Students will listen to a close reading of The 3 Little Pigs over the course of 3 days.  (Many versions are accessible via NC Kids Digital Library.  Teacher discretion as to the story version.  Personal copy or online versions can be used.) After each read aloud, students will have the opportunity to engage in The Engineering Design Process to create a new dwelling using materials of varying physical properties.  Students will write to tell about their new dwelling design using sentence frames and an anchor chart for support.  Finally, students will present their new dwellings and read their informational writing to reflect their knowledge of physical properties.  Student informational writing should reflect physical properties such as size, color, shape, texture, weight and flexibility per the NC Kindergarten Science Standards.

This Animal Needs research project helps early elementary students explore animal needs around a specific animal. The project provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate speaking/listening skills, organize and present information, and write informative texts at a developmentally appropriate level. It can be completed in a variety of ways with multiple final products: posters, sculptures (playdoh/air-dry clay), oral presentations (in class or on video), and/or research papers. Students can ask and answer questions following presentations. Students may work independently or in pairs/small groups at school or complete the project at home using books, magazines, and internet resources. Focus on local animals, native species, invasive species, or leave the choice completely open to students' interests. 

North Carolina experienced major flooding in 2018 due to Hurricane Florence. As a result there has been a huge increase in the amount and size of mosquitoes in our state. Mosquitoes are known for carrying diseases like Zika, Malaria, and West Nile. We must do something to help our community. Bats can be an answer to this problem. A single bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquito sized insects every hour and each bat can usually eat up to 6,000 to 8,000 insects per night. To help alleviate a massive amount of mosquitoes in our community we will build bat boxes and share them with our community.

Students will work in small groups to plan and create a Makey Makey project showing the life cycle of a butterfly. Students will ask and answer questions about key details of the butterfly life cycle. Students will use verbs when giving information about key details.

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.

This lesson is designed for students to develop investigational skills using observation and touch. The students will determine the characteristics they wish to use to categorize the rock samples. Because the students are working in small groups they will need to cooperate to decide on the criteria for sorting. Vocabulary words to be used include color, shape, texture, size, group and belong.

After reading books about diversity in people (ethnicity, interests, culture, dress, language, physical, etc.), the teacher will lead a discussion about how any two people are alike in some ways and different in others. After the class has worked on this concept, all students will use a Venn Diagram or other compare/contrast graphic organizer to compare themselves to one other person in the group. Then higher level students will extend their thinking by getting into groups of 3 and creating a triple Venn Diagram to compare/contrast themselves with 2 other students. After that they will write a few sentences about how their two classmates and they are different and alike. They will use the triple Venn Diagram to help them with their writing. 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.

Seesaw is a web-based and application platform where students can post pictures from the classroom, annotate, speak their mind, and create electronic portfolios that connect school and home. Parents are able to see student work as soon as it is posted.
In this activity, students will take a common problem and use the design process to come up with a solution.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

Students will listen to a close reading of Harry the Dirty Dog  over the course of 3 days.  (The book is accessible via NC Kids Digital Library.   Personal copy or online versions can be used.) After each read aloud, students will have the opportunity to engage in The Engineering Design Process to create a maze using various materials to construct different ways for Harry to move through the maze .  Students will write to tell about their maze using sentence frames and an anchor chart for support.  Finally, students will present their maze and read their informational writing to reflect their knowledge of the Force and Motion standard, specifically the different ways objects move.  Maze creation and student informational writing should reflect multiple modes of movement per the NC Kindergarten Science Standards.

In this lesson, we will focus on the country of Malaysia. The students will learn about birthday traditions in this country. The students will share and write in their journals their favorite birthday tradition from Malaysia. This lesson was developed by LaToya Dawson 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.

Students will review what they learned about birthday traditions and celebrations around the world. They will apply what they learned to their writings and share what they learned with their classmates. This lesson was developed by Tracey Dix 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 unit will focus on weather.  Students will explore what weather is, how weather is measured and how weather impacts living things.

In this lesson, students take exploratory walks outside around their school campus to see and feel the signs of the season. They record their findings using writing, drawing, collecting objects and using tools such as thermometers and magnifiers. Probing questions focus on what the children are experiencing, what is happening and why. Student observations are recorded on a language experience chart. Exploratory walks continue throughout the school year with the charts and student observations collected and compared with other seasons.

The "I Grow" activities in this lesson will help students understand the abstract concept of time passing. Students will listen as the book When I Was Little by Jamie Lee Curtis is read aloud. They will then write and illustrate a book about themselves using a predictable pattern of text such as, "When I was little, I ____________. Now I ____________."

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 Writing.

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.