Friendship is a valuable part of growing up. Learn about the importance of friendship with a variety of activities based on When Turtle Grew Feathers by Tim Tingle. Kids practice making musical instruments, discussing plot points,...

Need some fun activities to augment your lessons on vowel patterns and phonemic awareness? Peruse a series of worksheets designed to help little ones with their early reading skills.

Ads here, ads there, ads everywhere—but what do they communicate? Pupils discuss this topic and develop a list of personal values. They then work as creative directors at an advertising firm to create billboards that reflect community...

What are the characteristics of a good piece of writing? What makes a story interesting? Give your pupils a chance to define the qualities of good novels and what they see as the qualities of bad novels. Class members record these...

Here is a wonderful lesson designed for students with special needs. This well-thought-out lesson uses Big Books, familiar stories, and has a lot of review learning built into it. The book, The Keeping Quilt is used in the main part of...

Elementary schoolers explore 3-D shapes. They transition from thinking of shapes as only 2-D. Pupils read Cinderella as a launching activity for their upcoming adventure, and explore a new world of 3-D shapes in this introductory lesson.

“What is the role or function of controversial art? And, should children, our children, be required—forced—to study certain works they may find painful or humiliating or offensive?” Robert Zalisk’s question, found in his article, “Uproar...

Students visualize examples of sentence structure by creating patterns with Lego blocks. They apply terms of voice and syntax by critiquing others' writings as well as revising their own writing pieces. Revision is the key within this...

To be used with the BRAIDY system, this lesson plan works to increase oral language and reading comprehension. Special needs pupils review parts of a story, sequence of events, and create a Venn diagram showing the differences between...

Grow young performers with storytelling. Elementary schoolers listen to the story "Little Red Riding Hood" by Mike Lockett, highlighting dialogue as they listen, and then act out the story. This is based on a story told by Mike Lockett...

Schools in the 1950s and 60s looked very different from the schools we know today. An educator's guide explores the civil rights movement and, specifically, the process of integrating schools. Questions cover key themes in the novel and...

Moving to a new country isn't easy, as Shirley Temple Wong learns in In The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord. A series of language arts activities carry readers through the novel, addressing the story's themes,...

Things sure change in year's time. Suds, from Fourth Grade Rats, went from a third grade angel to a fourth grade rat! Although he is not necessarily happy with his new self, he worries he will lose his popularity. Learners complete...

Begin the writing journey of an evidence-based essay detailing a rule to live by with various activities to familiarize learners with the topic and jump-start brainstorming. First, pupils take part in an in-depth review and discussion of...

Scholars compare and contrast two informational texts about Poison Dart Frogs. A brief vocabulary review and discussion lead the way to a two-part close reading—the first reading for gist the second reading for details. Followed by a...

Students locate the parts of a book and respond to a read aloud of that book. In this literacy lesson, students participate in an interactive read aloud of Nadia's Hands in which they locate the cover and title of the book. They discuss...

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,...

A bird that's afraid of flying? See what happens to this character when it's time to fly south. Over the course of the lesson, pupils discuss fears in general, share their fears, make predictions about the film, and view the film. The...

Young scholars discover the importance of matching verbs to their subjects through a discussion of a whimsical video on verb agreement and a read aloud of the book, "To Root, To Toot To Parachute". They practice verb agreement in...

In this parts of a sentence interactive worksheet, students recognize nouns in sentences. Students answer ten multiple choice questions relating to nouns.

Combine math and vocabulary in a fun activity based on Lois Lowry's The Giver. Before kids begin the book, they look up the definitions of 16 vocabulary words and complete a puzzle that will give them the same number.

Fifth graders identify strategies to assist in choosing a book. In this book selection lesson, 5th graders discuss ways to determine if a book is the right reading level or on a topic of interest. Students preview several books and...

As scholars begin reading more difficult text, they need to acquire an arsenal of comprehension strategies. Here are few helpful ones to guide new readers through the informational text About Trees, which is linked here for...

Youngsters listen to the story of Gregory the Terrible Eater and write a similar story using the same pattern. In the new book, Herman is requested to eat things that are nouns. They must supply the correct part of speech for the class...