Get ready to laugh with your class by reading the book Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School. After they read the book and do activities comparing their first day of school with Amelia' they will then have conversations around the story....

Have your class explore active reading strategies! In this guided reading lesson, learners make personal connections to characters having a bad day as a prior knowledge activation discussion. After reading Gettin' Through Thursday, class...

Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...

Positive character traits in literature are explored in this character development and literacy lesson. Learners listen to Cinderella by Charles Perrault and Little Gold Star by Robert D. San Souci, followed by a discussion comparing the...

Here is a must-have resource for studying fairy tales, myths, and folktales with your class! It includes instructional ideas, activities, and materials to support a month-long review of these three unique genres of writing.

What makes your pupils happy? Find out with a lesson centered around this theme. Class members come up with things that make them happy and write about them in preparation for quick group project. Learners watch and discuss a short film...

Go beyond simply telling students to improve their work ethic and study habits with this complete instructional activity on developing study skills! 

Explore genetic engineering through an engaging "Jurassic Park" unit, which is an extensive use of a cross-curricular teaching event. Planned for AP Biology, English, and Calculus learners, learners and teachers are involved for 4-6...

Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...

Students read a "letter" from Dr. Suess' Bartholomew Cubbins and note differences between their lives and Bartholomew's. They utilize prewriting strategies to draft a letter of response to Bartholomew.

What makes a good speaker? Upper elementary learners practice oral fluency by working with a partner to read nonfiction books. While reading, they practice using correct tone of voice, making eye contact, and speaking clearly.

The March sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) have delighted readers for more 100 years—and they continue gaining young fans every day. An eBook of the classic novel, Little Women, provides a more modern look, but it does so without...

Kids make quilts as they learn about pioneer life and the concept of tempo. The Aaron Copland piece, Rodeo is used to convey rhythm and tempo in music. As the children discuss tempo and rhythm, they also discuss what life was like for...

Even as adults it can be hard to distinguish needs from wants. Using pictures of common, everyday items, children make a pocket chart separating the objects they need from those that they want. Discuss their choices, explaining that...

After completing Juliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, class members rewrite a traditional fairy tale, making three significant changes to illustrate a theme of their choosing.

Use the Peace Corps to explore a different place and different perspectives. Your class reads the personal narrative "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" by Roz Wollmering, completing an attached story frame sheet in preparation for a class...

With graphic organizers galore, learners will follow the changes of church and state in early colonial America. They look at the differences between the pilgrims and the puritans in terms of beliefs and life ways. Myths and...

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...

The slow curse of realization begins to sink in during the tenth lesson in a literary analysis unit on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Ninth graders carefully read the selected lines for evidence of Oedipus' feelings during a turning point...

Help early readers identify rhyming words in nursery rhymes. They will read the nursery rhyme Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens in order to identify rhyming words. Then they chart the rhyming words they heard in the...

An 11-question online quiz permits young historians to check their knowledge of the history of voting rights in the United States. After reading a short introduction, individuals click through the questions that test their knowledge of...

In the preceding lesson from the unit, beginning biologists discovered that microorganisms are everywhere, so the question follows, why are we not sick all of the time? Class members read and discuss an article in small groups about...

A good complement to any integers unit contains a three-day lesson plan about positive and negative integers, adding and subtracting integers, and how to find the additive inverse. Additionally, it provides all necessary...

Young scholars have a class discussion about appropriate behaviors and manners.  For this manner lesson, students read the book entitled Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and discuss the events within the book.  Young...