Fourth graders explore various strategies to overcome fears of writing, and utilize a story map as a prewriting strategy. They read and discuss the steps of the writing process, follow the steps along with the teacher as they discuss the...

Examine the technique of writing a script and complete a worksheet in which young writers summarize a favorite chapter in a Harry Potter book. They practice public speaking by acting out the summarization scenes for classmates. Handouts...

Students examine healthy food choices and the benefits of growing their own food for consumption. They read the story "Favorite Things" and illustrate 5 favorite things. Students discuss types of foods that are healthy choices and why it...

Students explore the history of basketball by reading and listening to a book entitled, "The Young Basketball Player." Afterwards, they create a trivia basketball game and write an interview for their favorite player. As a...

Young children read the story, Berlioz the Bear and complete various reading and writing activities. They learn about fiction and non-fiction, and complete graphing and writing activities for the story. Youngsters draw the bear and use...

Popcorn is a tasty part of a culminating activity designed to motivate readers to share important literary elements. The popcorn fills the inside of a white paper bag that is transformed on the outside into a presentation tool with the...

Is your Kindergarten class about to read the book, Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom? If they are, and you want a few wonderful activity ideas to reinforce phonemic awareness and letter identification skills, look no further. Here you'll find over...

Help your pupils track the plot of a short story with this SMART Board activity. Using the short story "The Dinner Party" by Mona Gardner (though the lesson would work with any other short story), they define the exposition, rising...

This is an awesome resource for any elementary or middle school teacher about to start a new school year! This resource includes an extensive list of activities for introducing the members of your class to each other. Some of the ideas...

Youngsters practice retelling a part of their favorite Native American tale to a small group of their peers. Peer partners assess each others performances. To keep comments positive and constructive, consider giving your class sentence...

Primary learners will make posters, trace letters, and eat letter cereal, all to learn about the alphabet. They will also go on a scavenger hunt around the room looking for letters. This resources has lots of ideas for bringing about...

Use a Visual Thesaurus to compose word association poems. Discuss poetry and word association, create word maps, then practice creating poems based on playful word associations. A perfect way to celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day" (April...

Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...

Arthur, the main character in Marc Brown’s books, is the star of this lesson. Pairs of researchers select one character from the Arthur series and use the internet to access Brown’s web site and learn more about their chosen character....

Complete a series of activities based on the Flat Stanley books in this literature study lesson. Introduce the book with a discussion of supernatural qualities, then studentscan create character webs, write news articles, build kites and...

After a class discussion where learners make predictions about what will happen in a book based on its cover illustration, pupils are asked to compose a written response about an aspect of the story and include some of their own...

What is special about summer (fall, winter, or spring)? Using a bag filled with season-related items (for summer items like sunglasses, a swimming suit, etc.) the class take turns taking out one item. A discussion of how each item might...

In this sea urchin worksheet, 3rd graders will add pages to their "animal books." Students will read 10 facts about a sea urchin to gain an understanding of the animal's characteristics.

Using the SMART Board, teacher reviews the elements of a short story while students follow along in their notebook. Continuing with the SMART Board, teacher introduces the definition of plot and the five parts as students take notes....

These 18 questions for Part One of Fahrenheit 451 assess the basic understanding of the characters and their interactions within the plot. Only recall questions are provided. 

The book If You Take a Mouse to School is sweet, enjoyable, and so fun to read. Little learners hear the tale of Mr. Mouse and all the trouble he causes. They discuss the book as a large group and then split up into smaller groups to use...

Second graders explore clouds. They read The Cloud Book by Tomie dePola. Students sort the cloud pictures into three categories. Students create a graph using the cloud pictures. They use Excel to create a bar graph.

Three activities introduce upper elementary ecologists to photosynthesis and food webs. In the first, an experiment is set up to determine how plants respond to different types of light. In the second, they connect organism cards with...

Although the title suggests this resource is devoted to Gulliver’s Travels, the materials and templates can be used with any work of literature. Readers fill out a reading schedule chart, write a summary, keep a vocabulary word list, and...