Resources for teachers: Bring the world to students with knowledge!
The Science of Reading shows that literacy develops best on a foundation of knowledge. In other words, the more you know, the easier and faster you learn!
The Amplify CKLA literacy curriculum intentionally builds students’ background and academic knowledge—along with comprehension strategies—that fuel their capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with ideas.
Explore resources for teachers from educators across the country who are bringing Amplify CKLA Knowledge Domains to life in their classrooms!
Kindergarten
In kindergarten, students develop phonemic awareness with storybook characters like Zack and Ann Chang; draw a chart to identify different smells; learn about the Lenape, Wampanoag, and Lakota Sioux; and pay homage to classic nursery rhymes by jumping a candlestick.
Domain 1: Nursery Rhymes and Fables
To celebrate the end of the Nursery Rhymes and Fables unit, students participated in a Nursery Rhyme Olympics.
Credit: Kelly O’Connor, Huber Street Elementary School, NJ
BONUS VIDEO: Watch this video to see Nursery Rhyme Olympics in action!
Domain 2: The Five Senses
As a special activity for the Five Senses unit, students explored their sense of taste with a pop-up farmers market.
Credit: Debbie Braaten, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, OH
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how Jamie Vannoy, a teacher in Wirt County, WV, plans a braille activity for this unit!
Domain 3: Stories
Kindergarteners worked in groups to construct houses using yellow pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, and Lego bricks before the “Big Bad Wolf”—a blow dryer—tried to blow it down! Each house was tested for its strength and durability under the force of the blow dryer, providing a fun and interactive way for students to explore concepts like engineering, problem-solving, and the importance of material properties.
Credit: Pamela Rechter, Crown Point Community School Corporation, IN
Domain 4: Plants
To apply their learning, students at Superior Elementary planted grass seeds at the beginning of the Plants unit, then cared for and observed the grass daily to ensure it flourished.
Credit: Emma Fynbu, Superior Elementary School, NE
Domain 5: Farms
To celebrate the Farms unit, students visited a local farm to study the equipment and farm animals!
Credit: Kirsten Tingley, Cumberland Valley School District, PA
Domain 6: Native Americans
To showcase their knowledge, students created a gallery walk that displays information about the Lakota Sioux, Wampanoag, and Lenape tribes.
Credit: Dalphne Harrison, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 7: Kings and Queens
To mark the end of the Kings and Queens unit, this class hosted a royal tea party in the cafeteria, featuring cloaks and handmade crowns.
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 8: Seasons and Weather
Teach your students more about seasons and weather: Invite your local meteorologist to visit, like this classroom did!
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 9: Columbus and the Pilgrims
Students create illustrations of Columbus’s journey to present their knowledge for this unit!
Credit: Mandy Collins, Fayette County Public Schools, TN
Domain 10: Colonial Towns and Townspeople
As you wrap up this unit, take inspiration from this school: Make shop signs and tables to create your own colonial town!
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Domain 11: Taking Care of the Earth
We love this culminating activity! Students create awareness for a cause by creating persuasive signs, videos, and a class petition. This multimedia display shows them embracing the values of environmental stewardship.
Credit: Heather Keating, Gulliver Prep, FL
Domain 12: Presidents and American Symbols
To close the Presidents and American Symbols Domain, hold a sample election in your classroom! Create a voting booth, ballot box, ballot cards, election music, campaign posters, stickers, balloons, and confetti! Before announcing the winner, discuss the importance of voting, the voting process, what a campaign looks like, and what to look for in a great leader.
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Grade 1
In Grade 1, students sing about a fabulous fox, learn to tell the difference between fairy tale heroes and villains, write an opinion statement about the worst part of going to the moon, and learn ancient Egyptian techniques for mummifying an apple.
Domain 1: Fables and Stories
To celebrate the Fables and Stories domain, students participated in a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” race while teachers dressed as fable characters.
Credit: Brittany Sachs, Monon Trail Elementary School, IN
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how Brittany planned a Fable Olympics for her Grade 1 students!
