Students design a new classroom workplace. In this architecture lesson, students use area formulas to identify the problem with the existing desks in their classroom. Students design their own solution volume formulas to solve the...

Students, after choosing and reading a book about bedtime or sleeping, identify and create sculptures of the main characters in the book. They design a creative three-dimensional book report with a recycled box to represent the bed their...

Questioning a text is a very effective way for kids to develop their reading comprehension skills. Designed to engage all class members, a reading activity prompts pairs to develop and share their own questions about the ending of Neil...

A cork, a rubber snake, and a bucket of mud may not seem like the best materials for washing a car, but they are in The Twits. The fifth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has readers role play...

Through character trait graphic organizers, a vocabulary sorting activity, class discussion, and a civil rights movement slide show, your young historians will be introduced to the amazing story of Ruby Bridges and her experiences as the...

How did the environment and natural resources found on the Channel islands influence the culture of the Chumash? Archaeology meets technology in an activity designed for middle schoolers. After viewing West of The West's documentary Once...

What skills are necessary to interact with different types of text? Twenty-first century learners live in a digital world and must develop a whole new set of skills to develop media literacy. Class members engage in a series of...

Mr. and Mrs. Twit do not treat each other very nicely. The sixth lesson plan in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl explores the way the characters talk to and treat one another. Role play and writing...

Students choose a book for reading. In this language arts lesson plan, students take steps to evaluate a book for free reading. Students make a list of words found in the book that they are unfamiliar with.

Looking for a new way to have your students complete book reports? Then, this lesson plan is for you! Young learners read literature of their choice and complete diorama, filmstrip maker, costume and letter, or puppet making activities...

Here is a well-designed graphic organizer which should help your readers organize the sequence of events from any story they read. The organizer should help any pupil who is trying to piece together events from a story for a book report.

Students access prior knowledge of butterflies.  In this butterfly instructional activity, students create butterflies and compare and contrast their butterflies. Students describe the various body parts.

Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey...

Strategy-based programs that are executed with consistency are the best for achieving growth in any learner with a learning disability. Here is a seven-step lesson plan that is highly structured and is intended to help learners with...

Students research the Internet, read designated books and selection, participate in discussions and write short reports while completing this series of lessons about slavery and the Underground Railroad. As a final project, they design a...

Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and...

Prepare a gameboard and die-cut race cars to play a fun fluency game. Also create several flash cards to review the long /i/ sound. Then, model reading smoothly and with expression, emphasizing the importance of re-reading...

Class groups collaborate to produce the storyboard for their video project. After determining the sequence of scenes, the camera angles, and characters in each scene, each group member is assigned a number of scenes to illustrate. When...

Have you always wanted to try Literature Circles in your ELD class, but couldn't find a good way to start? This lesson is made for you, your middle-school readers and ideally, your SMARTboard (though the lesson could function without...

Why do writers choose the language they do? Here's a resource that has the poet himself answer that very question. Joseph Coelho explains why he chose the words and images he used in his poem, "If All the World Were Paper."

The materials in this 48-page packet are designed to supplement a unit study of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Included are vocabulary lists and activities, discussion questions and quizzes, book report ideas, a bibliography of...

Teach your class about compassion and empathy with Jamee Riggio Heelan's Can You Hear a Rainbow? As kids read about Chris, a boy who is deaf, they discuss the things he likes to do, as well as the ways he communicates with the world.

A well-designed instructional activity on the life cycle of the butterfly is here for you. In it, young scientists spend 45 minutes a day, for one school week, engaged in their study. They take nature walks, participate in activities in...

A 3-day French lesson targeting food shopping vocabulary. It is designed for elementary French learners pretending to communicate with merchants in a small village outside of Dakar. The plan follows a class reading of the picture book,...