Great Schools
A Questionnaire: What Do You Like to Read?
What do your fifth graders know about types of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry? Find out as they fill out this questionnaire that requires them to list authors and texts that exemplify each genre. Not only will you be able to assess what...
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Poet-Tree (or shrub or forb)
Students write poetry to describe a noxious weed. They form a personal relationship with, and a better comprehension of weeds. Students explain what the basic elements of a haiku are. They describe a particular weed, and comprehend...
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"Encounter with a Skull" by Koda Rohan
Students, in pairs, develop two poems--one must be a haiku, the other must be a tanka. They recite their poems to the class.
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PowerPoint Poetry Project
Seventh graders create PowerPoint poetry "books." They write five to seven autobiographical poems, select appropriate photos and music, and combine everything into a PowerPoint poetry presentation. They use many technological resources...
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Illinois Biodiversity
Students examine the amount of biodiversity in the state of Illinois. They practice using new vocabulary and listening to stories about animals. After given time to reflect, they write their own haiku. They work together to create a...
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Poetry To My Ears
Students investigate the 50 States Quarters Program. They use the state of Idaho as a basis for creating context for the instructional activity. The image on the coin becomes the subject. They differentiate between the reverse and...
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Online Collaborative Writing Lesson Plan
Students write poetry and post it on the Internet for others to see.
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Ink Painting And Poetry In Japan And China
Students create original Haiku poetry and paint images that depict the emotions of each poem in this high school Language Arts lesson adaptable for other curriculums including Art and Social Studies.
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Passionate Pilgrims- Two Poets And A Painter
Students engage in a lesson that looks at the culture of Japan to isolate the practices of painting and writing in several different traditions. They conduct research about the lives of the artists using a variety of resources. The...
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Online Project Center
Students write two haiku poems in appropriate form. Writing haiku allows students to practice in the skills of dividing words into syllables, counting syllables, and searching for words to fit a structure.
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Photoshop Brush and Shape Tools
Students are introduced to Photoshop and the tools to assess it properly. They are shown how to manipulate a piece of writing with shapes utilizing the brush tool. Each students writes an original haiku to describe their painting.
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.
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Creating a Literary Magazine - Part Two
Poetry can provide a great way to get a literary magazine going at your school.
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Soaring High with Kites
Students make kites from patterns. They write haiku poetry. They listen to stories about kite festivals in different countries.
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Japanese Inspired Activities for the Classroom
Students become more aware of cultural differences by reading a variety of multicultural books about social issues. They assess various Haiku's by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Kamishibai stories by Dianne Clouet and snapshots from Japan by Peter...
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"Mother Earth" -- Present
Students examine the Native American belief of "Mother Earth". They read stories from Native American authors and reflect. They illustrate this concept through art and haikus.
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Authors of the Past and Present
Students research a chosen author. In this authors instructional activity, students pick one author from the list provided, do research, and write a paper.
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Narrow Road to the Interior
Students investigate the life and work of the Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho as the Japanese poetic forms are studied. Nature, symbolism, and history are probed as the lesson is developed.
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Land of the Rising Sun
Students survey aspects of traditional and modern Japanese customs and beliefs in the seven lessons of this unit. Both the culture and the geography of the country are studied in this unit.
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We're Going to the Zoo!
Students write and publish a poem as part of a class poetry collection after analyzing the poetic structures of haiku, limericks, sound poems and free verse. After viewing a multimedia demonstration of the poetic structures, and after...
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Stain My Days Blue
Students read several poems related to the life and culture of the Appalachia region. They are introduced to the poetic forms of simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia and respond to the poems through journal entries and poetry of their own.
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Sadako: A Tribute to a Girl with Cancer
Pupils explore the story of Sadako, a young girl, who had leukemia as a result of a bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in 1955. They create a chain of paper cranes and design a fund-raising event. They write poems in the Japanese style of...
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Over the Rainbow with Isaac Newton
Second graders study rainbows and do an interdisciplinary assignment that includes poetry and a science experiment.
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American Transcendentalism and Buddhism:
Students study American transcendentalism through readings of Emerson and Thoreau. They make cognitive connections to the similarities to Buddhism in these writings. The connection of the literary movement is explained in the art of the...