Search ALEX...

Through multimodal activities, students will explore key elements of design such as color, shape, size, texture, density, and layout to understand and appreciate how these elements combine to convey meaning in Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni. Using art and digital media, they will then create their own designs to express meaning for setting, character relationships, and plot. Students will realize how to use design elements to read images and how meaning in picture books is equally conveyed in both words and images.

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. 

The Northern Arapaho of the Wind River Indian Reservation are storytellers. In an effort to pass their culture to the next generation, the elders tell the children four traditional stories. Using clay animation, shadow puppets, painting, drawing, and performance, the children make the stories come to life.

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

Students will investigate how traditional teaching and the passing on of knowledge and wisdom are done through storytelling.

This is a reading guide/lesson plan with step-by-step instructions to accompany the book Feivel's Flying Horses by Heidi Smith Hyde and illustrated by Johanna Van Der Sterre. Feivel's Flying Horses tells the story of a Jewish woodcarver who moved from the Old Country and carved carousel horses to earn money to bring his family from Europe to America. The story is a historical fiction story of immigrants coming to America. The reading guide is recommended for kindergarten through 4th grade.  

In this lesson, students identify how the rapper, Common, and writer, Walter Dean Myers, reinterprets Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of nonviolence in their own works. This lesson also aims to expose high school students to nonviolent options of conflict-resolution. To activate prior knowledge, students will watch Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech and read Doreen Rappaport's picture book, Martin's Big Words, and recall how he approached conflict. The students will connect Dr. King's answer to conflict-resolution with Common's interpretation of nonviolence, as demonstrated in his song, “A Dream”. The students will also connect this dream of nonviolence to Walter Dean Myers' short story, “Monkeyman,” from the book 145th Street. Students are assigned a particular homework task prior to reading the short story in order to encourage a text-based discussion on characterization and conflict. The students will be introduced to Dr. King's Six Principles of Nonviolence and compose a thesis essay as a final assessment.

ABC Slider Puzzle is a new twist on putting the letters of the alphabet in alphabetical order! Start with "A" in the top left corner, then slide the letter blocks up, down, left, or right to put them in alphabetical order. This game is fun for all ages: young learners will have fun practicing their ABCs, and older kids will have a blast solving the puzzle!

In this resource, students connect new information to personal experiences which helps learners comprehend and clarify their responses to literature. Learners can apply and accommodate vocabulary and meanings they already understand to new situations and concepts. Students make connections between a video about bees and their own personal experiences through a poem written for two voices.
Students share personal experiences they have had with bees. They then watch a video clip about handling bee hives and wearing a beard of bees. They respond to the video by connecting their response to personal experiences through a poem for two voices.

Writing poetry enables students to reflect on their everyday experiences, express their perceptions and observations, and craft powerful images. In this lesson, students write theme poems using their content knowledge and sensory awareness of a familiar object. Students first learn about the characteristics and format of a theme poem. They then engage in an online interactive activity in which they select a graphic of a familiar object (e.g., the sun, a heart, a balloon), build a word bank of the content area and sensory words related to the object, and write poems within the shape of the object. Finished poems are printed and displayed in class.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used as an introduction to sound waves, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This article will describe an experiment that can be performed for students to view the motion of sound waves. 

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to explain how the sun illuminates the moon at night, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson.

Word War is a spelling game that makes learning fun by allowing children to compete in real-time. Students will create a word and then hit the fire button to launch cannonballs at their opponent's tank. This interactive game is one of the most popular spelling games.

Childhood is a time for laughing, learning, and playing with friends. Every day all around the world, children meet and make new friends. In this online book from the International Children's Digital Library, Monty the raccoon lies, breaking the trust his friend, Fritz the rabbit, had in him. This book highlights the importance of being a good friend and the consequences of lying.

See the supplemental materials for detailed teaching activities. The asset titled, "Forever Friendship—Making Friends Story Map" most closely aligns with the Alabama Course of Study.

This unit is designed to help first and second-grade students learn new vocabulary by taking them on virtual adventures that replicate field trips. Students begin by accessing prior knowledge through an initial writing activity. Ensuing discussions, read-alouds, and the creation of a picture dictionary "take students to the moon," while further building their vocabulary. Students use an online Alphabet Organizer to complete a final writing activity, which they compare to the writing they did during the first session. Although this lesson focuses on the moon, its activities can be used with any content area topic.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to provide information regarding geologic events that happen over a short period of time, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity includes a StepRead: StepReads are less complex versions of the original article. StepRead1 (SR1) is less complex than the original article, and StepRead2 (SR2) is less complex than SR1. This will allow the teacher to use this learning activity with students of varying ability levels.

Vocab Vik is one of the most unique online vocabulary games for kids. Due to its adventure-style of play, Vik can help children enjoy exploring the meanings of words. Watch out for enemies, though, they will do whatever they can to stop Vik in his tracks. Vocab Vik will even show your accuracy so that you can have an idea what your grade might be.

Red Riding Hood sits down and takes you behind the scenes of the learning concepts in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. This video is designed for parents to watch without their children to learn valuable co-viewing tips and tricks such as discussion questions, pausing points, and questions to ask children during and after the fairy tale video.

Designed to meet Grade 3 English Language Arts Standards: Reading Literature: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

You can access the story at the following location: Little Red Riding Hood Storybook Text

In this unit, students tell their own stories and explore the stories of other Americans. Hearing and telling these stories helps students realize that social studies is not simply the study of history, but an exploration of real people and their lives. Students begin by telling stories about their personal experiences. They then explore the character traits that promote democratic ideals and tell stories about family members who exemplify these traits. Finally, they conduct research and share stories about famous Americans. Practiced skills include reading, researching, visually representing, writing, and presenting.

The teacher will present two pieces of informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with these non-fiction texts by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the articles as an assessment. This learning activity will describe two different threatened species, one plant, and one animal species, and explain how changes in the species' ecosystem led to a population shift. 

In this lesson, the students will learn about some different figures of speech and expressions in the English language. A figure of speech is when we use words creatively in a way that is a little different from what the words mean normally. Expressions like metaphors and similes are used to add rhetorical force to the spoken or written language. This resource offers videos, games, and worksheets to help further understand the concept taught in this lesson.

Pronoun case is determined by how we use the pronoun in a sentence. There are three ways: subjective, when the pronoun does something; objective, when something is done to our pronoun; and possessive when our pronoun possesses something.

In this lesson, students access their own knowledge of characters from a variety of texts to make comparisons between the familiar concepts of hero and villain and the new concept of the Byronic hero, a term coined from Lord Byron and his writings in the 19th century. They first list heroes and villains with which they are familiar and discuss any examples that may blur the lines between the two. Using Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and the character Edward Cullen, students identify the characteristics of the Byronic hero in a Venn diagram and diagram other characters with these traits. Students then choose a project—an expository essay, photo collage, or book cover—to extend their understanding of this complex and compelling character type.

This lesson uses Edward Cullen as an example, but it may be adapted to focus on any Byronic hero that would be appropriate for your classroom.

In this 3-5 lesson, students will explore jazz music and dance, then write a jazz-inspired cinquain poem. They will build their background on the history of jazz and its use of improvisation to demonstrate jazz dance movements.