ALEX Lesson Plans

Subject: English Language Arts (2), or English Language Arts (2), or Mathematics (1 - 2)
Title: 100 More Hungry Ants
Description: Students will investigate what happens to the number of ants at a picinc when 100 more ants arrive at the picnic. They will explore this concept using a slide presentation followed by a partner game. This lesson plan was created by exemplary Alabama Math Teachers through the AMSTI project.

Subject: English Language Arts (2 - 4), or English Language Arts (2 - 4), or Information Literacy (K - 12), or Technology Education (3 - 5)
Title: Introduction to the Dewey Decimal System
Description: This lesson introduces the Dewey Decimal System of numbering used for arranging nonfiction books on the shelves of an elementary school library.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using Web-Based Bookmarks to Conduct Internet Research Add Bookmark
Description: The important thing about this lesson is that it connects literature and science. The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown provides a model for original student poems about a content area topic. Web-based bookmarks guide students to appropriate sites on the topic, and a graphic organizer helps them focus their research.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 2,3

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Catching the Bug for Reading Through Interactive Read-Alouds Add Bookmark
Description: Students learn about story structure, new vocabulary, and a variety of reading strategies by participating in an interactive read-aloud of Miss Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten by Joseph Slate.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Fact or Fiction: Learning About Worms Using Diary of a Worm Add Bookmark
Description: Students often believe that fiction writers make everything up, seldom realizing how research worms its way into entertaining writing. In this lesson, students read Diary of a Worm to find out how fact merges with fiction.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Choosing the Right Book: Strategies for Beginning Readers Add Bookmark
Description: Students make purposeful choices for their reading materials, thinking about their reasons for reading a book and using strategies to match books to their abilities.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Descriptive Writing and the 100th Day of School Add Bookmark
Description: Students write descriptions of 100th day bottles they create at home, write clues about their bottles for a guessing game, practice descriptive writing, and create a class book.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: I Wonder: Writing Scientific Explanations With Students Add Bookmark
Description: Students choose a question to explore, research it using a variety of resources, organize their information on a TCF chart, and then collaboratively write a class scientific explanation.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: It's Okay to Be Different: Teaching Diversity With Todd Parr Add Bookmark
Description: All kinds of characters will enjoy this lesson that celebrates diversity by discussing what makes everyone unique and special.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Rain, Ice, Steam: Using Reading to Support Inquiry About the Water Cycle Add Bookmark
Description: Water is always moving in a continuous cycle from liquid to solid to gas and back again. Students study this never-ending cycle through shared readings, center activities, and experiments.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Digging Up Details on Worms: Using the Language of Science in an Inquiry Study Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson, in which students research worms in order to create a classroom habitat, incorporates reading and writing across content areas as well as math and science activities.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Tell a Migration Story...With Interviews Add Bookmark
Description: In this Xpeditions student activity, students become reporters for the local newspaper and conduct interviews with someone who has migrated to their community. After they finish their interviews, students share what they have learned about their interviewees experiences, memories, and feelings about coming to live in their new community.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Text Talk: Julius, the Baby of the World Add Bookmark
Description: Students are asked to '' talk'' with Kevin Henkes Julius, the Baby of the World by using open-ended questions to help them interpret the language, plot, and characters of the story.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Exploring the Subtext Strategy: Thinking Beyond the Text Add Bookmark
Description: What is it like to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? Students find out in this lesson in which they become the characters in Judith Viorst's book.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 2,3,4