Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

After completing Juliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, class members rewrite a traditional fairy tale, making three significant changes to illustrate a theme of their choosing.

A unit covering second-grade skills reviews 16 letter-sound correspondences, tricky words, and punctuation. Readers provide context for examining story elements, and pupils participate in close reading and write narratives retelling a...

Reinforce reading comprehension and story mapping skills with the help from a story, Gingerbread Baby by Jen Brett. Individuals discover new vocabulary, make predictions, retell main events, respond to reading using a graphic...

Explore the structure of narrative writing with this fun, collaborative lesson plan. Start by reading aloud a short story, asking small groups of learners to fill in key events on a large story board prepared on the class whiteboard....

A lesson introduces scholars to nouns and adjectives. After listening to a short story and practicing creating adjectives with a card sort, pupils go on a paper hunt to locate different types of paper, complete a chart with adjectives,...

Full of activities for Jan Brett's story "Gingerbread Friends," this resource will get your kids in the mood for some snacks, fortify their need for vocabulary, and fill their minds with story elements.

Here are three guided reading lesson plan templates; each designed to meet the needs of a specific level of readers. Levels in focus are emergent, early, and transitional readers. Additionally, prompts to support your small group...

Take your guided reading lesson plans to the next level with a collection of printables, templates, and reference tools equipped to support the reading needs of your readers. Included is a detailed information page, grouping sheet,...

Reinforce reading comprehension with a instructional activity about The Archer and the Sun, a Chinese folktale. Kids learn some background information about Chinese culture before reading the story, and answer literacy...

Incorporate technology into a literature lesson with an innovative language arts lesson. Middle schoolers read an electronic version of original stories or fairy tales, and after determining the point of view, rewrite the tale from...

If friendship were a soup, what ingredients would be in it? As part of a study of Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale, kids engage in a series of friendship-themed activities using materials contained in this richly...

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

Challenge young scholars with a counting-themed series of activities. Your counters will write invitations to a feast, create books about dinner parties and animals, design posters, draw pictures of their favorite peaceful places,...

This nine-page packet, the first in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on journeys, contains enrichment activities for learners who have mastered the basic concepts of the lessons....

What is a proverb? This is the leading question of this resource. First, explore proverbs and their meanings. Then, read aloud The Hidden Feast: A Folktale from the American South by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss and partake...

A Reading Adventure Pack explores the night sky. Reading Her Seven Brothers by Paul Goble and Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey begin the learning experience. Scholars craft a night sky mobile, go stargazing, and write a mythical story...

Shelves filled with heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Bouquets of red roses. Racks of romantic cards. Stores are preparing for Valentine's Day. Has the holiday become too commercialized? That is the question asked by a lesson designed...

Combine hearts with minds in a reading comprehension activity with a Valentine's Day theme. Steven Kroll's The Biggest Valentine Ever, named one of the best books for kids in 2014, provides kids with an opportunity to practice their...

Don't miss this resource when Groundhog Day arrives! Youngsters read the book Groundhog Day by Gail Gibbons and practice reading comprehension skills, and then choose from a series of engaging, cross-curricular activities to help...

Helen Lester's wonderfully wacky, Tacky and the Winter Games, is the core text featured in a resource packet that includes a prediction exercise, an activity menu, vocabulary flash cards, and book review worksheet. A great way to cheer...

Third grade readers are given clear learning goals with this Common Core checklist. By turning each reading standard into an I can statement, children can focus on mastering the required grade level skills.