Free Lesson Planning Resources

In ELA this term, we're studying poetry and figurative language. I have a few resources for this that I've used in the past, but I always spend some time at the start of a new unit exploring what's available online to see if it sparks my interest. There are two free sites that I always start with:

Thinkfinity - This site, sponsored by Verizon, allows you to search several different websites at once by keyword or state standard to find lesson plans or resources rather than going to each site individually.

I really like a lot of these sites individually -- especially readwritethink for reading and writing, and Illuminations for math, and I'm always curious to see what hits I'll pull up from the other sites. I've found some great lessons from this site, and if you're not already using it, I highly recommend it.

My newest favorite site, however, has to be The Teaching Channel. I could spend hours watching the videos of the fantastic teachers there! I like how so much of the site is aligned to Common Core, and they have a lot of supporting resources to accompany the videos.

Here's a great video that I found that's inspiring my poetry unit, for example!


It's a very classroom tech-friendly site, and the content is growing rapidly. I also like how professional the videos are, so I feel like I'm watching high quality documentaries that would justify all of the time I've been checking out the upper elementary classrooms there. Honestly, it's a fantastic resource, and if you haven't visited it yet, I highly encourage you to check it out. No, really...I insist! You won't regret it -- ample fodder for great pins on Pinterest! :)

Of course, I also find lots of inspiration from Pinterest and TpT as well, but I thought I'd share these potentially less well-known resources.

What resources are your "must visit" sites when you start a new unit? I'd love to hear about your finds in the comments!