This is a skills-based assessment that asks test takers to use textual evidence to determine the main idea of an excerpt from an informational text as well as respond to text-dependent questions. The assessment is the middle point...

Fourth graders read about the era in their history books, write in their journals revolving around the Gold Rush, making crafts such as newspapers, and also play the part of the Forty-niners.

Students decide what it means to be kind to others and draw pictures of ways they have been kind. They place kind kids pictures in a book for the classroom library. Students receive certificates for post lesson kind acts.

This is a thorough lesson on Chinese history that includes readings from primary and secondary sources, guided reading questions, videos, and a take-home final assessment. While it indicates an audience from 9th through 12th grade, it...

Using Movie Maker, sixth graders make an eight frame movie based on a story they have written. They choose music clips, select pictures from PowerPoint, and make their movie. The lesson should take about ten days to complete.

Students read a book with each student having a specific job for the class.  In this literature lesson, students read Sarah, Plain and Tall over 10 days, dividing up responsibilities for each student to make sure everyone...

Students study the Mexican holiday known as The Day of the Dead. In this holiday lesson, students study bones, listen to Tony Johnston's, Day of the Dead and learn on about the holiday. They listen to two more books before making puppets...

Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...

Students learn how slaves communicated with each other.  In this slavery and freedom lesson, students learn how slaves used quilts as maps, learn what different quilt patterns meant, draw a picture for their class freedom quilt and...

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

Young language arts learners write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy. First, learners need to develop a character. Then, through their writing and illustrations, they take their characters on adventures...

The story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians of Oregon is told here. Pupils are shown pictures of the ancestral lands of the Nez Perce, and they learn about how they were forced to leave it. Learners complete an essay which...

The water cycle, rainfall, and the flow of water into rivers then out into the ocean are the main ideas covered here. After a teacher-led discussion and activity, learners pair off and write a commentary about the water cycle that is to...

Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture...

Students engage in the study of flight with the help of a computer flight simulation. They take part in a variety of activities that imitate the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Students work as teams like the astronauts would to complete mission...

Write a review of the film adaptation of Holes. After viewing the film, your young reviewers make recommendations about viewing the film. Using details to support their opinions, they highlight the important parts of the movie without...

Independent harmonies, homophonic music, intervals, and melody are all part of music theory and practice. Prepare your budding musicians for the big time with these activities focused on playing with accompaniment. This lesson is...

Bring literature to life with your SMART board and this literary analysis activity. While reading "User Friendly" by T. Ernesto Bethancourt (from the Holt Elements of Literature textbook by Kylene Beers), have your class discuss the...

Models are an important part of science; they help us see the world on a scale that works for us. In the first of five lessons on HIV, learners make a paper model of the HIV virus that is about 500,000 times larger than the actual virus....

In the preceding lesson from the unit, beginning biologists discovered that microorganisms are everywhere, so the question follows, why are we not sick all of the time? Class members read and discuss an article in small groups about...

To assess what scholars have learned throughout a five-lesson poetry unit, seventh graders first craft a Shakespearean sonnet based on a poem they have studied. In part two of the assessment, scholars complete a four-texts performance task.

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day instructional...

In this lesson, students are introduced to a unit Students discuss a unit as a group and interest is generated. Good suggestions for sparking students' interest in general and the value of student discussion are given.

How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...