Youngsters are more likely to eat something if they've worked hard to make it! Plan a cooking class with an e-booklet from Julie Negrin, author of Easy Meals to Cook With Kids. It includes what you should consider about your...

Use a series of extension activities to enhance your class reading of Chris Van Allsburg's holiday classic, The Polar Express. From a biography of the author to filmed book reviews and research about the railroad, kids can take...

Want your class to use critical thinking when discussing vocabulary? Go beyond the dictionary with a vocabulary activity based on Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. Kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer that also provides...

Begin your unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea with an anticipation guide. As kids read 12 statements that relate to the novel's themes, they decide whether each is true or false in their own opinion.

A well-rounded unit on positive and negative integers is a great addition to your middle school math class. Learners work through five activities, each focused on a different skill, before playing a Game of Life to practice the...

Fill in the blanks with a Cloze activity based on Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. After listening to a passage read out loud, kids complete the worksheet by using their memories and context clues.

Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...

Wish you were here! Have kids express their salutations and warm wishes with postcards. The worksheet provides two postcard templates for kids to address, sign, and illustrate.

Asking questions about the text is a great way for kids to become self-sufficient readers. Use the question-and-response strategy (QAR) to get them thinking about John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After they read select...

Round out your unit on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis with a series of reading comprehension questions. As kids read, they challenge each other to answer specific connection questions from the text.

It's amazing how much kids change from the beginning of the year to the end. Create a written account of their growth with a fun worksheet that involves children recording information about themselves at two points...

Begin your unit on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with an anticipation guide that addresses the novel's themes. Kids read ten statements that discuss love, friendship, and growing up, and determine whether or not...

With the help from learning games and holiday-themed coloring pages, scholars learn the importance of listening carefully and following directions. Coloring pages celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. Learning games include...

Helpful for your unit on Elizabeth George Speare's Sign of the Beaver, a list of reading questions are a good way to check for understanding after your class finishes a chapter. Each two chapters have three or four questions,...

Helpful for a unit on Walter Dean Myers' Monster, or any novel that you are teaching, a graphic organizer prompts learners to compare and contrast different character traits. The first box has one set of lines to jot down what two...

Let your class voice their opinions with a group debate activity. Before reading John Milton's Paradise Lost, they work in small groups in assigned roles to form a position about authority and rebellion, comparing a...

Make a connection between empathy and bullying with a reading passage that has readers thinking about other people's feelings. After reading, learners respond to ten reading comprehension questions involving short answer and multiple...

Sometimes it's helpful to read certain passages in a novel slowly and carefully, and to read other parts more quickly to move the plot along. Learners tread carefully through Chapter 20 of Lois Lowry's The Giver, noting which...

Looking to take a trip? Why not go to space? Here, scholars take on the role as travel agent to create a guide to their favorite planet including travel tips and sightseeing recommendations. 

Bloom's Taxonomy is a great way to address the many levels of comprehension. With explanations and examples of each level, you can create questions that focus on knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Take a journey with your class as they explore the different settings from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Middle schoolers write postcards in first person as if they were the characters of the story.