Subject(s): Language Arts Grades(s): Grades PreK-1

Alphabet, Punctuation, & Sounds:

• This is an alphabet game created for use at a daycare
• Here is another alphabet game
• This is a lesson plan on vowels
• This initial and final sounds lesson uses Dr. Suess
• Here’s an idea for ABC Freeze Tag that can be used in PE
• This lesson is called “Walking Through the Alphabet”
• This brief idea involves students making Alphabet Books
• Here’s a lesson written to reinforce certain constant sounds
• Here students learn to say and make lower case letters
• This plastic Easter egg idea helps students learn their letters

• Here’s a memory game for learning upper and lower case letters
• Here’s a lesson on quotation marks and their use
• This is a great lesson for learning the ABCs
• This lesson uses flashcards to learn letter recognition and reading
• ABCs teach students how to learn to read in this lesson
• In this idea, students create their own weekly letter identification booklet
• Here’s a fun card game used to put words in alphabetical order
• Use this lesson for the letter Hh and its sound
• In this “frog, jog, fog, dog, log” lesson, instruments are used to add tone color to literature
• Here children will spell sight words after reading Joseph Wants to Read
• This multidisciplinary lesson centers on cookies and the letter “C”
• Click here to discover what’s inside this W-E-L-C-O-M-E bag idea
• “Letter Caterpillar” is an alphabet learning idea
• 26 letters are found in this Dinosaur Egg hunt, but not in alphabetical order
• Here students examine the punctuation of a message left by a leprechaun
• The Syllabary/Analogy Method is used here to decode the pronunciation of polysyllabic words
• This is a letter “B” lesson
• This is an “EA” sound Kidspiration lesson
• In this alphabet writing activity, students discover “letters” in a bottle
• This is a beginning Braille letter recognition lesson
• This letter sound scavenger hunt boosts phonemic awareness, vocabulary and articulation skills
• Kindergartners practice alphabetic principles here by writing group stories with Kidspiration software
• A-Apple, B-Ball, C-Cat; this lesson teaches the alphabet with picture association and word recognition
• This is a short phonics and listening skills activity idea
• Kids make a paper chain of short ‘a’ words here

Drama & Speech:

• Although not a lesson plan, these fun Tongue Twisters can come in handy
• This is a drama lesson involving farm animal stick puppets
• Dance your way into learning about Earth Day
• After reading A Color of His Own, students act out who-what-where-when in slow dance moves in this delightful lesson
• This Chinese New Year lesson features an outstanding skit and art projects
• Here is a preschool dramatic play plan for law enforcement activity centers
• This is a preschool transportation themed dramatic play activity centers plan
• In these two lessons, drama is used to improve language and literacy
• This lesson turns a poem into a performance piece
• Here students perform “Caps for Sale” after predicting how many caps they can balance

Foreign Language:

• Click here to count to ten and say greetings in German
• This fun hands-on lesson teaches students Spanish language and culture as they improve their Baleros skills.
• Students identify causes of pollution and ways they can prevent it in this bilingual photo story
• You’ll have bilingual fun with the “The Barking Mouse” in this lesson

English as a Second Language (ESL):

• This is a clothing vocabulary activity for ESL and Pre-K student
• This ELL article promotes proficient, independent and imaginative English writers by explicit teaching methods and four research based strategies
• Students identify causes of pollution and ways they can prevent it in this bilingual photo story

Parts Of Speech:

• Here is another reading lesson using the phonogram method
• This one is for teaching phonograms by using the book The Sneetches
• This lesson is on making singular nouns plural
• Here as a story character, students write about their “Caribbean Dream” using verbs from the story
• This is a sweet, sour, or salty lesson on tasteful adjectives
• Here students chart adjectives from a “Carousel of Poetry”
• Here the book Go Away Big, Green Monster is used to introduce adjectives
• Here nouns and verbs are taught using an interactive SMART Board
• All aboard! Click here to travel on the Contraction Train
• This idea involves plastic Easter eggs and compound words – need we say more?

