Augment your eighth grade language arts curriculum with a thorough set of reading comprehension activities and assessments. Focusing on a variety of skills, including vocabulary in context, text structure, main idea, and author's style,...

Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing activity. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers. 

Junior ecologists examine Arizona's biotic communities and research an animal or plant that is found in this community. In this lesson, learnerss write a narrative essay about their assigned animal or plant. They research online and in...

Now that learners have honed their inquiry-based projects down to their strongest few questions, they can conduct independent research. High schoolers pursue answers to their inquiries while assessing sources, establishing a research...

Students read and understand a variety of genres in a library setting. In this library activity lesson, students act as detectives and use clues in text and pictures to hypothesize the title of the missing book for the library reading...

Have fun with shape poems! First and second graders write calligrams that add to the meaning of their poems. Great for your poetry unit or if you want to combine poetry and art lessons. 

A biography writing lesson with a tasty twist! Kids create a "visual biography" in which each pizza slice represents a paragraph, and toppings represent supporting details. They learn research techniques, note-taking skills, and how to...

The role women played in the Civil War, especially in relief efforts, is the focus of this seven-page resource. Groups examine primary source materials to determine how this work reflected and expanded the traditional roles women held in...

Fourth graders complete activities with the book Help, I'm a Prisoner in the Library by Eth. In this reading ideas lesson, 4th graders are broken into tiers based on their reading ability and complete different activities. These...

Students experience the different types of poetry in order to classify them. In this poetry lesson, students discover the multiple types of poetry while reading in the library. Ultimately, the students create their own poetry and share...

Everyone takes a different journey through grief. A series of lesson plans for the novel Counting by 7s introduces readers to the main character who loses her parents in a car crash. Discussion questions and writing prompts combine...

Get your class thinking about advertising with this lesson plan. Over the course of 15 days, your class will discuss advertising techniques, study the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos, and analyze the persuasive techniques of...

Through the journey of four stories of immigration, scholars complete graphic organizers and apply knowledge to create a visual representation of their findings on a large poster. Third and fourth readers write a letter to their...

Second graders research a topic in nature. In this research lesson, 2nd graders pick a nature topic and discuss the keywords needed to find more information about that topic. They fill their information out on a organizer.

Sixth graders demonstrate the ability to follow the library media center floor plan and use directional symbols and guides. They also use after-reading strategies to increase understanding and learning from content area texts.

Here, dog lovers can enjoy an educational lesson about the ways puppies are trained to become service and guide dogs. Based on The Right Dog for the Job by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, the lesson provides discussion questions for...

Enhance your geometry lesson by working with shapes. Fourth graders follow lines of symmetry to complete ten shapes, most of them currently triangles. Have pupils color each half of their shapes to reinforce the idea of symmetry!

A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few...

This clever instructional activity combines elements of geography, art, literature, and storytelling. Pupils take a close look at the six geographical regions of Arkansas, and pay close attention to Crowley's Ridge - which is one of the...

Sixth graders classify their regions' natural disaster(s). Within this instructional activity students enhance their research skills by utilizing different resources, as well as their writing skills by composing short research papers.

Fill up your piggy banks! First graders find different ways to fill up cute piggy banks with 30 cents. Will they use two dimes and two nickels? Or a quarter and five pennies? Use this activity with groups to reinforce your money math...

Second graders investigate the life of Booker T. Washington by reading a biography.  In this biographical lesson, 2nd graders read the story More Than Anything Else, and examine the geographical locations Washington once resided...

Students design colorful posters to "get out and vote" after studying the three amendments to the US Constitution that extend voting rights. They analyze the importance of voting to a healthy democracy.

Young scholars explore how books are sorted in a library. In this sorting lesson, students play a game where they have to fill the shelves with books that share a common theme. Young scholars compare this game to a real library. Students...