Explanations

Never again will you need to worry about coming up with a writing prompt! This packet contains, as it says, 501 prompts that are suitable for fourth graders on up. The prompts are paired into four categories (persuasive, expository,...

Thunder and lightning are so exciting! Your class gets to read all about it. This informational reading passage provides them with a scientific explanation of thunder and lightning. They read the passage, answer comprehension questions,...

What type of writing is this? Learners read a brief introduction to various types of text: instructions, explanations, poems, folk tales, novels, informative, and arguments. The introduction doesn't explain these, so consider going over...

Here is a must-have, comprehensive resource of project guidelines for any teacher looking to assign a famous person report or biography project. It includes a fantastic list of suggested activities that learners can complete for their...

Using a cut-out template of a whirligig, emerging engineers experiment with flight behavior. After you teach them the concepts of force, air resistance, and lift, they discuss what variables on the whirligigs might be changed in order to...

Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and journal...

Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it in...

Here is everything you need to teach fourth graders to write informative/explanatory articles in one unit plan. This carefully crafted resource packet includes lessons, exercises, and activities based on the writing process, that enable...

To gain an understanding of the significance of Galileo Galilei's revolutionary ideas, class members watch the short video "Stargazing Before Galileo," and conduct a close reading of Galileo's Sidereal Messsenger. They then compare...

Here is a poetry lesson plan that begins with a free-association activity focused on the word voice. Learners each sit alone for a moment and make sounds that express how they are currently feeling, and then turn to their partners to...