ALEX Resources

Title: Who's Side Are You On? 
Description: In this lesson, students will compare and contrast two versions of The Three Little Pigs. Students will use the Story Kit app on iPads in groups to recreate the story of The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Students will write a brief explanation of which story they believe is true and why. Students will "judge" in "court" which version of the story is true based on evidence provided.
Standard(s):
[TC2] (0-2) 10: Design original works using digital tools.

Title: Fortune Cookie Verbs
Description: During this lesson students have the opportunity to create fortune cookies and identify the verbs in the fortunes.
Standard(s):
[MA2015] (2) 26: Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares; describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc.; and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, or four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape. [2-G3]

Title: Move Over: A Sequencing Lesson
Description: During this lesson students will learn about the sequencing of stories. Students will have the opportunity to retell stories using sequencing words they learn. They will also navigate an Internet site to reinforce the skills they learn during the lesson.
Standard(s):
[TC2] (0-2) 10: Design original works using digital tools.

Title: Traditions At Home and Around the World
Description: Each student will research his/her own family traditions and report findings to the class using presentation software. In partner groups, students will select a country to research. Their research will focus on traditions of a chosen country and will be compiled in brochure format.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT1 (1) 11: Identify traditions and contributions of various cultures in the local community and state. (Alabama)

Title: Ants on a Log--A Language Experience Story
Description: This lesson will allow students to create a snack using celery, peanut butter, and raisins (called "Ants on a Log"). Then the students will write about the experience using transitional words. The teacher can adapt the lesson to any mode of writing desired.
Standard(s):
[TC2] (0-2) 7: Use digital tools to access and retrieve information.

Title: Descriptive Essay
Description: Students learn to use one-main-idea think-sheets when producing simple descriptive essays.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 24: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. [W.2.3]

Title: Glorious Sunflowers
Description: In this lesson students will identify, measure and graph seeds and other characteristics of sunflowers and write descriptive and narrative paragraphs about sunflowers.
Standard(s):
[MA2015] (2) 23: Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in a bar graph. (See Appendix A, Table 1.) [2-MD10]

Title: Sounds: What We Hear!
Description: Students will create a descriptive writing about the sounds they hear in a favorite place. This is a good follow-up to a science unit on sound.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 24: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. [W.2.3]

Title: Money Management
Description: This month-long experience educates students in differentiating between needs and wants, how to budget resources, and to gain an understanding of the workings of a capitalist society.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 36: Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. [L.2.2]

Title: Mail Time! An Integrated Postcard and Geography Study
Description: Children write and receive postcards from friends and family, and then chart where all those postcards come from on a classroom map.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 26: With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. [W.2.6]

Title: Collaborating on a Class Book: Exploring Before-During-After Sequences
Description: Students and the teacher produce a class book through a group-writing activity, focusing on a basic before-during-after sequence of events.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 29: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about Grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. [SL.2.1]

Title: Telling a Story About Me: Young Children Write Autobiographies
Description: Students tell their life stories in this lesson about autobiographies based on family photographs.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 24: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. [W.2.3]

Title: Catching the Bug for Reading Through Interactive Read-Alouds
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.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 32: Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences. [SL.2.4]

Title: Eyewitness to History
Description: Families connect us to our own history and to the history of the world around us. In this lesson from EDSITEment, students explore this second set of connections, talking with family members about landmark events they have witnessed in their lifetimes to learn how history touches our lives.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT1 (1) 6: Compare ways individuals and groups in the local community and state lived in the past to how they live today. (Alabama)

Title: Teaching Audience Through Interactive Writing
Description: Through interactive writing, students work together and then independently to create invitation letters for a group of their peers and their families.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 33: Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. [SL.2.5]

Title: If You Were a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students compare imagined travel experiences of their own with the actual experiences of 19th-century pioneers. After creating, as a class, oral stories about contemporary cross-country journeys, students learn about the experiences of the emigrants who traveled on the Oregon Trail. They then create works of historical fiction in the form of picture books, drawing upon the information they have learned.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT1 (1) 6: Compare ways individuals and groups in the local community and state lived in the past to how they live today. (Alabama)

Title: My Piece of History
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students examine pictures of household objects from the late 20th century, gather historical information about them from older family members, and then create an in-class exhibit of historical objects from their own homes.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT (0) 12: Describe families and communities of the past, including jobs, education, transportation, communication, and recreation.

