Vocabulary really adds up with magic squares! Using words from Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori, kids line up words and definitions to come up with the same sum across and down the square.

Help your class use critical thinking when it comes to unfamiliar words. With vocabulary from Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter, kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer, and find its category, comparisons,...

Have you ever wanted to tell a character what you really thought of him or her? Use a activity based on Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter to encourage learners to write a letter in response to a character's actions. 

Analyze an abridged version of Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Class members read the excerpt and respond to four provided questions, which focus on the content provided. Consider taking the time to read the entire...

Examine the text of Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with a reading guide. With questions that prompt kids to refer to the reading as well as to their own experiences and opinions, the guide is an effective way to keep them engaged...

Is Yuki a selfish character? Analyze her motivation and behavior during a unit on Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori. Readers fill out two sides of a graphic organizer with reasons why or why not she is selfish, and then come up with...

Many have said home sweet home. However, what if home is in a prison? Cammie, a young girl in The Warden's Daughter, lives in the prison where her father works—and that is not even the toughest part of her life. Scholars read about...

Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori presents a vivid picture of Japanese culture and history. As kids read through the third chapter, they find novel-specific vocabulary to enhance their understanding and use context clues to...

How well do your kids know key terms from Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori? Have them review a list of words that they will encounter in the novel, and mark which words they know well, which words they've seen before, and which...

Asking questions about what you're reading is an effective way to connect with the text. After kids read passages from Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter, they identify questions about the passages as Right There, Think and...

What does it take to build a stage production from the ground up? Scholars read a weekly blog detailing the behind-the-scenes action of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. They also listen to interviews with the cast, meet the...

Sort out who's who from the Battle of the Alamo with a helpful crossword puzzle. Complete with 20 clues and names, the resource helps history learners identify the major players in a pivotal moment in American history.

For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...

How well do your learners really know the characters in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising? A biopoem activity prompts readers to investigate the characters and their traits. Line by line, writers add the characters'...

In this everyday editing worksheet, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Pocahontas. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and spelling.

For this everyday editing worksheet, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about artist Grant Wood. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

After reading a very brief excerpt from Frederick Douglass' autobiography, learners cite textual evidence to support a main idea of the primary source about Douglass' humiliating experience with slavery. This is a brief exercise that...

For this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Laura Ingalls Wilder. the errors range from punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.

For this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the popular children's book, Madeline. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

In this everyday editing instructional activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Booker T. Washington. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

In this everyday editing worksheet, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the first White House baby. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling.

What better way to get to know a character than through a biopoem? Learners choose a character from Chaim Potok's The Chosen and create a well-crafted poem about his or her desires, traits, and ambitions.

Lost! (or misplaced) a modifier. Last seen dangling at the end of a sentence! Reward offered! To underscore the humor, class members are each given a sample sentence to illustrate (A woman passed by, leading a Springer Spaniel, in a...

Get to know Pip, Estella, and Mrs. Havisham a little better with a review worksheet on Great Expectations. Using clues listed below, learners complete a crossword puzzle that challenges them to remember details from Charles Dickens'...