It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. Fifth graders prove this with help from three lessons that examine how ancient cultures used their needs to drive innovations. In lesson one, pupils identify main ideas and supporting...

What was life like in colonial America? Follow this lesson and your pupils will find out what people in colonial times did for work and for fun. Ask learners to compare and contrast the two texts and explain what the reading helped them...

Close your colonial America unit with a performance-based assessment. Class members will show their proficiency in several skills including using details to back up inferences, determining the meaning of words in context,...

Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed lesson plan outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and focus on the...

That is a myth! Scholars take a look at Greek myths referenced in The Lightning Thief. As learners listen to stories in Myths and Legends, they imagine the sights and sounds described. Pupils then talk with partners about specific words...

Middle schoolers read and review informational texts, analyze cause and effect, and distinguish fact from opinion. They assess a "one-minute mystery" you read aloud for cause and effect relationships. Resource includes complete set of...

In this main idea and details worksheet, students read a passage chosen by the teacher then fill in a 3 part graphic organizer with the topic, details supporting the topic and a personal response to the topic.

Students, while in the computer lab visiting the National Geographic Kids website, fill out a checklist of unimportant/redundant information, look for important events and ideas and search for the author's main idea and supporting...

Students read a passage about immigrants making contributions to the state of Kansas and write the main ideas and details of what they read. In this immigrant contributions lesson plan, students fill out a graphic organizer of immigrant...

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

In this literacy worksheet, 5th graders find the main idea, put the words into the correct sentences, and read the paragraph to increase reading comprehension.

Why do people write books? Pupils discover how to identify the author's viewpoint. They read non-fiction passages their instructor selects (the plan has the class look at nonfiction children's picture books), and then identify the...

Students examine a variety of historical cartoons. They recognize a political cartoon and identify the main idea, symbolism, exaggeration and caricature in political cartoons. Students analyze a political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin.

Car For sale! In this GED prep instructional activity, writers develop a classified advertisement to sell a car. After a discussion of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language, sellers draft their ad for review,...

Support your learners as they work on writing paragraphs by providing graphic organizers, outlines, and frames. Sift through this packet to find the perfect organizers and templates to prepare pupils for writing. The resource...

A three-minute exercise warms-up scholars' writing abilities in order to follow a writing process that ends in an essay. The essay's topic is a barrier and the values used to break it. Four steps include choosing a topic,...

Then and now. Scholars complete an end of unit assessment covering The Inuit Thought of It by comparing past and modern day life for the Inuit. They complete a main idea graphic organizer, analyze key terms, and write a summary...

For this thematic web worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer with the main idea of the story in the center. Students then identify supporting details and write them in the boxes around the center.

Students observe and demonstrate three steps to summarize text. They read and discuss the three steps to summarizing, then silently read an article about dugongs from "National Geographic Kids" magazine. Students demonstrate the three...

Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarization. They discuss the three steps of summarization, then silently read a National Geographic Kids News article. As a class they complete a semantic map of the article, and write...

The comprehensive study guide packet for Richard Connell’s "The Most Dangerous Game" challenges young readers to reflect on hunting as a sport and what it means to be civilized. Using various graphic organizers, including a Cornell Notes...

Students discuss the basics of poster productions. In groups, they follow written directions to make a poster about asthma, allergies, AIDS, or personal safety. They present their poster to the class and reflect on the process in a journal.

In this my family and other animals: Larry's Idea worksheet, student answer 22 questions about the story, Larry's Idea, match characters, put events in order, and rewrite sentences.