Patricia Polacco weaves an engaging tale for budding readers in her book Some Birthday!, an excellent resource for vocabulary in context. You can use this text to introduce the following words: investigate, snarl, and squawk....

Find guidance to introduce math vocabulary in context using Henry Pluckrose's book Sorting. This text is an excellent cross-curricular resource for budding readers. Before starting, review some new vocabulary words: collect, common,...

Learn the importance of leadership as you explore vocabulary in context through Leo Lionni's book Swimmy, which can be found on YouTube in case you don't have it. This text includes some excellent vocabulary words for young readers,...

Anyplace can become a beach! Budding readers explore Faith Ringgold's world of imagination in her book Tar Beach, which can be found on YouTube if you don't have it. What words will budding readers learn? They focus on the following...

Where did the inspiration for the US government system come from? From the ancient Greeks and Romans, of course. Scholars define nine terms relating to Greek and Roman government, complete a graphic organizer, and list the greatest...

Change places with your pupils, and let them teach their peers! Each learner signs up to teach a word from a list provided by the teacher (included here). Then, they complete a graphic organizer to help them develop a better...

A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...

Providing children with opportunities for self-reflection is an important component of learning process. This weekly log supports students with monitoring their growth, asking them to write about what they have learned, what they were...

Entertaining as well as educational, this math activity about decomposing numbers is bound to capture the engagement of young learners. Given a cup and five two-color counters, young mathematicians simply shake and spill the cup,...

Help Christina figure out how many chocolate and lemon candies she has with a lesson on decomposing numbers. When presenting this context to the class, the teacher chooses the total number of candies and the number that are chocolate,...

Review the importance of cause and effect with a straightforward language arts worksheet. While reading a short story or novel, kids record three causes and their effects in a graphic organizer. 

Use a feelings journal to help kids sort through their emotions during the day. Each page features a different graphic organizer for them to describe and explore the way they feel.

Young historians climb through the three branches of the US government in the third lesson of this five-part series. While reading the first three Articles of the Constitution in small groups, children write facts on paper leaves...

Spice up the note-taking process with a variety of different note pages. Learners can choose from 19 different designs. Many of the pages include space for writing and drawing.

Explore the life's work of one of the great children's authors using this ten-lesson author study unit. After first performing some whole-group research into the life of Cynthia Rylant, the class goes on to read six different...

How well do your pupils know My Antonia by Willa Cather? Take some time to create questions about the text. After examining a teacher model, individuals write questions that match each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and draft answers to these...

All aboard! Pair a reading of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg with a set of literacy activities. The packet of worksheets includes task cards, sorting activities, a synonym match, comparing and contrasting activities, writing...

Roll a log into an equivalent expression. Given four expanded logarithmic expressions, pupils write an equivalent condensed expression. They identify which properties allows for the simplification.

Practice electric vocabulary using multiple methods. Learners begin by watching a video that explains vocabulary related to electric currents. They match vocabulary cards to practice and then create an electric circuit. Using the...

Transform your instruction with an exploratory lesson! Young scholars manipulate absolute values and quadratic functions to look for transformation patterns. They use the patterns to write general rules of transformations.

Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores were both born in 1858, and both came to the Dakota territory in 1883, but they influenced the developing country of America in different ways. Elementary and middle schoolers apply written and...

Is the pen really mightier than the sword? Scholars analyze the impact Thomas Paine's book Common Sense had on the American Revolution. Video clips and primary sources investigate the role Paine had on dissent in the colonies....

Scholars use primary documents, video clips, and legal decisions to uncover Harriet Beecher Stowe's motives for writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. They create a 21st century book jacket for the novel to capture the purpose behind Stowe's...

Imagine teaching yourself to read and write—do you think you could do it? Scholars analyze how Booker T. Washington went from a slave learning to read to a leading educator in the United States. Using video clips, speeches, and primary...