Domain 2: The Human Body
To showcase their knowledge of the topic, students participated in a “hospital day.” The classroom was transformed to look like different operating rooms. Stations included blending and segmenting CVC words with Band-Aids, a Tricky Words eye exam, sentence writing, an X-ray light table, food sorting according to the food pyramid, and an operation game!
Credit: Erin Chester, Thompson Crossing Elementary School, IN
BONUS VIDEO: Erin explains how she planned the activity, and shows us snippets of the culminating activity in action.
Domain 3: Different Lands, Similar Stories
Take inspiration from this classroom and have your students create a Thumbelina floral craft to round out the unit’s celebration of folktales.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Early World Civilizations
Looking for a culminating activity for this domain? Plan an ancient Egypt day filled with crafts and activities, including pyramid-making, writing in hieroglyphics, trying Egyptian food, and mask-making.
Credit: Camy Stirling, Brevard Academy, NC
BONUS VIDEO: Watch this short video about how to make pyramid-making easy in your classroom!
Domain 5: Early American Civilizations
Students can apply their learning about early American civilizations by creating their very own Moctezuma headdresses.
Credit: Emmett J. Hoops, Moriah Central School, NY
Domain 6: Astronomy
A surefire way to ignite your students’ excitement about astronomy is to create a moon phase Oreo chart!
Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL
BONUS IDEA: Have your class send postcards to space through the Club for the Future program.
Domain 7: The History of the Earth
Students channeled their inner geologists during this unit and dug for rocks.
Credit: Ronda Scott, Dixon Public Schools, IL
Domain 8: Animals and Habitats
Students can express their creativity by drawing animals, plants, and environments on rocks, then sorting by habitats or comparing by Venn diagram.
Credit: Christine Thomas, The School District of Palm Beach County, FL
Domain 9: Fairy Tales
To wrap up the Fairy Tales unit, sharpen your students’ drama skills by having them act out their favorite stories.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 10: A New Nation: American Independence
Posters beautifully summarize the learning from a unit. Pair students up to create and present to their classmates!
Credit: Tracy Hatch Gagnon, Holy Name Parish School, MA
Domain 11: Frontier Explorers
Students can celebrate this unit by hosting a Pioneer Day and making Daniel Boone hats!
Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL
Grade 2
In Grade 2, students thrill to the crimes of the Cat Bandit, assemble books about ancient Chinese culture, write their own Greek myths, and learn the story of the people who escaped to freedom from slavery by “follow[ing] the Drinking Gourd.”
Domain 1: Fairy Tales and Tall Tales
To celebrate the end of the Fairy Tales and Stories Unit, encourage students to showcase their favorite stories by crafting paper collages and clay figures.
Credit: Jessica Berg, Arlington Public Schools, VA
Domain 2: Early Asian Civilizations
Second-grade teachers worked together to create an amazing dragon at the end of their Early Asian Civilizations Unit. Each student created a scale for their grade-level dragon!
Credit: Emma Bridgeforth, Windsor Elementary School, WI
Domain 3: The Ancient Greek Civilization
This class had a great time becoming world travelers and celebrating all the knowledge gained throughout the Ancient Greek Civilization domain. The students started their day getting their passport stamped. After entering ancient Greece, they engaged in many centers. They built the Parthenon and Athena’s throne, wrote facts about Sparta, created locks for Pandora’s box, built a harp for Apollo, and played vocabulary games. In addition to centers, the students learned that they all qualified for the Olympics, and were led by teachers on a victory walk as the entire school cheered for them!
Credit: Terri Hart, Jefferson Parish Public School District, LA
Domain 4: Greek Myths
Students wrote and shared their very own Greek myths, made props, and dressed in togas to celebrate this unit!
Credit: Chelsey Steinmetz, Cornell Elementary School, WI
Domain 5: The War of 1812
Bring a battle to life by having students create boats out of foil and other common household materials to participate in a boat race!
Credit: Jerica Falevai, Pacific Heritage Academy, UT
Domain 6: Cycles in Nature
To bring the Cycles in Nature unit to life, students learned how to make their own greenhouses and watched lima beans germinate and sprout.
