Students participate in a problem solving activity and discuss how effective their solution was.  In this getting ready to become an adult lesson, students read Ta-ne-e-ka and use guiding questions to address the relationships in...

Students evaluate nonfiction text. In this evaluating nonfiction lesson students read two pieces of nonfiction text and respond with a short free-writing piece. Students discuss the content and focus on the accuracy.

Students answer the question,"To go West or not to go West?". In this nonfiction lesson students read a piece of nonfiction about going West during the 18th century. Students use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the pros and...

Students explore cattle drives. In this United States history and letter writing instructional activity, students write a letter to their family predicting possible problems that were encountered by participants in cattle drives....

Students create a poster that shows respect or disrespect to the American flag with images they find. In this flag lesson plan, students also create political slogans.

Students create new words. In this vocabulary development activity students use five root words and add a prefix and a suffix to make new words. They use the new words in a sentence.

Fourth graders read a nonfiction story that is presented to them with graphic features, and presented to them with only the text.  In this text features activity, 4th graders decide what the benefits of text organizers are and...

Students use unfamiliar objects to make inferences. In this making inferences instructional activity, students make guesses about what an item does. Students brainstorm together and make lists of ideas and write them on index cards. The...

Learners analyze advertisements and decide what message is being conveyed. In this media lesson, students analyze drawings from a tall tale. Learners view drawings from the book Johnny Appleseed and discuss the colors of the drawings and...

Students read tall tales to identify story elements. In this story elements lesson, students read about Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill and use graphic organizers to record information. Students read in small groups,...

Students discuss vivid imagery in a story.  In this figurative language lesson, students read samples of sensory language and then discuss the meaning of a piece of figurative language.  Students provide examples.

Students research Lewis and Clark and use the information for a book.  In this Lewis and Clark lesson, students gather information and complete worksheets in an activity to write a book.  Students use a variety of text features.

Second graders examine the text elements associated with fiction and nonfiction texts. In this text elements lesson, 2nd graders listen to Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel. They take formative assessments to determine...

Students discover how making inferences helps people solve problems. In this inference instructional activity, students read a story aloud and discuss problems as they occur in the story. Students work in small groups and use events in...

Second graders complete a story map for Frog and Toad Are Friends. For this making inferences lesson students find specific details from the book to complete their story map. They map one chapter at a time.

Second graders complete two graphic organizers after listening to a story. In this story map and beginning/ending graphic organizer instructional activity, 2nd graders listen to Picky Mrs. Pickle. They complete the two graphic organizers...

Students explore rhyming and rhythm. In this rhythm and rhyme activity, students listen to the song, "A-Hunting We Will Go" and add new verses to the song with words that rhyme. Students use an interactive tool to create these new verses.

Second graders compare two books they have read, The Hat and The Mitten. In this compare and contrast lesson, 2nd graders review the author and illustrator of the books and discuss the main characters and problem. Students use Venn...

Young readers apply decoding strategies to identify unknown words. In this reading lesson, they read the Preamble and practice using decoding strategies. Small groups rotate to five charts that have questions regarding the Constitution...

Apply reading strategies to boost phonemic awareness. While reading a provided informational text, learners use decoding, vocabulary, and a graphic organizer to strengthen their overall reading ability. Handouts and the reading passage...

Investigate vocabulary terms related to communities. First your class generates a list of vocabulary terms related to the study of communities. Working in small groups, they compete in a dictionary drill to discover the meaning of the...

Read The Quicksand Book by Tomie dePaola while taking notes about the story.  Perform a read-aloud, and work your way through the text with your youngsters. With this plan, learners also write about ideas from a previous day, and...

Provide young learners with the terrific transitions handout attached here. As a group, discuss the importance of putting ideas in an order that is easy to understand. Although this activity is designed to follow a writing activity from...

How does memory work, and how can we recall more? Here is a five-lesson unit that covers the multi-system model of memory, as well as sensory, working, and long-term memory.