Getting children to use their imaginations when writing a story can sometimes be difficult. Drawing, however, can create a bridge between the ideas in a child's head and the blank piece of paper on the desk. In this lesson, students use factual information gathered from the Internet as the basis for creating a nonfiction story. Story elements, including setting, characters, problem, solution, and endings, are then used as a structure for assembling students' ideas into a fiction story.

The students will be reading a biography about Ruby Bridges called, Ruby Bridges Goes to School, My True Story (Bridges, 2009). She is an American activist who became a symbol of the Civil Rights movement. At age six, she became amongst the youngest of a group of African American students to integrate schools in the south. She was the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in 1960. The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn about the struggles that African-American children faced in trying to get an equal education, here in the United States around the 1960's. This lesson is taught in English during the social studies block.This lesson was developed by Gabriela Bermingham as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This informational text introduces students to solar energy's role in warming the Earth's land and water and to the fact that dark-colored surfaces absorb more of the Sun's energy than do light-colored ones. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level.

This informational text introduces students to solar energy's role in warming the Earth's land and water and to the fact that dark-colored surfaces absorb more of the Sun's energy than do light-colored ones. This is a PDF containing the informational text and a glossary. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level.

This research task for gifted learners will extend classroom integrated instruction within a science unit on states of matter using close reading of informational texts and creation of a differentiated product. Students will connect the hands-on regular classroom instruction and demonstration of changes of water in a container before and after freezing with the effects of global warming on the melting of the polar ice cap. AIG students will choose from a menu of learning style-based tasks which include technology and collaborative learning experiences. Upon completion, they will give an oral presentation to the class. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Students will study a variety of historical figures and specifically focus on one person to understand more about his/her life.

This informational text explores how and why igloos are built and how ice can act as an insulator. It asks if igloo building will end with climate change. It is written at a reading level appropriate for Kindergarten through first grade. It is a full-color pdf file that can be printed, cut, and folded to form a 2 1/8" by 2 3/4" book. It contains color photographs and illustrations.

This informational text explores how glaciers have eroded and shaped Earth's landscape. The text is at a reading level appropriate for Kindergarten through first grades. It is a full-color pdf file that can be printed, cut, and folded to form a 2 1/8" by 2 3/4" book. It contains color photographs and illustrations.

This informational text explores how glaciers have eroded and shaped Earth's landscape. The text is at a reading level appropriate for Kindergarten through first grades. It is a pdf file that includes only the text and a glossary.

In this video lesson, the teacher will model how to ask and answer questions while reading informational texts with partners and independently with sticky notes.

In this unit, students will begin their inquiry by comparing fiction and nonfiction books about animals, using a Venn diagram. They will list things they want to know about animals on a chart. As a class, students will vote on an animal to research. They will revise their question list, and then research the animal using prompts from an online graphic organizer. After several sessions of research, students will revisit their original questions and evaluate the information they have gathered. Finally, students will revise and edit their work and prepare to present their findings to an authentic audience.

Students will read sentences, select answers to draw conclusions about the sentences, and will speak to explain their conclusions. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

This educator's guide demonstrates how Brian Floca's books provide an exceptional blend of text and illustrations to present information. Students will study diagrams and use them to glean information about the main topic of the book. Students will also examine how Floca uses various features throughout the books to enhance readers' enjoyment.

In this lesson, students will learn that building a snowman is one way to provide food for birds and animals during the winter. Students begin by listening to a book about snow. Students are then introduced to a K-W-L chart and discuss what they know about how animals find food in the winter. As students listen to Henrietta Bancroft's Animals in Winter, they listen for details about how some animals survive during the winter and record those details in the last column of the chart. To continue to build students' knowledge of the topic, they listen to additional fiction and nonfiction books and view a website about animals in winter. As a culminating activity, students use their charts to write and illustrate a story.

This informational text explores Laura Gladstone's experience working at the Ice Cube telescope at the South Pole. She shares the clothing worn, food, what she did for fun, and how life there differs from what most of us know, including what one does NOT hear or see. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

This informational text explores Laura Gladstone's experience working at the IceCube telescope at the South Pole. She shares the clothing worn, food, what she did for fun, and how life there differs from what most of us know, including what one does NOT hear or see. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level. This is a PDF containing the informational text.

In this lesson, students count the days between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Valentine’s Day and are challenged to complete 100 acts of kindness during that time. They brainstorm examples of kind acts they could do and discuss how to report acts of kindness they witness. They also select a service project to plan and complete together as a class. For the project’s duration, acts of kindness are tracked on a classroom chart. Students are encouraged to acknowledge kind acts by others through thank you notes, and families are encouraged to help report acts of kindness. The project culminates with a Valentine’s Day celebration.

Who really cares about precise measurement anyway?  Students will read a current article about international disagreements about measurement. Then students will find a record of the longest or shortest of something. They can share this information with classmates on a poster, bulletin board, or in a booklet.  They may want to identify the location of this record on a world map as well.  Students should give the length measurement in both customary and metric units and be able to discuss the relationship between the units. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson students identify with Dr. King through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities that provide a glimpse into Dr. King's life. Students record what they know about Dr. King on a KWL chart. They then read aloud the picture book My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers and add information to the KWL. Throughout the week, they explore websites and other sources of information about Dr. King, record new information on the KWL chart, and keep a journal of their own thoughts and ideas. As a culminating activity, they plan a birthday party for Dr. King to celebrate is birthday.

In this lesson, students create a name tag using information about themselves. Each student's name tag, while being similar, will visually represent personal information. These name tags will help the teacher learn students' names, but they will also help the students get to know each other and practice a visual, contemporary literacy when they interpret glyphs made by others. Students learn that communication is symbolic on a very fundamental level in this lesson.