Students interact with the strategy of visualization to better understand what is happening in a story. They assess the poem, "Talented Family," and the book, "Sarah Plain and Tall," to visualize and imagine in their minds pictures of...

Students determine how to spend donated money. In this money choices lesson, students explore the needs of the community. They determine the best use of donated funds for a good cause or charity. Students play a bingo game to reinforce...

Students, while reading a novel together in class, jot in their journals any connections to their own lives they can make between the text and self, text to text or text to the world. Various themes are connected to open more doors to...

When Ruby Bridges entered an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, she also entered history. Scholars consider what the experience must have been like for the young girl using two books that document her experience as well as a double...

Such a creative game idea, this activity might actually make grammar fun! Learners play a modified game of connect-four by identifying the grammatical name for different words and phrases and then working them into simple sentences to...

Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...

Young cartographers in groups hide treasure at school and then create a map to find it using pattern blocks and tiles. They make paintings with clues to create a visual representation of the location of their treasure. Groups present...

If forced to move and give away almost everything you own, what five non-essential things would you take with you?  Prior to reading about Mrs. Bentley in chapter 15 of Dandelion Wine, individuals are asked to respond to this...

Before diving into the engaging tale of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, conduct this directed reading and thinking activity. Assess your pupils' knowledge of Greek gods and mythology through a knowledge web,...

After completing Chapter 5 of Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, readers make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to Victor Martinez's novel by crafting journal entries addressing comments and questions to characters in...

As part of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) class members are asked to predict events in Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say based on illustrations in the story, on their knowledge of Steven Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,...

As part of a unit study of The Hobbit, class members engage in an activity that asks group to practice the skills needed to reach consensus in a discussion.

Prior to reading Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members are presented with a problematic situation and to rate their responses as well as predict the responses of a character from the novel.

An in-class reading of Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O introduces class members to the journey motif that forms the basis of The Hobbit.

Examine stories with a moral in a character development instructional activity. The class reads a short story written by Benjamin Franklin in which he pays too much for a toy whistle. Individuals then make text-to-self connections and...

Build on your learners' confidence in quick addition as they discover strategies to add tens to two-digit numbers. After reviewing counting by 10's, they discuss tactics to add multiples of 10 to other numbers. They visualize how to...

Kids love real word math becuase it connects to their everyday life and is really useful to learn. They are given the recipe for hot chocolate, using that recipe they must alter the quantities of each ingredient in order to accommodate a...

To prepare for a reading of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, kids must prioritize a list of items to take with them on a journey to Texas.

Explore the power of words with your class by analyzing the connotations of fictitious sports team names. Learners discuss team names and the mental images they convey. They create logos to illustrate the meanings and...

Here is a good way for children to identify ways to handle conflict. They discuss the connection between feelings and conflict. Everyone listens to a story about a conflict between two friends and they discuss what they could have done...

How do we determine how much information to include and what can be left out? By playing a game of 20 questions, the class generates the best strategies for finding a number. They then move on to guessing the next letter in a short...

Is assembling the periodic table as simple as Tetris? Scholars arrange colored cards into a logical order and then make connections to the arrangement of the periodic table. Hands-on activities include adding trend arrows and analyzing...

Engage in a shady activity to practice measurement techniques. Classes venture outside to collect measurements of various trees, using different strategies to measure the height, trunk circumference, width, and crown size. Then they...

Improving listening comprehension skills is the goal of this language arts lesson. Young readers listen to the story Two Greedy Bears, stopping to have discussions with a partner. They predict outcomes and make inferences based on...