Students utilize several short readings to investigate a variety of multicultural celebrations. The two key celebrations of Diwali and the Festival of Lights provide the background for the exploration.

Students develop an awareness of environmental print, such as signs, logos, brand names, and other print and non-print items that the children see and read in their neighborhood each day. They then engage in active problem solving as...

What is a compound word? Have young learners review compound words, identify the two independent words in a compound word, and look for examples through reading and listening. Send this home for independent practice, and make sure to...

Help first graders gain an understanding of the beginnings of our nation by learning more about Christopher Columbus. They begin by listening to a read aloud of Christopher Columbus and His Voyage to the New World (another title...

First graders use the software Inspiration to create a web describing characteristics of a good friend. With the use of a digital camera and PowerPoint, 1st graders create "Friends Found" posters after reading the book, "Don't Need...

Here is a week-long lesson on the roles of family members designed for first graders. In it, learners share stories of their families, listen to books about families read to them by their teacher, complete homework assignments and...

The photograph, Nellie and her Italian Soda is viewed and discussed by the class. They are instructed to use the photograph as inspiration to write a poem about non-events, or things that are beautiful in every day life. Pupils use...

After discussing the main events in Mr. Popper’s Penguins, young writers describe in sequence what they would do if they had 12 penguins living in their house. The narratives are then glued onto a penguin cut-out, mounted on construction...

Students participate in the storytelling process. In this language arts activity, students listen to a story and retell the story using pictures. Students draw pictures of a carnival costume.

Students listen to the story The Very Busy Spider  and participate in an art activity related to the book. In this story inspired art lesson, students use a Very Busy Spider printable and cut out the spider's body  and connect...

In this rhyming words worksheet, students analyze 6 humorous riddles with picture clues. Students answer the riddles with rhyming words. Example: Where is the pig? Under the-- (wig).

In this writing captions worksheet, students analyze 4 action filled pictures. Students write a caption for each picture using the choices in a word bank.

First graders examine how to identify the different elements of a story and how they fit in a definite sequence. The use of comprehension skills is essential to retell the story as desired within the lesson.

Students improve their reading comprehension by role-playing a bear hunt story. In this reading comprehension lesson, students pretend to go on a bear hunt and complete an art project for the story.

Students estimate and compare grapefruit weights. In this weight measurement and literacy lesson, students listen to the story Nate's Big Hair and the Grapefruit in There, then estimate the weight of a grapefruit after holding it....

A quintessential resource for teaching an elementary unit on the first Thanksgiving addresses a variety of skills, including informational reading, critical thinking, comparing and contrasting facts, technology tools, and historical...

Students examine how to save and protect trees.  In this conservation lesson, students read books about the usefulness of trees, write ideas in their journals about how trees can be used, and make a book of ways to protect trees.

First graders build comprehension skills. For this reading comprehension lesson, 1st graders activate prior knowledge and create text to self connection in preparation for reading. Students read Story of a Bluebird and complete a...

Students read a story and then sing a song while focusing upon the vocabulary. The words are identified as rhyming when singing is done and words are filled in the appropriate blanks. Reading comprehension is increased with the repeating...

First graders read The Scrambled States of America and discuss whether it is real or fantasy as compared to the United States. In this geography lesson, 1st graders identify their city or state on a map and work in groups to color the...

Students apply word-level skills through shared and guided reading. They use poems of parts of poems as models for own writing. They read texts aloud with pace and expression.

Students engage in a emergent literacy lesson with the intention of improving reading comprehension. The goals of the lesson include recognizing both upper and lower case S, to create an awareness of the mouth movement and the phoneme...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

M&M's are always a great manipulative to use when teaching math. In this graphing lesson plan, learners predict how many of each color of M & M's there are. They count up each color and plug the data into a graph using the...