Don't shun this activity based around -un words! Class members read a quick poem full of -un words and then respond to three comprehension questions about the text.

Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...

In this cowboy poetry learning exercise, students read about stories and poems in the American West. Students read the lyrics of "Home on the Range". Students answer 7 multiple choice questions.

Prepare your learners to identify figurative language in poetry. Tips for reading poetry and what to look for are listed on these slides. Rhetorical devices are defined and plenty of examples are given. 

Familiar sing-along rhymes about rain help scholars with phonemic awareness. They read the poems and write rhymes for four words. The clue here? Each of the words is out of one of the sing-along rhymes! Learners read a final poem about...

Scholars read four brief poems and analyze their word usage in order to identify the rhyme scheme. 

The interpretation of a poem often lies in the mind of its reader, especially when reading the tone. Focus on author's word choice, middle schoolers read four different poems and briefly state a perceived tone for each, along with the...

What a skillful way to incorporate Shel Silverstein, a wonderful author, into the classroom. Composed of three tasks, children are led through a series of text-dependent questions that force them to unveil the meaning of Silverstein's...

Learners recognize and identify onomatopoeia. They will read the book All Aboard! A True Train Story, by Susan Kuklin. After reading the book, they list and illustrate examples of onomatopoeia. Then they write a poem or...

Learners view a slide show featuring famous athletes and educational institutions that have played a part in the history of basketball. They participate in a game in which a basketball is tossed from person to person as facts and...

Youngsters listen to poetry and music to understand that words are made of sounds.  In this rhythm and rhyme lesson, students create songbooks of healthy eating songs. They will also act out pantomimes and dance to the music....

"Ye who believe...List to a Tale of Love in Acadie." Longfellow's epic poem, "Evangeline," launches a study of tragic heroines, epic poetry, the expulsion of the Acadians from Canada, and their subsequent migration to Louisiana. The...

Metaphors open doors to descriptive language for your poets. They read the poem "What is the Sun" and record all the metaphors they find. Then, scholars change one of them to a simile. After answering two more comprehension...

A speaker's attitude toward his or her subject matter determines the tone of a piece of literature. Interpret the tone of four different poems, as well as their meanings, with supporting textual details.

Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part; but that is not the case with this poetry worksheet that asks scholars to read through a list of rhyming pars, choose three, and use them to write a couplet poem. 

Paul Chan's work has been known to show the cycle of change. Learners explore the concept of change by analyzing his work and reading the poem "For Which it Stands." They consider symbolism, communication, art, and society as they use...

Have your scholars ever known someone who was a copycat? Approach this issue as you study vocabulary in context by reading Peggy Rathmann's book Ruby the Copycat. Proposed focus words are: recite, murmur,...

Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...

Readers of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men will learn much “more than what (is) said to them” as they use the biopoem format and craft a poem about one of the major characters in Steinbeck’s tragic story of Geroge Milton and Lennie...

Combine math and language arts in the same lesson with a reading passage about number prefixes in geometric shapes. After reading several short paragraphs about the different prefixes used in shape names, kids answer five comprehension...

When should you use less, and when should you use fewer? Straighten out this dilemma with a helpful resource about using less vs. fewer based on sentence context clues. After reading detailed instructions and examples, young learners...

Whether you are planning a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or simply want to improve your pupils' descriptive writing, this lesson could be a good addition to your class. Using the Six-Trait Writing process, pupils...

Can you find the themes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in other books? What about picture books? Compare the novel to a picture book with a lesson about making predictions and finding textual evidence.

Middle schoolers use context clues to find the figurative meaning of similes and metaphors in writing. They practice using figurative language to help their writing come alive. Use this activity in a lesson about poetry, figurative...