Classroom Resources

Construct-a-Word provides a simple, engaging way for students to generate dozens of different words by first choosing an ending (for example -an, -ed, -at, -op) and then adding a beginning letter or blend. When a correct word is created, the word is stored in a Word Bank where students can read and review their words. For each ending, Construct-a-Word prompts students to create between 6 and 14 different possible words, adding an element of fun and discovery. It uses animation and sound to guide students through the steps of creating words and employs prompts that are clear and easy to master. This interactive tool could be used individually or in small groups, either in one session or across multiple lessons.

In this lesson, shared reading, guided reading, and small, cooperative-group instruction are used in the classroom to informally assess students' ability to demonstrate awareness of rhyme or other visual similarities in words. Students practice matching rhyming words using picture cards and apply phonological awareness—hearing rhyme—to analogy-based phonics (i.e., an ability to decode unknown words by identifying words with similar visual structure). Students use online resources to increase phonological awareness through rhyme.

Students will use a hula hoop to identify personal space. They will perform axial movements (non-locomotor) within their hula hoop.    

Students will identify and perform locomotor movements with the class. They will move safely with peers throughout the space.  

Students will brainstorm ways to move, including shake, vibrate, sharp, smooth, swing, twist, wiggle, and spin. They will perform examples of these movements using different forces and efforts. The teacher will provide prompts for students to improvise movements.  

Students will draw their initials in upper case letters on paper and in the air. They will explore the pathways created by their initials while walking on the floor. They will identify the different types of lines created by the pathways. They will choreograph a three-part (beginning, middle, end) dance using their initials. 

Students will brainstorm a list of emotions and feelings. They will create a facial expression and a frozen shape to express each emotion. In a group, they will choreograph a dance beginning and ending with a frozen shape with the middle being locomotor movements.

Students will observe children's products and discuss their likes and dislikes about each product. They will view a variety of advertisements and decide if they would purchase the item or not. They will begin drawing an advertisement for a product. 

Students will discuss the purpose, target audience, and value of advertisements.  Students will create original, hand-drawn advertisements. They will continue to work on their advertisements by adding more details, such as color, text, and symbols (such as price).

Students will complete their advertisements and identify the key elements. Working in pairs, they will create a new children's product and a marketing strategy. They will apply advertising design strategies to market their product.

In this video, students learn how and when to use cohesive devices like determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, and adverbs. This video is perfect to help with grammar homework.

This interactive game from WNET Thirteen, “Prisoner in My Homeland,” puts players in the shoes of 16-year-old Henry Tanaka, in 1941, whose family is forced to leave their home on Bainbridge Island, WA, for a prison camp in Manzanar, CA. Players grapple with the choices and challenges faced by more than 120,000 Japanese Americans as they coped with their unjust incarceration during World War II. Teachers will need to register to play this game.  The game can be played in a whole group setting or individually.  Teachers can also download a teacher's guide.

In this lesson, students investigate a series of primary documents to address the question: Why did the United States government incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II? Students will watch a newsreel from 1942 that the government made to explain the internment. Then, students will read four other primary documents about the internment to answer the essential question. 

The website includes lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, primary source documents, and student graphic organizers. Teachers will need to create a free account to access the materials. 

In this video, students learn why we write friendly letters, as well as how to properly write one.

This informational material explains how to conduct choral reading in the classroom. Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

This unit plan includes four lessons using a storyboard to create an ebook. In the first lesson, students will use a storyboard to plan an ebook for a short three-part story of their own choosing. In the second lesson, students will develop their understanding of how storytelling can be enhanced using visual arts techniques. In the third lesson, students will be able to take an image using an iPad and use it effectively in an ebook. In the fourth lesson, students will record sounds to accompany the text and images for their ebooks.

This informational material teaches educators how to perform a shared reading in the classroom. Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression. The shared reading model often uses oversized books (referred to as big books) with enlarged print and illustrations

This informational material offers teachers several simple ways to teach students about blends through reading games. 

This learning activity provides teachers with information on how to conduct a segmentation cheer activity. Educators can write the "Segmentation Cheer" on chart paper, and teach it to children. Each time you say the cheer, change the words in the third line. Have children segment the word sound by sound. Begin with words that have three phonemes, such as ten, rat, cat, dog, soap, read, and fish.

Teachers can use this activity to help teach students about segmenting sounds. The activity includes the use of a puppet and downloadable picture cards. A puppet can be made from a sock, paper bag, or popsicle sticks. Be creative!

In this lesson plan, students will be introduced to a personal narrative. They will read an example of a personal narrative. The students will learn the elements of a personal narrative and its purpose. 

In this activity, teachers will help their students to identify syllables in spoken words by clapping for each syllable. Being able to hear and identify syllables is an important component of phonological awareness and will help children learn to read and spell.

In this activity, while students are talking in "Robot Talk," students hear segmented sounds and put them together (blend them) into words.

In this video, students learn why it's important to take turns speaking and listening while having a conversation.

Help students learn how to find the main idea and supporting details in a text with this fun, engaging animation video.

This quick and simple animation video provides a fun and engaging introduction using context clues to identify or clarify the meaning of unknown words. 

This quick animation video provides a fun and engaging introduction to compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, events, drawing on specific details of a story.

YAY! It is time to learn about synonyms! Synonyms are fun and easy to learn in this fun learning video. This video will help students  learn what synonyms are and how they can be spotted.

This brief animated video provides an introduction to the skill of using synonyms.

This short instructional cartoon provides an entertaining and informative introduction to context and supporting evidence.

This quick animation provides a fun and engaging introduction to the narrator's point of view. Students are introduced to the first person and third-person perspectives.

This video will teach students about simple and compound sentences. Students will learn about dependent and independent clauses and combining prepositional phrases with coordinating conjunctions. 

In this video, students learn about three main types of sentences, and when they should use a period, exclamation mark, and question mark. This video is chalked full of examples of when each type of punctuation should be used. 

In this video, students learn about long vowels. Students learn the sounds that long vowels make. They learn how special vowels are when making words. 

In this video, students learn how special short vowels are. They learn how to write short vowel sounds and what sounds each short vowel makes.