• In this holiday idea, students make sentences or stories with the nouns and adjectives they discover on a Christmas card
• After each student creates a self-descriptive bubble map, the class graphs the popular adjectives in this first day of school idea

Poetry:

• This is an idea to teach young students rhyming word families
• Here’s a brief thanksgiving poem good for ending a thanksgiving presentation
• Here is a fun “Fill In The Blanks” lesson with Shel Silverstein poems
• “W is for Worm” is the title of this cinquain poem lesson
• Students create Mother’s Day cards with poems in this lesson idea
• With the “In 1492″ poem, you can teach Columbus Day and poetry too!
• This lesson explores “The Color of We” with poetry, puppetry, and paint-mixing
• This 5-senses Christmas poem will add phonemic awareness and variety to your Christmas concert
• This idea combines making snowmen and rhyming
• This is an Ode to Thanksgiving Poem which can be expanded as a writing activity
• Using Kidspiration, students drag and drop “Green Eggs and Ham” rhyming words here within a Venn diagram
• This lesson is an introduction to Australia’s indigenous culture through poetry
• In this greeting card idea, students also collect and identify leaves, write a poem and discuss photosynthesis
• “Onomatopoeia Rita” is also a percussion poem for kinesthetic and auditory learners
• Here children also identify rhythm patterns in verse using percussion instruments
• Students use their senses to write cinquain poems in this fun Thanksgiving lesson

Reading – Compare & Contrast:

• Where the Wild Things Are is a good multidisciplinary place to read, compare/contrast, sort monster types, and learn about islands
• This short idea compares The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to the original
• In this new Chipo’s Gift “glyph” activity, two species of moths will be compared and contrasted

Reading – Comprehension:

• This lesson is on the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, uses Goldilocks
• The topic here is circular stories and sequencing
• This lesson focuses on comprehension and uses the story Big Bird Dont Cry
• This comprehension lesson uses the story Yo Yes
• “Prince Cinders” teaches predicting and comprehension in this lesson
• This lesson on comprehension and inferences uses a book called “The Snowy Day”
• Here’s another lesson on comprehension and recognition of detail, using “The Very Quiet Cricket”
• Students match objects and words to aid in reading skills here
• Here students recall details from Galdone’s “The Gingerbread Boy” to make and hunt their own
• Students are missing word detectives in this shared reading lesson

• Students study Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak here and create new monsters
• Here students share their special “gifts” after reading Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree”
• In this Thanksgiving reading lesson, an emergent reader is made into a predictable chart
• Here children make a shopping list, fill a crockpot, and learn to pour “Stone Soup”
• Students use the strategy of visualization here to better comprehend text
• Here students employ inferential thinking while reading “Peter’s Chair”
• Readers build comprehension skills here by retelling the beginning, middle and end of “Caps For Sale”
• Comprehension skills are also practiced here by retelling Rylant’s “The Relatives Came”
• This small-group lesson teaches spatial concepts, making inferences, retelling a story and more
• “Chipo’s Gift” is a thematic cross-curriculum book unit which includes a reading comprehension component (See a new Chipo’s Gift lesson in the Compare-Contrast Section above)
• Students retell Jan Brett’s “The Mitten” with cutout animal puppets in this delightful reading comprehension lesson
• Here students predict the outcome of a book based on its pictures

Reading – Literature:

• A Reading lesson using The Cat in the Hat and the Phonogram method
• Here’s a set of lesson plans using the Frog and Toadbook series:
  • This Frog and Toad lesson is on Identifying Blends
  • Here’s one that helps with Emotions
  • This one is on Story Maps
  • Last, this one also deals with Story Maps and Digraphs
• Here’s a fun lesson plan on classification using the lost button from “Frog and Toad Are Friends”
• This excellent lesson celebrates Dr. Seuss’ birthday
• “Ten Apples Up On Top” by Dr. Seuss inspires this self-portrait art and counting project idea
• This is a generic book review lesson
• “Quality Time” is a big book lesson about “Me and My Dad”

Reading – Story Elements:

• This reading lesson uses a story map (circular story)
• This lesson is on theme and on giving
• Here is a lesson on the elements of a story using Where The Wild Things Are
• Here students make a setting mural from the Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
• We are Going on a Bear Hunt also explores settings
• Learners use graphic organizers here to find “The Main Idea”

Reading – Other:

