Devon Hamner

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Authentic Writing Experiences and Math Problem-Solving Using Shopping Lists

Students use their emerging writing skills to write shopping lists. They work within a budget, use problem-solving skills to create lists, and buy their favorite treats at the class store.

 

Grades   K – 1  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

From Stop Signs to the Golden Arches: Environmental Print

Students bring the print-rich environment of the community into the classroom through the use of environmental print, enabling emergent readers to delight in the realization that they are indeed readers.

 

Grade   K  |  Lesson Plan  |  Recurring Lesson

Growing Readers and Writers with Help from Mother Goose

Watch Mother Goose work her magic! This lesson uses nursery rhymes to help emergent readers remember the letters and their sounds and identify word chunks.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Recurring Lesson

Have Journal...Will Travel: Promoting Family Involvement in Literacy

Students build positive memories of literacy activities when they take turns taking home a book bag stuffed with items to encourage literacy interactions with their families.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

How Does My Garden Grow? Writing in Science Field Journals

Students plant a garden and study its growth using the inquiry process of questioning and exploring. As they research and study, students record their observations in a field journal.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Improving Fluency through Group Literary Performance

Students participate in shared reading, choral reading, and readers theater, using books by Bill Martin, Jr. Repeated readings and literary performances help students with their reading accuracy, expression, and rate.

 

Grade   K  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Introducing the Venn Diagram in the Kindergarten Classroom

In this lesson, kindergarten students manipulate hula hoops and real objects, as they use Venn diagrams to problem solve, explore, and record information to share with others.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Investigating Animals: Using Nonfiction for Inquiry-based Research

Inspired by their curiosity about animals, students work together to research an animal of their choice and present the information they gather to an authentic audience.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Recurring Lesson

Living the Dream: 100 Acts of Kindness

This lesson provides the “action piece” for any study of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In this project, students participate in Dr. King’s dream by doing 100 acts of kindness.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Mail Time! An Integrated Postcard and Geography Study

Children write and receive postcards from friends and family, and then chart where all those postcards come from on a classroom map.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Me: Identifying with a Hero

This lesson provides ideas for celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by encouraging students to explore the connections between Dr. King and themselves through journaling and inquiry-based research.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Our Community: Creating ABC Books as Assessment

Students create alphabet books, which are used as an integrated assessment with science, health, social studies, and any other content area. This lesson plans looks at the theme of community.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Packing the Pilgrim’s Trunk: Personalizing History in the Elementary Classroom

Students make personal connections between their lives and those of Pilgrim children by following the Pilgrims' move to the New World, their daily lives and struggles and their first Thanksgiving.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss

Young readers create a classroom book modeled after Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham to celebrate all the places they can read

 

Grade   K  |  Lesson Plan  |  Recurring Lesson

What's in a Name? Teaching Concepts of Letter and Word

In this recurring activity, the process of choosing a helper for the day becomes a literacy activity, with the helper's name as a starting place for reading and writing.

 

Grades   K – 2  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme

This lesson encourages students to use rhyming words to write rebus poetry modeled on rebus books, which substitute pictures for the words that young students cannot yet identify or decode.

 

Grade   K  |  Lesson Plan  |  Unit

Writing Reports in Kindergarten? Yes!

This lesson encourages young students to see themselves as writers with a message to convey. Three types of reports are provided to show what kindergartners and emergent writers can do.