Credit: Amber Taylor, Corbin Primary School, KY
Domain 7: Westward Expansion
To commemorate the end of this domain, this class had two grandparents come to the classroom to make bread, make trail mix, and pan for gold.
Credit: Jennifer Murphy, John E. Bryan Elementary School, AL
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how this educator planned this engaging activity for her students!
Domain 8: Insects
These students celebrated all the knowledge they gained by researching and writing about an insect, then using household items to build a model of their chosen insect!
Credit: Tamara Gore, Harrison Hill Elementary School, IN
Domain 9: The U.S. Civil War
Have your students showcase their knowledge of the U.S. Civil War by creating posters of important historical figures of the time!
Credit: Heather Griffin, Rochester School District, NH
Domain 10: The Human Body
We love this culminating activity! Students made digestive-system models out of air-dry clay and traced themselves on large paper to make a life-size model of the body systems!
Credit: Olga Cabrera, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 11: Immigration
Students participated in an Ellis Island simulation in their classrooms at the end of the Immigration Unit, and even created their own passports!
Credit: Sandra Garcia, Austin Independent School District, TX
Domain 12: Fighting for a Cause
To wrap up this unit and showcase their knowledge, students created VIP books about important historical figures!
Credit: Meghan Scheffler, Community Unit School District 300, IL
Grade 3
In Grade 3, students write a newspaper story about the invention of the telephone, go on a digital quest with Viking explorers, reflect on the stars with astronomy lab notes, and learn the secret to writing an excellent narrative ending.
Domain 1: Classic Tales: The Wind in the Willows
To immerse themselves in the Classic Tales domain, students hosted a party inspired by classic literary celebrations.
Credit: Laurie Valente, Secaucus Public School District, NJ
Domain 2: Animal Classification
A great way to shift perspective and get students to apply their knowledge? Transform your classroom into a vibrant “rainforest café” that showcases students’ published writing. Each student can create an informational piece about a specific vertebrate, learning how to introduce a topic, group related information, and support it with facts and details. They turn their writing, complete with text features, into restaurant-style menus! Dressed as rainforest and safari guides, students can present their work to other students and staff, answering questions about their animal and its classification.
Credit: Nicole Desmond, Riverside School District 96, IL
Domain 3: Human Body
Get crafty in this unit by having students make body parts out of household supplies: a pipe cleaner becomes the spinal cord, noodles represent the vertebrae, and gummy Life Savers turn into cartilage. You can also make X-rays by tracing hands and wrists on construction paper. Students can color around the bones with a dark crayon, then use vegetable oil and a Q-tip to “paint” the bones. When held up to a light, the project resembles an X-ray!
Credit: Crystal Chwatek, Muhlenberg Elementary Center, PA
Domain 4: The Ancient Roman Civilization
Have your students put their knowledge of ancient Roman civilization to the test: Challenge them to use a few common materials to build their own aqueducts and learn how water was once conveyed.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Domain 5: Light and Sound
To celebrate the Light and Sound unit, your students can make colorful suncatchers and witness the science of light and color in action.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
BONUS VIDEO: Watch how another teacher plans a black light party for this unit!
Domain 6: The Viking Age
CKLA students love Vikings! In this classroom, students made paper swords before participating in a special ceremony.
Credit: Kerri Lintl, Merrimac Community School, WI
Domain 7: Astronomy
As a culminating activity for the Astronomy unit, an Oreo moon phase exercise really motivates students to apply their knowledge.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Domain 8: Native Americans
Flex your students’ creativity at the end of the Native Americans unit by having them gather natural materials and creating Native American shelters!
Credit: Alisa Byrd Fesmire, Roane County Schools, TN
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how a teacher in Wisconsin plans a basket-weaving activity for her students during this unit!
Domain 9: Early Explorations of North America
To help your students visualize North American exploration, they can draw maps of the studied expeditions and use yarn to show the various routes!
Credit: Maria Woytko-Morris, Manitou Springs School District, CO
Domain 10: Colonial America
Take inspiration from this classroom and set up a colonial town where students can barter goods and work as apprentices at the general store, blacksmith, tailor shop, and cobbler shop.