• A Reading lesson focusing on sight words
• A collection of Big Book Activities, dealing with the book What Will the Weather Be Like Today?
• A similar lesson, using the book “Princess Smartypants” to teach Evaluation and Appreciation
• This lesson uses the story “Caps For Sale” and is on Patterns and Sequences
• This lesson called “Book Blurbs” helps students with Reading Comprehension and Identifying Climax
• This is an activity idea for “The Big Potato”
• This lesson plan is on Pancake Day / Mardi Gras and involves numerous books about pancakes
• This lesson integrates Phonics with body language, spoken language, and written language
• “Literature and Patterns” is a reading – writing – drawing lesson about Easter Eggs
• This is a multidisciplinary lesson on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and sequencing of events

Research:

• Here students use the internet to track the weather online

Sentences & Paragraphs:

• Here is a Special Education idea for creating sentences
• “Basketball Sentences” focuses on basketball skills and sentence structure
• In this lesson, students “shop” for sentences
• In “Stop Talking,” groups edit a paragraph with stop sign periods and red pen capitals
• In this mini-lesson, students write a sentence about their favorite animal
• And here they write two descriptive sentences about an apple
• In this mini-unit, a small-moment idea is developed into a full paragraph narrative
• Children write short sentences here to create an autumn vocabulary booklet
• After listening to a story about Tyrannosaurus rex, students write sentences about the dinosaur here
• Young students write sentences and create “A Book of Many Colors” from magazine pages in this idea

Spelling:

• Here is a spelling game idea called “Hoopla”
• This is a fun spelling activity called “Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling”
• A phonics activity involving sounding out words and writing them is here
• Here’s a spelling lesson called “Pipe Cleaner Spelling”
• Instead of “write the spelling words 10 times each,” why not try this “Jumping Jack Spelling Bee” idea?
• This game will let kids have fun, while unscrambling vocabulary spelling words
• “Change Places” is a robust vocabulary word activity
• Here are five days of spelling activities proven effective in Special Ed classes
• Guess the Shamrock is a St. Patrick’s Day spelling game idea
• This is an idea to “Stamp Out Spelling”
• “Chicka Chicka Sight Word Match” uses a whiteboard coconut tree and magnetic letters

Vocabulary:

• A lesson on Word Identification for Language Arts
• A lesson on Word Patterns and Identification using the book Goodnight Moon
• This one is on Senses in Science and Language Arts
• A lesson on Onset Rime using Hop On Pop
• “Label Tables” is the name of this interesting Vocabulary Building Activity
• A fun game idea called My Word! – helps to teach Vocabulary
• This lesson is on Sight Words using the words Big and Small
• Here’s a very brief idea for a Vocabulary Game
• In this St. Patrick’s Day Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey type game, students count and learn directional words while “Filling Our Pot of Gold”
• This well-developed vocabulary activity builds memory and teamwork skills
• This is a “Fly Swat” vocabulary game
• This is a color recognition mini-lesson
• The story “Caps For Sale” is used in this color words vocabulary lesson
• Here children play dress-up while learning weather-related clothing vocabulary
• “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” is the story used in this color/animal vocabulary lesson
• “The Boo Game” is a great way to review vocabulary words in any subject
• The book “Rosie’s Walk” is used here to teach basic spatial awareness vocabulary
• Children define and identify homophones within a poem here
• This is an activity-filled lesson on transportation and common pet sight words
• Young students learn about “technology” in this lesson and use it to enhance their vocabulary
• Students identify shapes and colors used while constructing “Geometry Animals” here
• Here are some small, big, huge and enormous vocabulary activities for “The Enormous Turnip”
• Use this clever “Vocabulary or Sight Word War” card game to teach the “new words” in any subject

Writing – Letters:

• Students write a letter to their next teacher in this end-of-year activity
• Making this valentine mailbox idea could lead into a letter writing lesson
• Here students make postcards to mail to themselves or their teacher over the summer
• In this St. Patrick’s Day idea, notes are exchanged with mischievous night-visiting leprechauns
• As in “A Pocket for Corduroy,” students write and post notices to find their lost bear here
• Kids create and send Valentine e-cards to their parents here, after reading Eve Bunting’s “The Valentine Bears,”
• Here “The Jolly Postman” teaches students how to write a friendly letter to a fairytale character

