Second graders practice their reading comprehension by analyzing stories they read in class. In this children's literature lesson, 2nd graders are assigned to read a book for 20 minutes each day in class and also reflect on it in their...

Students respond to the story of Little Red Riding Hood. In this Red Riding Hood lesson, students retell and discuss story elements.  Students practice phonic sounds.  Students role play, make predictions, use picture...

Students play the game Phonics Rummy and practice making words from phonics monster cards. In this ESL lesson, students respond to icons. Students also respond to pictures and words while reading phrases that provide visual cues.

After listening to a story about the water cycle, learners create their own versions of this tale. This is a great way to have your class review the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff.

Standing up for beliefs sometimes leads to trouble! The father in Flush takes knows this all too well when he sinks a boat in protest to its illegal dumping. With his dad behind bars, the son, Noah, takes matters into his hands by...

The greasers and Socs, both gangs in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, came from opposite sides of the tracks, yet seemed to live in two different worlds. Scholars answer comprehension questions, create alliterations, and work with...

Blood may not always be thicker than water. Julie, in Julie of the Wolves, soon depends on a wolf pack to be her family. Scholars read about Julie's adventures as they complete sentences with vocabulary words, answer comprehension...

Are there secret worlds? The four children in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe answer the imaginative question when they discover a magical land in a wardrobe. Scholars read the first chapter to match vocabulary words and...

Does hard work and determination really pay off? It seems that way for Billy, a character in Where The Red Fern Grows. After working for two years, he finally has enough money to buy the pups he's always wanted. Scholars read about the...

Enjoy solving riddles? Perhaps Sal, a character in Walk Two Moons, is the only one capable of understanding a mysterious message left on her doorstep. On a road trip with her grandparent, Sal tries to make sense of the bizarre world...

If the most terrifying teacher in the school was lost, would you try to find her? Well, when the toughest teacher in the school is lost on a field trip, Nick and Marta, characters in Scat, decide to go looking for her. Readers discover...

A novel study guide for Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage follows Henry through his encounter with war Activities include asking readers to complete sentences with vocabulary words, write using personification, and answer...

Even young children watch sports and like team logos and products. It's never too early to think critically about what's onscreen. This exercise develops awareness that media communicate values (i.e. who participates in sports and who...

The Bradys, the Flintstones, and the Simpsons are some of pop culture's most memorable families. So how do the Applewhites stack up? Using a novel study for Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan, scholars answer text-based...

Use a puppet (in this case named Mico) to make onset and rime more fun. Mico presents 12 picture cards to kindergartners, all depicting single-syllable words. He pronounces them with segmenting onset and rime, encouraging kids to say the...

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a famous suffragette that paved the way for equal rights for women. Readers respond to before, during, and after reading questions based on her story. The resource is a great addition to a lesson plan...

Some books are perfect for drawing connections between multiple subjects. The book Hill of Fire becomes the hub for three very different, yet related activity ideas. First the class hones their oral language skills by creating an...

Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...

Sensory details can enhance the reading experience, especially during a guided imagery reading. Young readers close their eyes and listen to a passage from Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons before responding to discussion questions and...

Knowing the temperature coefficient allows for the calculation of voltage output at any temperature. Groups conduct an experiment to determine the effects of temperature on the power output of a solar panel. The teams alter the...

Life may not be fair but working conditions should be. Scholars research working conditions at Wegmans by studying the company website. They complete a working conditions anchor chart and discuss their findings in a think-pair-share...

The study of the life of Julius Caesar can be divided into three parts: his early life and military successes, his reign as dictator, and the rise of the Roman Empire after his death. Young scholars demonstrate their mastery of the facts...

Class members examine human migration. For this population instructional activity, they read an article entitled, "Freedom of Movement" and respond to discussion questions about the article related to guest worker programs.

Take a look at the topic of violence as seen in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Discuss together the values that Atticus holds and brainstorm ways to combat violence in a similar manner to what he portrays in the novel. Get your...