell parts with actual pictures and actual cells. Students discuss video and identify parts of the cells that animals and plants have in...
Curated OER
Egyptian Mummification
Students explore Egyptian mummification and burial practices. They conduct research on gods, goddesses, afterlife, and mummification. Students dissect and mummify a frog "pharaoh and create a tomb wall for their frog "pharaoh."
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Oh, Messy Cheetos!
In this instructional activity, sentence fluency is the focus. The mentor text entitled Mrs. Wishy Washy is used to help students explore how using repetition techniques can enhance the meaning of a story. After reading the text,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: We Saw Him at the Zoo
In this lesson plan, the mentor text utilized is Deborah Guarino's book, Is Your Mama a Llama?, with the focus of sentence fluency. Each student will think of an animal that that has the same initial sound as his/her name. Using the...