Writing – Stories / Creative:

• This lesson is on writing a story with Storybook Weaver software
• This writing idea branches off how the tree got its leaves
• This lesson involves a writing prompt – “If Dinosaurs Came Back…”
• Here’s a writing lesson that makes use of story pyramids
• Turn ideas into a story with this fundraising project
• Here we make creative writing fun using computer generated coloring pages
• If you really want to engage your first graders, ask them about their dreams
• This is a variation of the “What if Dinosaurs Returned?” classroom book lesson above
• Here students create their own Harold and the Purple Crayon style drawing and story
• Students write about their trip through the solar system here
• In this lesson, students will write about a special memento using the “Self to Text” writing concept
• Students (Special Ed) write a creative non-fiction story about animals here while presenting facts and new materials

Writing – Other:

• Here is a writing and art activity about “When I Grow Up…”
• Here is an end-of-year bulletin board autograph idea
• Writing greeting card quotes for fun or profit is a motivating creative writing activity
• This idea starts out as a bulletin board and ends as a memory book compilation of student writing assignments
• Writing every related word that comes to mind is what this activity is all about
• This lesson shows the importance of writing in sequential (first, next, then and last) order
• This beginning-of-the-year “ME Box” idea helps students focus their writing
• This lesson instills confidence as students begin drawing their first stories
• In this idea, students write and tie on paper coupons gifts of their time on a “Giving Tree”
• This is a program for writing and illustrating a hardbound class book
• This six pillars of character student publishing project yields a free full-color hardbound class book
• Here students learn how to generate an idea list as a prewriting strategy

Other / Multiple Topics:

• A Language Arts lesson on the concept of Size and Strangers using Goldilocks
• A lesson called Growing and Changing that has connections in Social Studies and Math
• This lesson on Quilts uses the book “The Patchwork Quilt” by Valerie Flournoy
• This lesson idea is on Notices and Signs
• This lesson on Translation of Ideas and Outlining uses the book “Paper Bag Princess”
• Although not a lesson plan, this High Frequency Word List can be helpful in First grade
• Here’s a good collection of Bulletin Board Ideas
• Here are some good ideas to get Students involved in getting Parents to Parent’s Night
• This English lesson covers Speech, Writing, and Reading
• Here’s a lesson on Jack Be Nimble and Candles
• This is a great idea for a beginning and end of school lesson – using a Time Capsule to demonstrate students’ learning
• Here are 10 brief Early Learning Activity Ideas for 2-3 year olds
• Here’s a Seasons Book idea
• In this lesson students learn where their name comes from
• This Name Rhyming idea is a good way to introduce students to Rhymes
• Here’s a fun collection of Mother’s Day activity ideas (which may be adapted for Father’s Day)
• This Self Esteem Discussion idea uses the book “I Like Me”
• Addressing Valentine’s Day cards provides great practice in handwriting and name recognition
• This is a great literature-based lesson on feelings
• This is a plan for making a Valentine Person and poem
• A “Special Me” class book is created here with Kid Pix self-portraits and written personal summaries
• Here students retell “The Mitten” by Jan Brett while learning letter sounds and animal names
• This multidisciplinary Rainbow Fish activity idea is perfect for the first day of school
• In “Poppin’ Corn,” students use descriptive language, inventive spelling and their five senses
• This 5-day friendship lesson integrates character education, language arts, math, music and a craft activity
• This is an idea for creating a funny “Classroom Do’s and Don’ts” book
• This is a lesson on oral sequencing conventions

Art Connections:

• An art lesson plan using rhyming in poetry
• An art lesson that uses language arts to help teach creative Movement
• A great Thanksgiving lesson on texture called “Textured Turkeys’
• A collage lesson in which students create animals
• Cooperation is necessary to create these sneaky snowmen
• This self-reflection art and writing project showcases students’ strength and goals
• Here students write about photographs
• This is an integrated Aboriginal Dot Painting lesson plan
• Here’s an idea to make collage snow people as seen in Lois Ehlert’s book “Snowballs”
• In this book-based activity, students cut, fold and shape paper into “The Magic Hat”
• Students create paper quilting squares here to give a sick classmate well wishes and something to do
• Here students decorate a special Valentine and tuck a teabag, candy, or chore coupon inside

