This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Gr. K Lesson 3-Who Lives in the Everglades?: | Who lives in the Everglades is lesson 3 of 3. Students will review some of the animals that live in the Everglades presented in lessons 1 and 2 by looking at an interactive presentation. Students will collaborate with a partner to do a sorting activity of animals that live in Florida and that do not live in Florida. |
| Gr. K Lesson 1-What is the Everglades?: | Students will be introduced to the Everglades, learning about this special place for plants and animals that is unlike anywhere else on Earth. They will watch a presentation on some of the animals that live in the Everglades and start working on their Everglades Class Book.
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| Zoo-rrific!: | Students will be asked to choose a new animal for a zoo. They will be asked to rank four animals from best to worst, based on popularity, food needs, danger to zookeepers, etc.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Speechless for Breakfast: | In this lesson, students will work together to "read" Pancakes for Breakfast, a wordless picture book by Tomie dePaola which shows the sequence of events the main character follows in preparing her own breakfast. Students will identify the story elements in the book based on its illustrations and retell the story by sequencing the important events. They will then create their own wordless picture book depicting their breakfast routine, presenting their routine and illustrations orally using complete sentences. |
| Let's Be Scientists: Notebooking with a Purpose: | In this lesson, students learn about one of the jobs a scientist does: keeping a notebook or journal. The students will earn a procedure for completing an accurate Science Notebook entry. The teacher can follow this process throughout the year to develop students who are proficient in Science Notebooking. |
| Supermarket Sorting: | In this lesson, in a hands-on activity, students will practice sorting food items from the grocery store into different categories. The teacher will read aloud Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert and send students on a scavenger hunt to find and record pictures of fruits and vegetables that are hung around the room. Students will be asked to provide an opinion of what they think is the best fruit or vegetable during a writing assignment and explain why they like it. Then each student will draw a picture of that food on a paper plate to display with their writing. |
| Desktop Display: | Students are asked to help create a desktop out of attribute blocks. They must choose the shape they will use to make the desk first based on number of sides and price. Then they must also take into account the strength of the desk. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Beach Sort: | In this lesson, students will have hands-on experience with categorization skills, by sorting objects commonly taken on a beach trip. Students will practice describing objects, sorting objects into categories, and verbalizing category concepts. Students will also practice discussing opinions about objects by writing a Beach Sorting Book. |
| Recycled Music: | The students will design, create and demonstrate a musical instrument made from recycled materials. |
| Generating Grammar Gurus: | In this lesson students will participate in reading the books, A Mink, a Fink, A Skating Rink, To Root, to Toot, to Parachute, and Hairy, Scary, Ordinary and complete a variety of related activities that allow them to learn about and practice their knowledge of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students will contribute to a class generated grammar chart and complete a grammar sort. Students will also publish their own sentence which will include a noun, verb, and adjective, as well as an illustration to provide detail. |
| The Fire Wheels: | The Fire Wheels MEA provides students with a problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best toy car for a company to sell. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Taking Care of Business: | "Taking Care of Business" is a Kindergarten level lesson plan that allows students to investigate the world of jobs. In this lesson, the students will read Everybody Works by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler. Then, the students will work together in small groups to show what they have learned. Your superstar students will understand more about jobs, job duties, and job settings by the end of this lesson. |
| Building a Tall Tower - an Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concept of gravity in an engineering design challenge. |
| Weather Walks: | Students will learn about weather by taking walks in various types of conditions: sunny, rainy, windy and snowy. |
| Distinguishing Between Main and Secondary Characters: | In this resource, students will practice distinguishing between main and secondary characters. Teachers will model using these skills with Sheila Rae, the Brave by Kevin Henkes, and students will conduct guided practice using Jamaica's Find by Juanita Havill. Students will then select a picture book from their class library to draw a picture of the main character doing something from the story, and they will write to explain why this person is the main character. They will also draw a picture of someone who is not the main character. This is the third lesson in a unit about characters. The other lessons are attached as related CPALMS resources. |
| Having Fun with Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola: | In this lesson students will “read” the wordless book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola and complete several activities. Students will create a graph of their favorite breakfast items, discuss the story elements of the text, and help Tomie DePaola out by adding their own words to his story by creating a new class book. |
| Identifying the Actions of a Character: | In this lesson, teachers will use the text Sheila Rae, the Brave by Kevin Henkes to help students practice identifying the actions of a character in a story. After modeling and guided practice activities, students will draw and write about one of Louise's actions in the story. This resource is the second of three lessons in a unit about characters. The other lessons are attached as related CPALMS resources. |
| Identifying the Physical Attributes of a Character: | In this resource, teachers will use the text Lost! by David McPhail to help students practice identifying the physical attributes of a character. After modeling and guided practice activities, students will draw a picture of a character from the book and label the picture with specific physical descriptions. This is the first resource in a unit about character; the other lessons in the unit are attached as related CPALMS resources. |
| Main Topic: What is the Book Mainly About?: | In this resource, students will identify and describe what a book is mainly about using the title, text and pictures. The two featured texts that students will use are informational texts about tigers and ladybugs. This is the first lesson in a three-part unit on identifying main topic. The other lessons in the unit are attached as related resources. |
| Plot: Identifying the Problem and the Solution in a Story: | In this lesson, students will identify and describe the problem and solution in a story. The featured text is Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett. This resource is the 4th lesson in a four-part unit on plot. The other lessons are attached as related CPALMS resources. |
| Plot: Identifying the Problem in a Story: | This is the second lesson in a kindergarten unit on plot. Students will identify and describe the problem in a story. The teacher will use My Red Balloon by Eve Bunting in the teacher modeling phase, and Olivia...and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer in the guided and independent practice activities. Other lessons in this unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources. |
| Plot: Identifying the Solution in a Story: | In this lesson students will identify and describe the solution in a story. The teacher modeling phase uses the story My Red Balloon by Eve Bunting, and the guided and independent practice activities use the story Olivia...and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer. This lesson is part of a unit on plot; other lessons in the unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources. |
