K-12 lessons model innovative ways to integrate science, literacy and the arts and take the Common Core outdoors.
Lesson plans are designed by and for teachers along the Connecticut River to make learning local and relevant. Standards-based lessons highlight hands-on investigations and include student handouts, links to resources and tips for differentiating instruction.
Search online lessons by grade level or curriculum topic (scroll down to find lessons).
River of Words along the Connecticut River provides the much needed spark to lift my curriculum out of the mundane and into the extraordinary!
Emily Dickinson, Close Reading
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Students take dictations of two different versions of an Emily Dickinson poem, using the sensory experience
Emily Dickinson, Writing Nature Poems
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: High school students and elementary school students meet in a garden to read an Emily Dickinson
If Landfill Machines Could Talk…
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children draw landfill machines and imagine trash from their perspective, as a way of understanding where
Adopt-a-Tree, Watercolor Painting
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children spend time observing and painting their trees, with a focus on looking closely at colors
Adopt-a-Tree, Poetry Writing
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children revisit their adopted trees and write poems informed by close observation and inspired by listening
Adopt-a-Tree, First Visit
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children revisit the same tree several times over the course of the year in order to
Water and Works of Art
Overview/Rationale for Lesson As an essential element to our existence on earth, water has served as a source of
Whose Garden Is It?
Overview/Rationale for Lesson Children begin to learn about habitat and the interdependence of organisms through a first visit to
Incredible Insects!
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children write and illustrate diamante poems to recall what they observed on a fall field trip
Exploring Our Pumpkins
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Children explore pumpkins with eyes closed and eyes open, using descriptive words and observational drawings to
River Sounds, Dinosaur Footprints
Overview/Rationale Students prepare to write poems about a field trip to the river by practicing outdoor listening and performing
Vernal Pool Poetry
Overview/Rationale for Lesson: Students record sensory observations during a guided nature walk and use this data to create poetry