Students compare their wants and needs, then read a news article about a family that downsized their home to help African villagers. In this current events and poverty in Africa lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a...

Young scholars locate the country of Niger, then read a news article about a new type of food that is being used to fight childhood hunger in Africa. In this current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with map and...

Students play a game. For this pronouns lesson, students watch a video and read a book about pronouns. Students review types of pronouns, fill in missing pronouns in sentences, read a newspaper article and find as many pronouns as...

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...

Young scholars observe and demonstrate a variety of summarization strategies. They silently read an article from National Geographic Kids, and as a class write a summary that includes the main idea and details and the five W's. ...

Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. In this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...

Students explore fire safety. In this fire prevention and safety lesson, students discuss and brainstorm ideas about what to do if there is a fire. Students practice stating information that should be given when calling 911. Students...

Students examine several elements that would cue them into a newspaper article about community change without reading the main copy text. They discuss the details and write notes about the article. They first skim and then thoroughly...

Students study environmental issues of excess garbage and learn about recycling. For this recycling lesson, students discuss recycling and read a story about too much garbage. Students write a persuasive essay about the importance of...

After a review of the steps involved in writing a summary, class members read The Physics of Baseball by Sarah Ives and use a story web to identify the important details to include in their summary. Class members then choose an article...

Students analyze the format and structure of various newspaper articles. Then, they rewrite events from literature into news stories about acts of kindness.

Students use web technology to investigate ancient Greece and the Olympic Games. They explore the history of the Olympics. Students make connections between Greek and English. They make and record a persuasive speech and write a...

Students read a story called Mayor Puts City on Diet to Lose a Million Pounds and answer vocabulary and comprehension questions about it. In this current event Lose a Million Pounds lesson plan, students respond to literature by...

Students write newspaper articles based on weather records set around the world. Students read and discuss weather records and their results, then write a newspaper article about how the weather records have affected people around the...

Students explore prehistoric times by completing web activities in class. In this human ancestry instructional activity, students identify the archaeological discovery of the "Lucy" skeleton and what it meant for science. Students...

Young actors willingly suspend their disbelief as they improvise a scenario in which they are workers at a clothing factory and must decide their attitude toward the actions of co-worker Rosa Parks. 

Students read and write newspaper articles. In this newspaper article writing lesson, students collect and share current news articles, examine how they are written, then choose an event from the 20th century and write their own news story.

Learners read an article about tiny homes and use the article as a springboard for discussion. In this current events lesson, students evaluate the merits of tiny homes, then create a chart comparing their needs with the things they...

Students recognize philanthropy and collect samples from the newspaper or other literary sources. In this newspaper writing lesson, students observe acts of kindness and write about them in a newsletter.

First instituted in New York City in 2002 and recognized nationwide in 2009, "Poem in Your Pocket Day" is part of National Poetry Month (April) and celebrates poetry in everyday life. A brief news story includes 9 ideas about how to...

How do you read when you know you're going to be summarizing a text? Summarize a nonfiction text with your upper elementary schoolers. Your pupils independently read a nonfiction article and write a summary paragraph using the six-step...

Complete a series of activities based on the Flat Stanley books in this literature study lesson. Introduce the book with a discussion of supernatural qualities, then studentscan create character webs, write news articles, build kites and...

Real or fantasy? Dogzilla, the Giant of Barletta, the Garden of Abdul Gassazi. To enrich their understanding of incredible stories, teams create a mouse newspaper and report on the invasion of Dogzilla, craft folktales, and draft a...