If you'd always wanted an expensive swimming pool, how would you make the money to build it? Kids read a short passage about a quest to create a dream swimming pool, and use a list of words to fill in eight spaces throughout the...

Scholars examine a list of questions and sort them into corresponding groups based on similarities. A gallery walk allows peers to see how their peers sorted questions and leave notes. Costa's Level of Questions is the topic of a...

Add to children's enjoyment of the award-winning novel Maniac Magee with this fun collection of resources. From sequence of events and fact or fiction worksheets, to writing newspaper articles and creating advertisements based...

Soccer stars and fans alike will enjoy a fun cloze activity about Sarah the soccer player. Using the word bank below, kids find places in the reading passage to place the words most appropriately.

A 16-page packet includes three activities for a unit study of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before beginning the novel, class members identify the factors in their lives that helped create their frame of reference,...

Build young scholars' confidence in analyzing art and poetry with a lesson that first asks pupils to list details they notice in Edouard Vuillard's painting "Garden at Vaucresson" and then to describe how the painting makes them feel....

How did free and enslaved blacks work to craft freedom for themselves and their families before the Civil War? Young historians read about the life of Thomas Day, a free black man who also owned slaves and had abolitionist ties in...

Encourage close reading and critical thinking with a worksheet that asks readers to select an event from a story, predict what they believe will happen, and list clues from the story that support this prediction. After completing...

Even though two passages discuss the same topic, they contain different facts and details. Scholars analyze two reading passages about the Gettysburg Address and list the ways they are the same and different.

Learn the ins and outs of hurricanes through a series of lessons answering, "What is a hurricane? How does it travel? How is one formed, measured, and named?" Information is presented through informative text and images, while...

The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...

A two-part lesson plan features Civil Rights hero, Ruby Bridges. Part one focuses on the heroic actions of Ruby Bridges then challenges scholars to complete a Venn diagram in order to compare themselves to her. Part two begins with...

Don't just read a poem, recite a poem! Add speaking skills to a poetry unit with an activity that promotes successful poem recitation. Scholars choose a poem then recite it with the help of several tips and videos. 

Celebrate the beauty of trees with a packet full of activities designed to help kindergarteners get to know about their leafy nature friends. Covering a variety of subjects, scholars go on a nature hike, read Shel Silverstein's The...

Photos can capture a complete story in a single image. Class members closely examine a photo of a homeless camp and attempt to read the story told by the picture. They then read the caption for the photograph and compare their notes with...

The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...

Class members come together to study Amanda Gorman's poem "New Day's Lyric." After a close reading of the poem, learners watch a video of Gorman reading her poem, and then craft additional lines for the poem where they offer suggestions...

Phillis Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is the focus of a lesson that asks readers to consider how the poem is a critique of slavery. Groups comprise a list of words and phrases they notice as well as questions...

Poetry analysis need not be a lugubrious exercise for young learners. The approach used with Denise Levertov's poem, "The Metier of Blossoming" is one of close observation, of noticing and reflecting on the words, phrases, and images the...

Look it up. Scholars read Florida: A Paradise of Scandals Excerpt 1 and use a dictionary to look up any unfamiliar words. They then do a close read of the text and answer text-dependent questions. Learners analyze author perspective by...

Friendship is the theme in this series of extra support lessons. With a variety of resources (practice worksheets, letter, word, punctuation and picture cards), young readers gain knowledge of initial consonants v and h, blending short...

Scratching your head when it comes to engaging writing prompts? Check out a list of prompts designed for middle school classes, which includes topics for persuasive writing, expository writing, how-to essays, personal narratives, and...

After reading candidate biographies, class members select one candidate to research. They craft a report on the candidate's book, their position on issues, and the image the candidate wants to project.

Arthur Sze's poem, "The Shapes of Leaves," encourages young scholars to notice and speak for others who "do not speak." The lesson plan begins with pupils writing about a tree that they really like. The class then examines an image of...