Baylor College
Plant or Animal?
Teach your class about the necessities of life using the book Tillena Lou's Day in the Sun. After a teacher-read-aloud, students make puppets depicting different plants and animals from the story and illustrating the habitat in which...
Baylor College
A Place to Be
Home sweet home. Humans, birds, beavers, ants, we all need a place place to rest and keep us safe. In the ninth lesson of this series, the importance of shelter is discussed as the teacher reads aloud the book Tillena Lou's Day in the...
New York Public Library
What's for Lunch?: New York City Restaurant Menus
Do you remember the days when a cup of coffee cost five cents? At A.W. Dennett restaurant in 1894, you could buy a five-cent cup of coffee and as well as a five-cent slice of pie to accompany it. The menu from that year is a primary...
Curated OER
Ordering Stories
What happened first? Learners examine four sets of images to sequence events using ordinal numbers. There is an example to get them started, and the first two have three pictures to organize. The final story is more challenging with four...
Curated OER
Understanding a Story
Reading comprehension is the name of the game! After listening to the teacher model and share personal prior knowledge about small children and what they do with food, the class discusses how they too can use prior knowledge to...
Curated OER
Comparing and Contrasting Yourself to a Character
First and second graders explore character as a story element. They listen to the first part of the story First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and observe the teacher modeling a compare and contrast characters activity. Learners listen...
Curated OER
Identifying Setting Using Evidence from the Text
Help young readers find the setting in the story. They will review what a setting is with a modeled example by the teacher. After reading The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down by Paul Brett Johnson and completing a practice sheet, they will be...
Guam Community College
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Spruce up a class reading of the children's book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback with this fun series of activities. Starting with a list of reading comprehension questions and key vocabulary to address during a teacher read...
Weston Wood
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Create a cross-curricular learning experience based on the children's book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat with this collection of learning activities. Starting with a class reading of the story, children go on to learn about the sequence...
Live Oak Media
Activity Guide: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Enhance a reading of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book Joseph had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback with this collection of learning activities. Starting with general background information about the book and author, this...
Learning to Give
Humphrey The Lost Whale
The children's book Humphrey the Lost Whale tells an amazing tale of a community joining together for a common cause. Read this book with your class, making connections between the events in the story and personal experiences of young...
Curated OER
Helen Keller Language Arts Lesson Plan
The story of Helen Keller is compelling because it shows readers that a person can overcome almost any obstacle. A picture book describing Helen's life is used to address several language standards, such as using key details, identifying...
Harper Collins
If You Give...Series Teaching Guide
If you give teachers a few good ideas, they can really bring a story to life. Included in this resource are dozens of activities to use as your class reads books in the If You Give... series. From holding puppet shows and creating comic...
Curated OER
Magical and Mystical Details
Identify magical and mystical details in the tales The Legend of Bluebonnet and The Legend of Old Befana. Talk about seemingly impossible details and illustrations in order to demonstrate the qualities of legend and magic. Encourage...
Curated OER
Lesson 2: Feelings
After reading the story, David, No! and creating a chart of David's feelings, youngsters discuss how they knew how he felt throughout the story. They discuss using prior knowledge and picture clues to determine how the main character...
Curated OER
Identifying Story Elements
Help your class identify story elements. They will discuss character, setting, problem, and solution after reading a story. A graphic organizer will help them to identify various elements with guided practice and independent practice...
Curated OER
The Rule of Three
What makes a fairy tale a fairy tale? Teach young readers one characteristic that defines the fairy tale genre. They'll learn that events, objects and characters in fairy tales often occur in threes. They read Goldilocks and the Three...
Curated OER
Lesson 3: Character Values
A value is something a person or character thinks is right or good; it's also a characteristic of a fairy tale. Learners discuss how fairy tale characters often have or exemplify a specific value. They compare the values found in The...
Curated OER
Oral Stories
Legends are stories that have been retold as they have been passed down through the generations. Learners orally retell The Legend of the Bluebonnet in their own unique way after discussing the importance of oral traditions and...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Plot Problems
Add another characteristic to your class characteristics of fairy tales chart. First they discuss the concept of problems or conflicts found in most fairy tale plots then they practice identifying conflict as they read. They read the...
Curated OER
Explanatory Myths Lesson
A myth is a story that explains something in nature or society. Dive into the study of mythology as you read The Golden Flower with your class. Charts are used to define the characteristics of myths as well as to determine the main point...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Effects
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a perfect book to use when your class is ready to learn about cause and effect. They consider the meanings of the words cause and effect as you read the story. Working together you'll identify, discuss,...
Curated OER
Causes
Things usually don't happen without a reason; usually any event has a cause that got the ball rolling. The book, If You Give a Mouse a Muffin is used to help learners understand the concept of causes in literature. Examples from the...
Curated OER
Lesson 3: Cause and Effect Relationships
The Gunniwolf is a book full of events that get kids asking why and what. They note several events on a chart, and then discuss how they think the instructor is able to determine the causes and effects they find. They continue reading...