Computers & Internet Connections:

• Here’s an Introduction to Word Processing on Computers
• Students learn Computers early with this idea to teach the Alphabet

Math Connections:

• A lesson on number sense and numeration using literature
• Called “Book Shopping,” this idea helps students learn to make change from a dollar
• This is just a fun game idea that can go along with math or spelling
• Geo-spiders are made while discussing conflicts in this Anansi related lesson
• Here The Grouchy Ladybug helps teach time
• This is a Halloween pumpkin face geometry shapes lesson
• The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is used in this sequencing and ordinal number lesson
• In this “Supermarket Math” lesson, students complete and interpret a KWL chart and food pictograph
• In this Hanukkah idea, children count and identify the color of menorah candles
• Pre-K and Special Ed students learn to count from 1 to 10 here with the help of a Gummi Bear book and manipulatives
• Students create their own Chica Chica 123 book here about counting by tens
• Here kindergartners make and “read” their Circus Balloon Counting Book
• “Round the Clock” is a multidisciplinary unit on time and its relationship to clocks
• These are preschool “bee counting” activities
• “Teen Family” is a number order role playing idea for recognition of the numbers 10-19
• The book Caps For Sale is used here to explore patterns
• Students use patterns and sequencing to make a necklace in this “Caps for Sale” related lesson

Music Connections:

• A Language Arts lesson using Music on beginning, middle, & end
• A Drama lesson with Reading and Singing, best for use around Halloween
• This is a 4 Part Unit on Music and Emotions
• This brief lesson helps children learn their letters to an “Alphabet Song”
• A good idea for improving Listening with a song (also on Rhyme)
• This lesson connects melody, pitch, and rhyming words “Down by the Bay”
• Here’s an idea to use popsicle sticks to denote syllables, among other things
• “On the first day of Christmas, my parents gave to me ____” involves spelling, ordinal numbers, and memory practice
• This learning to whistle idea teaches the value of fortitude
• This sound story for “Danny and the Dinosaur” combines language arts with music

• Using the “B-I-N-G-O” tune, students learn “A-E-I-O-U” here
• Here is an end-of-year idea: sing around the campfire
• This lesson explores music and color and our feelings about each
• Here students create and draw onomatopoeia sounds with instruments and “The Listening Walk”

Physical Education / Health Connections:

• Here are two fun activities that integrate locomotor movements with reading, and listening skills
• Students learn prepositions while enjoying obstacle course activities here
• Kids make shapes and letters with their bodies in this lesson
• In this lesson, students create new shapes with their bodies and even spell words
• Here is a relay race idea for learning how to spell the names of holidays
• Sinbad the Sailor teaching jumping in this movement story from Saudi Arabia
• A hungry monkey get kids miming and moving in this movement story

Science Connections:

