This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| We the Kids: The Preamble of the Constitution: Introduction to the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States: | This is lesson #1 in the text unit series for We the Kids by David Catrow. In this lesson, students will demonstrate their background knowledge on the Constitution of the United States, including the Preamble, by completing the sentence “We the People. . .” They will create a KWL chart that will be used throughout the unit to keep track of information learned. They will listen to first page of the text read aloud to them to begin to learn about the Preamble.
This unit will help students gain an understanding of the preamble and its direct effect on their daily lives. Students will engage in various activities such as debating parts of the preamble and complete a play interpreting patriotism. Throughout the unit students will have to identify and interpret vocabulary, analyze the provided text, and demonstrate an understanding of the Preamble by providing relevant details. The teacher’s role in this unit will be to support their students' understanding of the Preamble by facilitating research and reviewing student writing.
This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource. |
| People Who Represent Florida: Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Important Things She Did & Why She Represents Florida: | Students will participate in digital research, explain how text features contribute to the meaning of the text, use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, and incorporate multimedia to enhance their written work in this integrated lesson plan. Using two sections from an Interactive Research Page, students will learn about Marjory Stoneman Douglas, her contributions as an environmentalist, and why she is an individual who represents Florida.
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| National Treasures Scratch: | Students will collaborate with peers while constructing a Scratch presentation that identifies one U.S. symbol and four facts about the symbol in this integrated lesson. |
| What Is a Government? Lesson #3 Rules and Laws: | This is lesson 3 of a 6-lesson unit plan based on What Is a Government? By Baron Bedesky. After reading pages 4 – 7, students will use the text information to help distinguish between rules and laws. The lesson will begin with an introduction to rules, such as board game rules, and then students will distinguish between rules and laws using a Venn diagram. Students will then write a journal entry that answers the question, “Why do we need laws?”
This unit will support students as they explain why people form governments, the role of laws in government, the impact of government on daily life, and the ways the government protects the rights and liberty of American citizens. Students will engage in a read aloud of the text, What is Government, spread out over several lessons, emphasizing text features, vocabulary, central idea, and author’s purpose. In addition, the teacher will facilitate research, student presentations, expository writing, artwork, computer science, and identifying Florida symbols to help students solidify their interpretation as to why people form governments. |
| U.S. Symbols: White House Scratch Coding: | This lesson is Part 2 in a 2-part Integrated Civics Unit. Students will use their expository writing from U.S. Symbols: The White House Part 1 to plan, write, and publish a Scratch coding program. With support from the teacher and peers, students will use at least one sprite, a background, narrations, and animations to explain why the White House is a symbol that represents the United States.
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| What Is a Government? Lesson #2 Laws and Government: | Students will use text features to help understand and explain the meaning of academic vocabulary from What Is a Government? by Baron Bedesky in this lesson plan. Students will read a section of the text about the role of laws and create a drawing of text vocabulary that includes text features. This is lesson 2 of a 6-lesson unit plan based on this text.
This unit will support students as they explain why people form governments, the role of laws in government, the impact of government on daily life, and the ways the government protects the rights and liberty of American citizens. Students will engage in a read aloud of the text, What is Government, spread out over several lessons, emphasizing text features, vocabulary, central idea, and author’s purpose. In addition, the teacher will facilitate research, student presentations, expository writing, artwork, computer science, and identifying Florida symbols to help students solidify their interpretation as to why people form governments. |
| Coding with Everglades National Park Animals: | Students will create a program in scratch that sorts animals common to the Everglades National Park according to their main habitat in this integrated lesson plan. They will use the provided Venn Diagram backgound template and choose at least 4 previously-researched Everglades National Park animals to use as sprites. Students will then code the sprites to ‘move’ to the appropriate section of the Venn Diagram (water, land, both).
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| United States Symbols: U.S. Capitol Scratch Coding: | This lesson is Part 2 in a 2-part Integrated Civics Unit. Students will use their expository writing from United States Symbols: The U.S. Capitol Part 1 to plan, write, and publish a Scratch coding program. With support from the teacher and peers, students will use one sprite, images, narration, and backdrops to explain why the U.S. Capitol is a symbol that represents the United States.
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| Patriotic Holidays, Part 3: | Students will create a final expository writing piece describing the history and importance of a patriotic holiday. In this lesson, students will publish their writing piece using word processing software for printing and binding as part of a classroom text.
