Instruct your readers to scrounge through the pages of Maniac Magee in search for descriptive passages or words they may use to write poetry. As they look for meaningful, sensory descriptors in Jerry Spinelli's novel, readers...

Looking for a fun way to teach grammar concepts and terms to your elementary schoolers? Learners create their own grammar reference books with this resource! After cutting out each box and stapling them together to create booklets, young...

Read Mary Ann Hoberman's book A House is a House for Me to introduce the idea that a library is a house for shelves of books. Young readers practice alphabetizing in the picture book (easy fiction) section of the library. They learn how...

A thorough lesson plan takes your first grade class through Jane Yolen's beautiful Owl Moon. It crafts the unit with clear objectives, high-level guiding questions, cloze activities and sentence frames, and extension...

Here's a resource that deserves a place in your curriculum library. As part of their study of War Horse individuals create an anthology of World War I poetry. 

Explore the works of Dr. Seuss, such as Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches and Egg, The Sneetches and Other Stories, The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Each story lesson includes reading...

Young scholars are each assigned an animal from Madagascar. They research their animal and design a picture book about their animal. Students design a cover page, back page, bibliography page and the title page. Their book will contain...

Students review simple phrases and vocabulary in Spanish. In groups, they create at least one page of a bilingual class book with an illustration. Once the book is completed, they present their page to the class for another review of...

How can understanding the genre of historical fiction help your language arts class with literary analysis? Use this instructional activity to help young readers learn about historical fiction. After reading a selection from the "Dear...

Pairs use desktop publishing software, as well as digital video and camera equipment, to craft a book review. These reviews are then shared with others in the school community through the class or school website.

Readers experience classic thrills and chills in the digital version of Mary Shelley's Dracula. The online version of the classic text has the look and feel of an old book with modern upgrades, such as buttons to navigate between...

A well-designed presentation on non-fiction books awaits your young readers. They discover the features of a non-fiction book, and are shown the elements of a non-fiction book such as, the table of contents, the glossary, an index, and...

A current and engaging informational text with some superb scaffolding activities, this six paragraph article discusses the release of the iPad from Apple, eBooks, and the history of reading and writing materials. After reading the...

Art history projects can be a lot of fun. Budding art historians research the life, art, and times of Pablo Picasso, visit the local art museum, and create a multimedia presentation showcasing his art and personal history. Handouts,...

The dictionary defines twit as a foolish person. Mr. and Mrs. Twit, in The Twits, definitely live up to their name! The foolish couple dislikes everything and enjoys playing cruel jokes on each other. Scholars read about the Twits...

As an introduction to Sharon Creexh's Walk Two Moons, a volunteer dons a pair of boots and walks about the classroom.Observers then ponder the axiom, Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his...

In this book section worksheet, students pick any book and write down the title and author's name from the cover of the book. Students do the same for the title page of the book. Parents or guardians must sign the worksheet.

Students view a video and discuss what illustrations in a book show and don't show.  In this observation lesson, students look at the details on a page in Alice in Wonderland and create an illustration.

Students create their own illustrated book. In this illustration lesson, students review books given the Caldecott award. They create their own illustrations for a book and digitally scan them to a computer to make their pages. 

Students examine the Push Pull Theory of immigration. In this lesson on immigration, students explore primary sources to discover several reasons why people migrate. They will then present skits to share this information. Finally each...

In this school-home book links learning exercise, students and their caregivers select a book to read together, share the name of book and the author, and write about how the book is like other books they have read.

Students study language. In this writing activity, students listen to a story and then compose a friendly letter, about the  book, to a friend. They work independently to compose their letter depicting what happened in the story,...

Help readers explore initial letter sounds. They will choose a letter of the alphabet and create a page for a classroom "ABC" book. They will write down various words that begin with their assigned letter and draw a picture to go in the...