A creative spin occurs when one pupil acts as author Ann M. Martin. Using a Q & A at the back of her book A Dog's Life, other classmates ask the "author" questions. They discuss the reasons why they know the book is from a...

Studying plant, animal, or insect life cycles? Pair a science unit with a reading comprehension worksheet on life cycles. The passage touches briefly on butterfly, plant, frog, and dog life cycles before prompting readers to answer six...

Here is a two-page worksheet on rats and mice. Learners answer nine true/false questions about rats and mice, then compose answers to seven short-answer questions about these two rodents. Finally, they must compose a fictional story...

Students read and discuss a chapter from the book "A Dog's Life," focusing on the point of view of the dog in the story. They explore dog rescue organization websites, and play the online game "Bone Travels On," creating a story map and...

Here is a set of comprehension questions that go with the story "A Chicken's Life." Learners answer each of nine questions by filling in the blank with the correct word then, they complete ten additional comprehension questions that...

The book, A Week in the Woods is the focus of the very interesting language arts instructional activity presented here. After the book has been read, learners engage in study of certain parts of the book in order to gain a better...

Students view the film "Dogs: The Early Years" from PBS then participate in different activities revolving around dogs. After researching different breeds, students select a dog that best fits their personality and living situation as...

A pet can offer comfort, friendship, and loyalty in the most stressful of situations. Here is a lesson plan that explores the important role animals played during the Civil War. Class members read informative texts, complete a...

Sometimes differing arguments support the same claim. Scholars complete a graphic organizer comparing how two authors support the claim that people need to better manage the world's water supply. Pupils also complete a graphic organizer...

Students conduct hands-on experiments. For this life cycle lesson, students are able to observe a variety of animals as they travel through their life cycle (brine shrimp, mealworms, frog eggs and chicken eggs). Students respond to...

Students work together to research a historical event. They create their own poems based on their research. They share their poems with the class and discuss the historical event further.

The Humane Society provides a lesson in which class members explore the issue of tethering dogs. Through the resources used -- a comic, a poem, and narrative and expository writings -- class members realize that messages can be conveyed...

Challenge your third and fourth graders to look deeply into a text with a reading comprehension activity. After learners finish the short passage, they answer four questions that range in levels of difficulty and analysis.

Keep your kids reading throughout the summer with a wonderful list of books! Youngsters can choose from 25 different titles, each of which is paired with publication information so that their parents, guardians, or librarians can...

Where is Henry Huggins? Class members craft playing cards for a memory game. One side features a description or an illustration of a memorable scene, the title of the book and the names of major characters, or a description about...

What better activity is there for summer than reading? Provide your pupils with 25 book ideas for their summer reading pursuits. A variety of different genres are represented on this list, and each book is paired with publication...

Students listen to the book "The Bookshop Dog" and discuss what happens when there is a change in their lives. They create a class T-chart about changes and feelings, develop a graph related to the story, and define key story vocabulary...

Sometimes it takes a work of fiction to demonstrate nonfictional tragedies and events. George, an escaped slave, describes to Mr. Wilson the hardships of his life in a short passage from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle...

Ninth graders construct and conduct a laboratory experiment illustrating the transfer of mutations. They compare and contrast natural selection in organisms with long and short reproductive cycles.

The Labrador retriever is America's most popular dog breed. With the novel study for The Summer of Riley by Eve Bunting, scholars learn more about the sweet, lovable animal. Additionally, they write quatrain poems, explore foreshadowing...

A hands-on activity brings the alphabet to life in your kindergarten! Fill tubs with items that begin with the same letter or end with the same sound, and let kids make the connections between the items. 

Accompany the story, Town Mouse Country Mouse by Jan Brett with an assortment of activities designed to reinforce concepts covering story structure, comprehension, grammar, and social studies. Here, scholars identify the difference...

Third graders listen to the non-fiction book: COMING HOME: FROM THE LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES. They identify examples of metaphors and similies within the book and understand how this figure of speech is used in writing. They then create...

An interesting and unusual topic for a news article, this resource from the New York Times website asks learners to take a moment and consider all the things they notice during a typical day. Based of the editorial piece "Things I...