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| United States Symbols: The U.S. Capitol: | Students will participate in research to describe why the U.S. Capitol is a symbol that represents the United States. Students will use a graphic organizer to write facts about the U.S. Capitol and take notes about the building using details gathered from photographs and other text and graphic features, which will be used to create a multimedia presentation showcasing their learning. |
| United States Symbols: The White House: | Students will participate in research to describe why the White House is a symbol that represents the United States. Students will use a graphic organizer to write facts about the White House and take notes about the building using details gathered from photographs and other text and graphic features, which will be used to create a multimedia presentation showcasing their learning. |
| Home is Where the Heart Is: Researching Habitats: | In this lesson, students will learn about different types of habitats as they gather information based on research questions. Students will summarize the information from their research in an expository paragraph and create a diorama to present their habitat to their peers. |
| Visualizing: Using Drawings to Enhance Writing: | This lesson will allow students to practice enhancing their writing through drawing and illustrations. Students will begin by practicing visualizing short stories and explain how the drawings can add meaning to the stories. Students will then write a short story, use drawings to help readers understand their story, and provide and receive feedback on their writing from a peer. |
| Fun With Compound Words: | In this lesson, students will learn to identify, create, and determine the meaning of compound words. They will participate in a series of engaging center activities to practice using compound words. |
| Having Fun with Fractured Fairy Tales: | Students will be delighted to be introduced to the world of fractured fairy tales. They will compare classic versions of fairy tales with the new versions that author's have created. The students will have their own chance to think about a different point of view when they explore wolf's perspective in The Three Little Pigs. After writing a short Readers' Theatre script, students will perform their creations for the class. |
| Listen Up! Having Fun with Sound Words: | In this lesson, students will be able to recognize and decode the use of sound words in literature. Students will practice these skills through a sound game, creating a word web, and making a sound word flip book. |
| Prefix Lesson: | This lesson is an introduction to using the prefixes re-, pre-, and un-. In this lesson, students work with partners to add common prefixes to words and define the new meaning of the word. Students will create a digital presentation showcasing examples of the prefixes in use in sentences. |
| Star-Belly Sneetches and What They Teach Us: | This lesson allows students to dig deeply into a popular, fun fictional story by Dr. Seuss to determine the theme and the life lesson it provides. Students will work in groups to act out the story in a skit, participate in a brainstorming activity with higher-order thinking questions, and design a creative response poster incorporating the story's theme to share with the class. Who doesn't love a Dr. Seuss classic that teaches students a lesson they can apply to their daily lives? |
| Hamming It Up with Character: | Students will learn about characters in narrative text through group collaboration, the creation of character trading cards and an oral presentation of original dialogue. Students will work in collaboarative groups to think of adjectives that would best describe how the characters look, behave, and feel. |
| Once Upon a Time: What Makes an Interesting Setting: | There are stories that make you feel like you are there experiencing everything along with the characters. Often times, this is because the writer is describing the setting in vivid detail. These lessons will look at the componants of a setting and give students the opportunity to write the beginning of a story based upon a setting of their choosing. |
| Questions of Character, Setting, and Plot: | Students will read texts including characters that face a challenge or major event and describe the characters, setting, plot, and how they responded to the challenge. With a partner, students will read a book about other brave characters and create six comprehension questions that they will type on a computer. These questions will be presented to another partnership who will read the book and answer their classmates’ questions. |
| Happy Homophone Pairs: | In this lesson, students will read homophone pairs using Dear, Deer, A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta. Students will identify and explain common homophones using word relationships, context clues, and/or background knowledge. Students will use the homophones correctly in sentences and add illustrations to their sentences that help enhance the meaning of the homophone. |
| All about Alliteration: | In this lesson, students will become familiar with alliteration. Students will have an opportunity to listen to and read alliterative sentences and short stories. Students will create alliterative sentences with a partner and again independently. Students will also work through the different stages of the writing process as they pre-write, write, edit, revise, and publish to contribute to a class book. |
| Extra! Extra! Read About Mammals: | In this lesson, students will learn about mammals using the book Mammals by Melissa Stewart. Through this book, the students will practice identifying and using text features to understand the text, as well as determine key details and main idea. The students will then create a newspaper article about a mammal of their choice using the main ideas, key details, and text features from Mammals. |
| Contraction Surgery: | Students will participate in this engaging activity to learn how to write contractions while acting like surgeons. |
| CinderWHO?: | Students will compare and contrast various versions of the Cinderella story through story element charting, partner discussions, carousel brainstorming, and semantic feature analysis. Students will think critically and hold grade-level appropriate dialogue about each story. Students will complete a piece of opinion writing stating which Cinderella story was their favorite and why they liked it. |
| Understanding Miss Maggie: | Students will love talking about the unlikely friendship that forms in Miss Maggie by Cynthia Rylant. They will share their opinions by writing a paragraph after learning new vocabulary words and discussing character traits. |
| Cookie Cravings: How to Read and Understand a Recipe: | This lesson begins with a read aloud of The Gingerbread Man by Eric Kimmel. After that, students will learn how to read a gingerbread recipe. They will discuss author's purpose and the genre of the writing. Students will bake their own gingerbread cookies following the recipe. While the cookies are baking, they will be assessed on their ability to read and comprehend a recipe by doing a "cold read" of a different recipe and answering comprehension questions. |
| Becoming a Butterfly: Writing about the Life Cycle of a Butterfly: | In this lesson students will read the informational text The Life Cycle of a Butterfly by Lisa Trumbauer. Students will use elements of nonfiction, such as photographs and diagrams, to aid in their understanding of the text. They will create a graphic organizer and use it to produce an expository piece of writing that explains the stages of a butterfly life cycle. |
| Practicing Fluency with Shel Silverstein: | Your students will be delighted to become immersed into the world of Shel Silverstein’s masterful poems. As students practice fluency and oral presentation, they will also learn how to identify various rhyme schemes and record their favorite poem. |
