Analyze a seminal speech from the 20th century with an activity focused on President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. After reading an excerpt from the address, pupils use a worksheet to practice their reading...

This phonemic awareness activity would be great for morning meeting or circle time. Teacher calls out a word, s/he identifies the final phoneme. The class then take turns saying other simple or cvc words that also have the same ending...

What do Jeep advertisements and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have in common? They both employ the art of the extended metaphor! Using the Six-Trait Writing model, learners begin to work on their own extended metaphors. Development...

Should your dog be watching tV? Read the article and then fill in the blanks by memory. Encourage a friendly debate: would you get DogTV for your beloved pet?

There are a lot of different ways a learner could respond to this New York Times article discussing the effects of modern culture on childhood. After reading the article, pupils construct a thoughtful blog post. The guiding questions...

What would it like to be the first person to achieve something? Read about Althea Gibson, the first black tennis player to win a Grand Slam title, to win at Wimbledon, and more. Class members respond to questions to demonstrate...

A lesson help scholars identify emotions through facial expressions. After a friendly puppet reads scholars a poem all about feelings, learners act out how they would feel when a specific action happens to them. Participants watch and...

Two versions of this handout are provided, the second with more detailed information on the same topics. Chemistry aces survey chemical reactions, heat energy transferred, and the action of enzymes by reading this resource. You can...

Bring to life a class reading of the children's book Caps for Sale with this printable set of manipulatives. Color, laminate, and cut out these pictures of the peddler, his caps, the tree, and the monkeys, using them act out the...

As your youngsters begin to recognize the letters of the alphabet and their correponsding sounds, there are some they will be more familiar with than others. Cement their letter associations using this quick strategy, shown here with the...

Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.

Your learners will be tantalized by this inquiry-based, collaborative activity as they discover how to write an equation that represents the height of an ice cream cone. Given the scenario based on the poem, "Eighteen Flavors," and...

Your learners will enjoy thoroughly understanding fractions, and you will appreciate the abundant, quality resources in this comprehensive unit that builds toward a complete understanding of the concept of fractions as numbers. Many...

In pairs, scholars draw cards, read the word, and identify its root. Learners place the card on a tree-themed worksheet to sort words by their roots.

 “Everything will end up okay if you believe hard enough.” “People create their own luck, good or bad.” Prior to reading Candide, class members respond to an anticipation guide that focuses on the issues of optimism, prejudice, and...

Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...

Engage young readers in using context clues with this collaborative vocabulary activity. In pairs, children draw from a deck of cards, with each card asking a question about a context involving a specific vocabulary word. After...

Elementary schoolers make and use bar graphs to picture information. They learn how choosing the right scale for a bar graph can help make a persuasive argument. This is a terrific lesson on graphing which should excite your kids. There...

Simple, but suitable, this lesson gives mini-meteorologists a glimpse at ozone in the atmosphere. By reading an article, they find that ozone in the stratosphere is vital to life, but ozone in the troposphere is problematic. A reading...

Young readers get to the root of unfamiliar vocabulary with a collaborative learning activity. Given a deck of root word cards and copies of a graphic organizer, pairs of students take turns flipping over cards and brainstorming...

Readers of The Call of the Wild engage in a four- corners activity that fosters discussion and encourages readers to make connections between their lives and the text. Individuals respond to a series of discussion prompts and justify...

Step into the hopeful and tragic world of Anne Frank with this lesson on reading in context. After complete a variety of activities related to the first two scenes of The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders participate in a read...

A series of well-written activities, these lessons prompt middle schoolers reading below grade level (at a second, third, or fourth grade level) to use poetry to practice basic reading skills. They rhyme, build words, make inferences,...