In this lesson from readwritethink.org, students learn about the differences between fiction and nonfiction text with animals as the main focus.

This lesson is for Grades PreK - K on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

After reading books about changes in people’s lives, students will discuss some changes (causes) and the effects of those changes. The class will create a Cause and Effect chart to list some effects of various changes (moving to a new home, moving to a new school, getting a new sibling, losing a pet, etc). Higher-level students will then take the class Cause and Effect chart and expound upon it, adding new causes and their effects, but also thinking more deeply to find other effects that were not thought of in the whole-class lesson for causes already listed. 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 actively engage in the Connections Pear Deck activity with partners or small groups of 3 students. Texts referenced are from Unit 4 of Wonders. Students will make individual and text connections throughout this activity.

Students read two math-related books used in the lesson to give real-world contexts to the strategy of grouping objects to be counted. Students, then, explore their school and home environments to find and represent their own examples of sets. In the culminating activity, students create pages for a collaborative class book of sets.

In this lesson, students will read 'My Circle of Seasons' by Gerda Muller. Students will be broken up into groups and assigned a season. Students will make a quilt and will write a cinquain about their season.

After classroom discussions and activities of changes in people over time, higher-level students can extend their learning by creating a timeline of themselves and a timeline of a grandparent or parent. A grandparent would be preferable so a greater difference could be seen between the two. Then the student can articulate similarities and differences in the two. 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.

Day 1: In this lesson, students will…. Understand how information is transferred over physical or wireless paths and are broken down into smaller pieces called packets, then reassembled at their destination. They will learn this by creating a LEGO/Magnatile/block house, or building, as a team. The teacher, or facilitator, will take a photo of their creation. The students will disassemble their structure and transfer it to the next group, representing how information is broken down and passed on. The next group who receives the pieces will have to look at the photo and rebuild based on the photo. If the group completes this, they will successfully complete how information is transferred showing that in order for information to be the same when it’s transferred and to show up, it needs to be the same.

Day 2: Students will learn to protect their personal information by creating passwords/passphrases. This will be equated to students using your house key, or house code. This is private to the adults in your life. They do not share those with others, just like you would not share a password to your account with others. Teacher will create an easily guessable password to model, students will ask the teacher questions from a predetermined list of questions with picture tiles, like favorite animal, favorite color, etc. Using the answers to the questions the students will try to guess the password. Then, students will create a password, and play the guessing game with a small group.

Day 3:Students will review previous concepts about passwords and protecting personal information. They will be introduced to anti-virus software. Teacher will equate malware to getting sick and anti-virus software to antibiotics. When you’re sick your body is ‘infected’ like a computer with malware on it. The anti-biotic or anti-virus software protects you. Students illustrate a computer transmitting information (use paper and markers to solve a maze). They will be given anti-virus software (saran wrap) to place over their maze. Teacher walks around and sprays water on each “computer” with anti-virus software. Remove anti-virus software and spray again to illustrate malware.

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the Kindergarten English Language Arts content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink Kindergarten ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning.  

This unit was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for Kindergarten ELA in Non-Fiction.

In this lesson, students use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast information from two nonfiction texts.

This document provides a description of what each standard means a student will know, understand and be able to do. The "unpacking" of the standards done in this document is an effort to answer a simple question, "What does this standard mean that a student must know and be able to do?" and to ensure the description is helpful, specific and comprehensive for educators.

This is a Problem-Based Learning lesson. Problem-based learning is meant to provide students with real-world problems that more closely mirror what they would experience in an actual situation. There are many benefits of PBL such as, decision-making, team-based skills, and self-directed learning. With this type of learning, there is not only one correct answer nor is there a single solution path. The end result should be that these real life experiences will show deep, meaningful learning.

* This unit is an adaptation of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Kindergarten Curriculum.  PLTW, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that develops STEM curricula for US schools.  The source material is copyrighted and schools or districts are required to pay an annual participation fee and agree to the implementation terms of use.  With this in mind, only the adaptations will be explored in this unit document and it is intended to be used only to supplement the purchased PLTW resource.

The Project Lead the Way model uses ebook stories to introduce an engineering problem for students to solve.  Students then work through a series of hands-on challenges as they learn the unit concepts, such as the design process and key terms such as "structure" and "function".  This unit's activities include:

1 - Design and build a beanstalk that can support a small object, inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk.

2 - Design and build a straw (toothpick), stick (popsicle stick) or brick (clay) house that can withstand the wind current from a wolf (a strong fan), inspired by The Three Little PIgs.

3 - Design and build a new a new kind of paintbrush.

We invite you to remix this planning template to brainstorm the why, what, who, when & how of GoOpenNC,
and determine what next step(s) you plan to take.

Beaufort County Schools initial planning template

I used this planning template to brainstorm my initial thoughts of the why, what, who, when & how of GoOpenNC,
and determine what next step(s) Tyrrell County Schools May plan to take.

This is a lesson plan to help kindergartners learn about the ocean life and how to save it! It includes an experiment and then a group project which includes technology!