Remember that old skimming technique, where you'd read the first and last sentence of a paragraph to glean the main idea? That tried and true college trick is taught to third graders as a way to gather information while they read....

Fourth graders identify the main idea of a sentence using the topic sentence and details of the paragraph. In this main idea lesson plan, 4th graders read paragraphs in the passage Hawaii Quakes, Then Shakes.

Let's practice substituting pronouns for nouns! In this writing sentences lesson, learners identify nouns and pronouns and replace the underlined examples. They complete a worksheet which are provided by grade level.

Third graders discover how to read sentences in a paragraph and know the main idea. In this main idea instructional activity, 3rd graders read paragraphs, underline the first and last sentences and determine the main idea. Students do...

Read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and put the events of the story in order. Each event is written on a sentence strip and while the teacher reads, listeners can arrange the strips inthe correct order. After reading, reshuffle the...

Model how to identify and describe the problem in a story with Eve Bunting’s My Red Balloon. Then guide your learners through the process with Olivia and the Missing Toy. For independent practice, individuals draw a picture and write a...

Using The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin by Bobbie Kalman, second graders practice defining unfamilar words with context clues.  They come across new vocabulary words and read the entire sentence and the sentence before...

Mary Hill's Let's Make Pizza provides elementary schoolers with a chance to practice sequencing. Young bakers arrange the pictures and text sentence strips in order before creating their own culinary masterpieces.

First graders use cues to identify unknown words. They will learn strategies to assist them in decoding while reading.  Then they discuss how to listen to themselves read in order to decide whether or not the word makes sense in the...

Start kids thinking about point of view and autobiographies by telling them a short story about your morning (first person), and then asking a volunteer to re-tell the story to you (second person). There are tips to help you tie this...

After watching a three-minute video detailing the life of William Shakespeare, scholars take part in several activities designed to show what they know about the famous writer. Learners read a series of eight sentences and put them in...

Young readers explore a nonfiction text for its main idea. They will listen to the book Animal Sight by Kirsten Hall, and then observe as the teacher models a main idea think-aloud. Later, for independent practice, they listen to the...

Teaching students who are blind means teaching them skills a sighted person may take for granted. To practice calling people and objects by name, learners engage in a cueing activity. The child calls for an adult by name, and then uses a...

Remember that boy David from the David, No! books? He's back, and youngsters draw a picture of him from a scene in the book David Goes to School. They write a sentence describing his appearance, actions, and feelings...

Is it a fact or is it an opinion; readers need to know. Second graders learn a new technique to determine if a sentence or reading passage is fact based or opinion based. They read and then ask evidence based questions to determine if...

Dictionary skills are important to learn. Model how to find a word in the dictionary and how to choose the correct definition. As a class, look up words from The Life Cyle of a Bettle. Additionally, encourage your class to determine...

Why do we need freshwater? Because freshwater sustains life. After reading a three-paragraph passage about the importance of freshwater, first graders respond to the article by answering comprehension questions. The resource includes...

Kirsten Hall's animal books provide learners with an opportunity to practice forming statements of opinions and factual statements. Using sentence starters such as "I learned. . ." and "I think. . ." class members craft sentences cite a...

Sixth graders use context clues to find the meaning of new vocabulary. In this vocabulary lesson, 6th graders read A Wrinkle in Time written by Madeleine L’Engle and use post its to flag words they don't know. They figure out the meaning...

An important concept for youngsters to learn is that there is a difference between facts and opinions. Use Kirsten Hall's Animal Touch to introduce the idea that an opinion is how one feels or thinks about something and that others are...

Using the book My Red Balloon by Eve Bunting, Kindergartners will gain an understanding that stories often have solutions. Using Eve Bunting's book as an example the teacher will identify the solution to the story and...

Action is what characters in books do or say. Little ones discuss what actions are and then examine the book David, No! to identify them. As they read through the book, they chart all of David's actions. They write a sentence and draw a...

Does your class know they can use sequence words such as, next, finally, after, and then to better understand the sequence of a story? First they discuss sequential order and sequence words, then they look for sequence words as they...

Give your class a strategy they can use when trying to identify cause and effect relationships in text. You'll model, and they'll practice using signal words to quickly identify cause and effect. They focus on signal words such...