Bridge to Terabithia is a story about friendship that brings magic into ordinary life. Study guides may not be magical, but the guided questions, graphic organizers, extension activities, vocabulary, and discussion questions help...

Capture the engagement of young readers with this collection of activities based on Jane Yolen's book, Owl Moon. Following a shared reading of this children's story, the class explores the geography of the American Northeast,...

A PBS clip focused on collecting sports memorabilia launches this research project lesson plan. Class members then read Dan Gutman’s Honus and Me in which Wagner’s baseball card is used to time travel. The lesson plan ends with...

The story of King Arthur is a fascinating one, and this retold excerpt offers an excellent example of narrative word choice in a dialogue. Learners read the text and examine the way the author uses synonyms for said. They write down...

"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...

Students appreciate and examine the roles that people play in particular situations. In this career lesson plan, students use research and information skills to perform the roles they are assigned.

Students determine that even though inferences are based on observations that does not mean they are always true or correct. They pull the topics and main ideas out of a piece of difficult text.

Students examine the character traits of kindness and responsibility using the book "Feathers" by Heather Forest. They play a "Mystery Bag" game with feathers, and answer story comprehension questions. Students then complete an acrostic...

"True-crime stories, murder mysteries, up-to-the-minute online news reports, and (as always) rumor and innuendo grab our attention faster than any call for justice, human rights, or ceasefires." Or so says Walter Mosley in his Newsweek...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a comic strip combines both images and words for the ultimate narrative effect. After reading The Three Little Pigs and deciphering the plot elements, elementary readers work through four...

The motto for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry warns that one should never tickle a sleeping dragon, but learners will definitely be tickled by the activities in a packet of materials designed to accompany a reading of the...

Students find the missing cookies. In this language arts lesson plan, students solve the mystery of who is taking the cookies from the cookie jar. Students are read several books with the same mystery of cookies being taken from the jar.

Students develop an idea about what happened at the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In this Roanoke Colony lesson, students examine associated vocabulary before listening to Roanoke The Lost Colony, An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane...

First graders read a book with the teacher while encountering unfamiliar words and learning how to use context clues and visual clues to understand the material.  In this reading comprehension activity, 1st graders...

Students explore Chicago in the fur-trading era. In this Chicago activity, students discover what life what like during this time. Students read an historical fiction story about life in the fur-trade era. Students view replicas of...

Students use their five senses to describe what's in a mystery bag. In this senses lesson, students use a graphic organizer to collect words for a sensory poem.

Students read about Scheherazade and Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp. In this literature/writing lesson, students understand the excitement of foreign places as the setting for a story. Students rewrite their own version of Scheherazade.

Third graders explore and develop interest in reading of foreign lands through the reading of The Arabian Nights and a variety of Cinderella stories. Students participate in a variety of folk literature activities. Students recognize the...

Students experiment with a variety of liquids to calculate density. In this integrated science and math activity, students listen to a story in which the characters must prove and explain why 5 "mystery" liquids react in a certain...

Young scholars record all of the instances of physics and science they are involved with in a full day. As a class, they complete a KWL chart on physics and read a story about Murphy's Law and the character's experiences. Individually,...

In this literature/book analysis worksheet, students read one sentence which is the beginning of a book. Students then answer 6 questions based on this one sentence, predicting what it will be about and other story elements. They then...

In this creative reading worksheet, students read the one sentence at the top of the page. Students circle parts of speech, predict what will happen in the story, and guess the genre. Then students write the story.

Eighth graders read act 1 scenes 1 & 2 of the play Diary of Anne Frank. In this Diary of Anne Frank lesson plan, 8th graders discuss how the setting of the play affects the mood of the story and answer short answer questions.

Fourth graders complete various activities related to the plant life cycle. They read the book "The Tiny Seed," read and discuss the poem "Five Little Seeds," complete a "Plantenstein Mystery" and other online activities, write and...