Credit: Heidi Graci, Sporting Hill Elementary School, PA
Domain 11: Ecology
For this unit, these students practiced their speaking and listening skills by presenting about an endangered animal to the rest of the class.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Grade 4
In Grade 4, students take part in a dramatic invention competition judged by Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Hedy Lamarr; use writing to investigate the function of a mysterious contraption; become poets; and bring their reading skills to bear on the classic novel Treasure Island.
Domain 1: Personal Narratives
To celebrate the Personal Narratives domain, students created posters using information about their names.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary School, AL
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how an educator in New York plans an engaging culminating activity for the Personal Narratives unit!
Domain 2: Empires in the Middle Ages
Flex your students’ creativity: Have them create their very own shields and write a paragraph describing them!
Credit: Elisabeth Freligh, Spring Hill Elementary School, AK
BONUS VIDEO: See how students in Minnesota participated in a stained glass art project to celebrate the Middle Ages.
Domain 3: Poetry
Empower students to apply their knowledge of this writing discipline with poetry journals.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Eureka! Student Inventor
Encourage students to showcase their innovation at an Invention Showcase! Here, they pitched their ideas using the slides they created and the models they made.
Credit: Daniella Cucunato, Merchantville School District, NJ
Domain 5: Geology
Geology offers great opportunities to facilitate hands-on learning! Students can examine rocks and fossils, or bust geodes to supplement their lessons.
Credit: Spring Choate, Overton County Schools, TN
Domain 6: Contemporary Fiction
Students can take their favorite stories off the page in this unit! For example, lead students in a craft activity creating their own house inspired by The House on Mango Street.
Credit: Lara Andree, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 7: American Revolution
Build knowledge about the American Revolution creatively: Make it a musical!
Credit: Meg Jercha, North View Elementary, IN
Domain 8: Treasure Island
To celebrate the end of the Treasure Island domain collaboratively, students can build their very own map sections and put them together.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Grade 5
In Grade 5, students learn about villanelles and Mayan codices, read and perform Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” use their writing skills to teach a robot about human emotions, and solve a scientific mystery involving ancient fossils.
Domain 1: Personal Narratives
Have your students refine their personal narratives into graphic stories to celebrate the end of this unit.
Credit: Anna Barba, Arlington Traditional School, VA
BONUS VIDEO: Hear how a teacher plans name posters for her students to wrap up this domain!
Domain 2: Early American Civilizations
To celebrate this unit, have your students create “gardens” with small stones representing the Inca roadways. They can also plant corn, the dominant harvest of the three civilizations, and make drawings/paintings of the Inca suspension bridges and construction-paper suns representing the gods.
Credit: Harry Brandt, P. E. Bowe Elementary School, Chicopee, MA
Domain 3: Poetry
Transform your classroom into a poetry café where students share their work with the rest of the class.
Credit: K.D. Meucci, Bethel Park School District, PA
Domain 4: Adventures of Don Quixote
These students are an inspiration! To celebrate this unit, they built a real-life Don Quixote to reside in their classroom.
Credit: Gillian Roshinko, Jefferson Elementary School, NY
Domain 5: The Renaissance
Fresco painting and the Renaissance go hand in hand, so have your students get creative and craft their very own frescoes to take home!
Credit: Teresa Karney, Reese Public Schools, MI
Domain 6: The Reformation
Immerse your students in the Reformation era by having them make stamps and write out some text as a great way to mimic the effect of the printing press!
Credit: Jessica Kingery, Jefferson City School District, MO
Domain 7: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Turn your classroom into a theater for this unit and have your students read the play using character cards and donkey headbands.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Domain 8: Native Americans
A successful extension project for the Native Americans unit is personal totem poles! Have your students determine their own personal totems, write paragraphs to explain totem poles and why they selected their own personal totems, and use a template to create their own totem pole.
Credit: Kristin Rea, Cicero School District 99, IL
Domain 9: Chemical Matter
A great way to bring knowledge to life in this unit? Make fossils out of clay molds!
Credit: Teresa Karney, Reese Public Schools, MI