With What Do You See at the Pond?, young readers explore pond life and practice reading strategies. Learners first make predictions and then read the simple story independently. After a second read-through with a partner, kids come...

Weaving is an important part of Navajo culture. Read The Goat in the Rug to your fourth and fifth graders, and give them a glimpse into the process of rug making from the point of view of a goat! They will learn new vocabulary words and...

The westward expansion is the focus of a read-aloud anthology. Pupils will listen to and discuss stories about going West, an adventure on the Erie Canal, the Trail of Tears, the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, and the transcontinental...

Hook your class into an exploration of and discussion about violence in video games with a cute animal clip and a video game trailer. After a quick discussion about how media can affect mood, class members read a related article and...

This pre-reading activity will certainly make your class ponder. With five questions to reflect upon, get insight to the moral dilemma Percy faced in the novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. 

Begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest with a helpful anticipation guide. Learners read ten statements that connect to the play's literary themes, and note whether they believe the statement is true or false.

After reading up to page 371 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, get insight into how Percy felt making a major decision through active discussion strategies that enable both academic...

Which of these objects are the same? Get your pre-readers comfortable with identifying objects that are identical, focusing on the term same. They examine eight pictures, drawing a line between those that are the same. The objects should...

Make connections with past history and current events with this critical thinking exercise. Kids read background information relating to Alaska's statehood as well as information on oil drilling and Alaska's economy. They put it all...

Ensure that your learners can read both fiction and nonfiction texts with ease! This resource includes questions that individuals can ask themselves while reading either type of text to help learners comprehend the text, make...

Do you wish you could write poetry that makes people laugh? Now you can! Check out the first chapter in a poetry writing series that emphasizes the importance of connecting subject matter to a light, bouncy meter.

Check out a resource made up of two separate exercises. The first page lists a series of higher-level questions about "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namoika. Use the questions to encourage discussion or as an assessment. Since they...

As the title suggests, this packet is loaded with activities that can be used at any time. The common element in all the exercises is that they are connected to books by Dr. Seuss.

It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.

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...

A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...

Primary learners read the text The Relatives Came and make text to self-connections. For this literature discussion, they discuss what the text reminds them of in their own lives. They can also write down their connections and share them.

When Ruby Bridges entered an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, she also entered history. Scholars consider what the experience must have been like for the young girl using two books that document her experience as well as a double...

Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...

Do your young writers need a little help varying their sentence structure? Have them work on common errors, sentence fluency, and writing patterns with a series of language arts activities. The resource includes reading passages as well...

Puff the Magic Dragon remains a childhood landmark for budding readers (and singers), but did you know it also makes an excellent vocabulary study? By focusing on several in-text words (in this case: billow, cease, fearless,...

It's one thing to have an idea, but someone has to put it into action! Young pupils read a rendition of Aesop's fable of the mice in the council before answering four questions about details from the text.

Archaeologists have discovered a cache of Native American relics. They want to preserve these relics by removing them from the rapidly eroding site to a lab where they can be studied. Native American traditions demand that the items...

Simplify the teaching of the US Constitution with this primary grade social studies instructional activity. While reading a fun story about an imaginary place called Bubble Land, children learn about the concept of authority and the...