Students analyze a classic children's story by discussing it with their peers.  In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read The Little Red Hen, and discuss ways the hen takes care of his responsibilities....

Young scholars practice techniques and strategies for understanding the parts of a story to help them remember what they've read. They review and analyze the elements of a story and how to find them first in a paragraph and then in a book.

Your developing literary critics discuss 'perspective' and discuss how the same occurence can be interpreted by two different people in two different ways. They read Ryszard Kapuscinski's untitled poem, infer meaning of the poem, and...

Third graders examine two well known sayings, and write responses to the sayings. They read and analyze various Lewis Carroll poems and his life.

Students examine the newspaper. In this writing purposes lesson, students read the newspaper and discuss the purpose: to inform, entertain and persuade. Students identify facts and opinions. Students write an article and discuss acts of...

Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarization using the book "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. They silently read the story, and as a class discuss the five W's. Students then write a short summary of...

Third graders identify environmental problems. In this natural resources lesson students participate in several activities that support critical thinking about the environment and natural resources. The students write, list, and verbally...

Students explore how their choices affect others.  In this character development and ecology lesson, students debate choice-making issues.  Students listen to The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and identify choices the characters made...

Students complete activities with the book The Birthday Swap by Loretta Lopez. In this literature lesson, students answer pre-reading questions, locate new vocabulary, and read the story. They answer comprehension questions,...

Help young readers learn to read and interpret complex text independently. Teach young children to ask interpretive questions and use the text itself to answer them. Use art, word play and drama to provide a deeper understanding of...

Give your class a colorful and tasty representation of the components of the mixture that we call air. Pop a few batches of popcorn in four different colors, one to represent each gas: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. The...

Students review beginning, middle, and end of a story and how details add to a story.

Students make a terrarium from common household items that are brought to class. They can be creative with materials but the method is set for how the mini-lab is set up. Students read a book about an ecosystem to stimulate the topic for...

Young scholars read Talking Walls and discuss the walls presented and their importance to the culture. In this geography lesson, students locate and label each country/continent discussed in the book on a world map. Young scholars take a...

Students participate or listen to a reader's theater skit from "A Pocket Full of Seeds." Students identify Nicole's problem and create a solution to the problem. Students may listen to a group of 5 read the skit, or may be divided into...

Students read a book from the Dear America series and contrast different points of view. They respond to the book either by participating in a literature circle or completing a journal entry. They compare and contrast two books or a...

Students recognize the elements of a fable and write an original fable. They make connections with morals and other law-related concepts.

Students learn to use prediction to think more deeply about literature. In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students chart predictions in order to more fully understand text.

In this word search activity, students locate 18 words and mark them in this airplane shaped puzzle. All words pertain to Ruth Law Thrills a Nation.

Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...

Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...

What a fun idea! The class discusses, and then writes free-verse poems using sensory detail. They get into small collaborative writing teams to compose their poems. Next, they pantomime the actions from the poem while their teammates...