Title: The Meaning Behind the Mask
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students explore the cultural significance of masks, discuss the use of masks in stories, and then investigate the role masks play in ceremonies and on special occasions in various African cultures. After students have studied these masks, they are then given an opportunity to choose a familiar story and make simple masks to perform the story.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT2 (2) 11: Interpret legends, stories, and songs that contributed to the development of the cultural history of the United States.

Title: All Together Now: Collaborations in Poetry Writing
Description: This unit of three lessons from EDSITEment makes poetry exciting for students as they listen to, write, and recite poems that are sure to please. By the end of the unit, students should be able to create lines of poetry in response to poems read aloud, identify musical elements of literary language, and recite short poems or excerpts.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 26: With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. [W.2.6]

Title: Stars and Stripes Forever: Flag Facts for Flag Day
Description: In this unit of three lessons, from EDSITEment, students learn what a symbol is while developing their understanding of how one particular symbol, the American Flag, plays an important role in the everyday lives of American citizens. Learning the history of the flag helps instill in students respect for our national symbol and helps them learn appropriate etiquette regarding our flag. Students learn that other symbols of our country, such as the President and certain holidays, like Flag Day, are important to us as well. Students can also contribute symbols from their familial, ethnic and national cultures to show the diversity of American society and its links to other parts of the world.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] LWT2 (2) 5: Differentiate between a physical map and a political map.

Title: Using Children's Natural Curiosity to Lead to Descriptive Writing
Description: Inspired by the book It Begins with an A, kindergarten students are invited to turn their curiosity and guesswork into a class book, complete with illustrated objects and descriptive language
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 25: With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing. [W.2.5]

Title: Completing the Circle: The Craft of Circular Plot Structure
Description: Students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories by using graphic organizers, reading and writing stories, and using checklists to assess their work.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 25: With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing. [W.2.5]

Title: Tell the Story
Digital Tool: Storykit IPad app
Web Address URL: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storykit/id329374595?mt=8
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 24: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. [W.2.3]
Digital Tool Description: The Storykit app allows users to create stories using their own pictures, words and text.

Title: StoryBird
Digital Tool: Storybird
Web Address URL: http://www.storybird.com
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 26: With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. [W.2.6]
Digital Tool Description: Storybird is a website where you can create and publish books that you write. The site has many illustrations that you can use with the book that you have written. You can also read other people’s creations and give feedback on them. You can also receive feedback from other people about your creations. Storybird can be used in writing and teaching the students about technology. It can expand the students’ creativity by giving them a chance to create something that is all their own and publish it. This will also get students excited about reading and writing.

Title: Hear from a Storybird
Digital Tool: Storybird
Web Address URL: http://storybird.com/
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 24: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. [W.2.3]
Digital Tool Description: Students and teachers can construct stories, illustrate them with artwork as well as view works from others. The stories can also be published.

Title: Write letters that make things happen!
Description: In a small group or as individuals, students write letters related to a unit of study or particular topic they have studied.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 19: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. [W.11-12.1]

Title: Tell a Migration Story...With Interviews
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.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] HGEO (9-12) 2: Identify world migration patterns caused by displacement issues.

Title: Ezra Jack Keats was born on this day in 1916.
Description: In celebration of Keats' birthday, students write stories that include some characters from Keats' books and practice using collage techniques with the Collage Machine.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 21: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. [W.11-12.3]

Title: Barbara Park, author of the Junie B. Jones series, was born on this day.
Description: Students write their own '' Junie B.'' stories, based on the Junie B. Jones series, after brainstorming issues they've experienced during the school year.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (2) 32: Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences. [SL.2.4]