• A Language Arts Lesson Plan on Nature
• Below are the parts to a small unit on Birds:
  • This part involves Bird Houses and Making a Book
  • The goal of this portion is to teach about the Bird’s Body
  • This one is a Bird Poem Sequencing Activity
  • Using the book, “The Magpies’ Nest,” this lesson teaches how Birds Build Nests and allows students to Build Nests
• Here’s a very brief unit on Teeth and Dental Care:
  • This one uses the book “Fang The Dentist” and is about Going to the Dentist
  • Tooth Brushing and Keeping Decay Away are discussed here
  • The book “What Do Fairies Do With All Those Teeth” is used in this lesson
• This Dinosaur lesson plan focuses on the Pteranodon
• This interesting lesson mixes two topics: The Five Senses and Poetry
• Listed below are the lessons for a big multidisciplinary unit on Rocks:
  • This section is meant to be a general Exploration of Rocks in general
  • This one is on Rocks from an Ant’s Eye View
  • Here you can teach Art Concepts using Rocks
  • This lesson introduces Moh’s Hardness Scale to test the Hardness of a Rock
  • This part is on Native Americans and their Rock Art
  • Similar to the one above, this one is on Native American Rock Designs
  • This part deals with “Pet Rocks”
  • Here’s an interesting idea for keeping Pet Rock Journals
  • Rock Sculptures are the subject of this lesson
  • This portion is on Rock Streaking
  • Careful here, this one is on Rock Throwing
  • To integrate Music, this section is on making “Rocky Music”
  • This part is on Weight and Balance with Rocks
• This brief idea on Rocks uses Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and includes a Critique of the book
• This is an idea for teaching Melting that uses the book “Snowballs”
• Below is a complete multidisciplinary thematic unit on Butterflies:
  • What Caterpillars Eat
  • From Caterpillar to Butterfly
  • Life Cycles of Butterflies
  • Life Cycle Sequencing
  • Eat Like a Butterfly
  • How to Attract Butterflies
  • Symmetry Lesson
  • Butterfly Poetry
  • What Have We Learned?
• This lesson on Insects involves Observing a Cricket
• Here are some ideas for teaching about Spiders using “Miss Spider’s Tea Party”
• Here are some ideas for teaching a good multidisciplinary apple unit
• Here is a fantastic multidisciplinary spider unit titled “Spooky Spiders and Wacky Webs”
• This lesson explores the sense of touch
• “Is Your Mama A Llama?” is the basis for this baby farm animal lesson
• The life cycle of a butterfly is taught here with books, poems, story assignments, and pasta art
• This is an excellent multidisciplinary Flatfish Unit:
  • Here is a Flatfish Movement activity (K-2)
  • This is a Flatfish Data Collection activity (K-2)
  • “Each One Teach One” is a Flatfish stations activity (3-5)
• With the help of “The Hungry Caterpillar,” this fruit unit also teaches days of the week and graphing
• Here insect literature is read
• In this lesson, students learn the difference between the terms reuse and recycle
• Children identify animals using camouflage in these activities
• Here students label the parts of an owl’s body with descriptor words
• In this “All About Butterflies” lesson, students make colorful models and create a life cycle chart using Kidspiration software
• “Taking Care of the Earth” is also a four seasons lesson plan
• Children write and illustrate sentences about “Earth and the Eight Milky Way Planets” in this astronomy lesson
• Here kids write journal observations about their growing seeds and the needs of all living organisms

Social Studies Connections:

• In this lesson on Sharing, students will create a journal
• This Reading and Writing lesson idea on Rain Forests involves Comparing Cultures
• Here’s a four part thematic unit on Aviation:
  • This first part is on Pilot Jobs and Vocabulary
  • The second lesson is on Measurement, Graphing, and Creating Art for their plane
  • This lesson involves writing a paper as a culminating activity
  • Here is a collection of extension activity ideas
• The Importance of Voting is the topic of this lesson using “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs”
• With this idea students develop “My Book About Me”
• This lesson looks at the U.S. and New Zealand in terms of Location, Transportation, and Apples!
• This lesson on Anger uses the book “When Sophia Gets Angry
• Here are 5 ideas for a unit on Alaska:
  • An introduction using the book “Mama Do You Love Me?”
  • Alaskan Animals are the subject of this section
  • The third part looks at Ice Fishing
  • Part 4 is on Whale Hunting
  • The last part is on Alaskan Children
• This lesson compares map legends to story legends
• Teach about different countries and cultures with this must-have compilation of creative ideas
• This idea uses the book Carpenter, Carpenter, What Do You See as a career exploration tool
• This is a multidisciplinary election lesson
• Students share family traditions with their class in this activity
• This is an excellent lesson on national symbols that are unique to our country
• Here a map of the United States is used to locate important areas in Abraham Lincoln’s life
• Here students compose their own version of Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech
• Students draw “My family is…” here, after reading “My Family is Forever”
• Here students draw maps of their rooms using the book Mapping Penny’s World as a model
• In this transportation lesson, the class creates a land/air/water pocket chart graph after reading a transportation story
• This is a bingo vocabulary game about people who provide service in a community
• This safety lesson uses Kidspiration templates to teach about helpful community members, traffic signals, and how to cross a street
• Children sculpt clay models of their favorite community members in this book-related lesson
• This reading comprehension lesson centers on Veteran’s Day and the book “Granddad Bud – A Veterans Day Story”