University of Texas
Essential Reading Strategies for the Struggling Reader
Beneficial for beginning readers, struggling readers, and those in need of review, a set of language arts activities is a great addition to any foundational reading unit. Focusing on phonological awareness, fluency, instructional...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Music and the Brain
Even if you've never picked up a musical instrument, chances are that music has directly impacted your mental and emotional development. Sixth graders engage in a reading activity in which they read two articles on the impact of music on...
Curated OER
Music in Words
Your class can build strong, well-represented opinions about the music they hear. They listen to, and share thoughts about, a piece of classical music. Then they write a piece of music or a poem, and analyze their peers' work and their...
K5 Learning
Musical Instruments to Play
Bring some music to your language arts lesson with a reading comprehension activity. Learners read an informational passage about different musical instruments before answering a series of comprehension and vocabulary questions.
Curated OER
Thrilling Information: Music and Reading
Here’s a cross-curricular program music activity that uses Peer Gynt to engage class members. Groups take one section of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” choreograph their section of the tune to represent the story as they imagine it,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency, Letter-Sound Correspondence, Make a Match
An activity tests the fluency skills of young readers. Scholars match initial sound cards to letter cards. Pairs take turns and work to locate the most matches before the timer goes off. The activity ends with a peer evaluation.
Reading Resource
Flip It Down - Advanced Code Reading Game
A fun twist on bingo helps your kids learn their vowel sounds. As you call out each word, kids flip the tabs on a gameboard to cover their words and be the first to cover them all.
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education young scholars, this resource provides reading...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for C.S Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew
Here is a activity that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to create (write)...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Oceans
Flotsam by David Wiesner and The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Bruce Degen, begin a reading adventure pack focusing on oceans. With story listening and thoughtful discussion, scholars complete several...
Reading Resource
/ue/ Word List
The final resource in a series of 16 phonemic awareness activities, designed to develop the awareness skills needed to detect the vowel sounds in words, features the /ue/ sound. Kids identify and highlight the /ue/ sound in a list of 13...
K12 Reader
Find the Same Word
Assess the spelling skills of your beginning readers with a simple worksheet. Looking at a list of five CVC words, children must correctly match each one to another word with exactly the same spelling. An easy way to monitor young...
Curated OER
Musical Chair Review
Students play a simple game designed to reinforce letter names, sounds or sight words. They walk in a circle as music plays, and stop in front of a chair when the music stops. Each chair has a letter or sight word that the child must...
Curated OER
Swing Your Partner!
This was written for ESOL learners, but could work for any elementary class. Learners read about the American dance style known as Square Dancing. They explore its use in literature, write a friendly letter about it, and then use their...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension Assessment
In this reading assessment worksheet, students complete a 42 question, four story passages test. Students read about Stephen Spielberg, Lois Lowry, a shy boy in high school, and Haleakala volcano. Students answer the multiple choice...
San Francisco Symphony
Music and Early Man
Creative projects are great ways to increase interest in topical research. Middle schoolers learning about primitive life styles in the Americas explore the importance of music to hunter gatherers. They research and create musical...
Curated OER
Tangerine: Instructions for Guided Imagery
A guided imagery exercise draws class members into a particularly intense scene in Edward Bloor's Tangerine. After listening to a reading of an excerpt from the text, participants respond to a series of questions and then share their...
Reading Resource
Cars Uno (Advanced Code)
Zoom into the distance with a reading game based on Disney's Cars. Kids use the rules associated with Uno® to match either the character or the word on each card during their turn, or they can skip players, reverse the order, have...
Curated OER
Stop Signs, Musical Notes, Letters & Logos: Designing Symbols
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...
Curated OER
Rhythm in Language - Feel the SWAMP BEAT!
Students explore the rhythm of words. For this reading skills lesson, students read Bedtime at the Swamp and use rhythm instruments to find the cadence in the words of the story. Students listen for rhythm in other written text as they...
Curated OER
Spelling Bee/Musical Chairs
Students spell and recognize vocabulary words and/or spelling words by playing musical chairs with spelling words.
Louisiana Department of Education
How to Write a Memoir
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...
Fabius-Pompey School District
Paired Passage Practice and the Extended Response Question
How do pupils relate paired passages to each other? Here's a resource that helps! The lesson includes a short story and a poem as a set of paired reading passages, followed by some analysis questions. It also includes an essay template...
Curated OER
Irregular Word Fluency, Musical Chairs
Young scholars study language. In this word fluency lesson, students play a version of Musical Chairs in which they must correctly say an irregular word, pulled from a bag, to keep their chair. The game is played with a small group of...