Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...

Middle schoolers complete a writing assessment task to demonstrate their ability to craft a narrative based on a variety of informational texts. They view West of the West's documentary Magic Isle, read three print resources about...

A study of Alfred Noyes's poem "The Highwayman" opens a lesson about narrative poetry. Scholars read the poem and compare it to the animated video version using a worksheet. Learners look at models and use a template to craft an "I Am"...

Celebrate the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss on Read Across America Day with a collection of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics activities, each linked to a popular Dr. Seuss story. 

In these story structure worksheets, young scholars review story structure and learn how to use story maps to help with their reading comprehension. Students review an example story map and then study three different graphic organizer...

Pupils develop sequential stories to guide a partner through a computer-generated maze. In pairs they illustrate each place and character listed, build and print a maze, and write a class-generated story.

In this sequencing worksheet, students place sentence strips of the story of "The Three Blind Mice" in the proper order. They use strips that the teacher has cut out and laminated to complete the activity.

Students listen to The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and use a teacher created puppet for a listening activity.  In this Hungry Caterpillar lesson, students recall the order of events in the story with the puppet and cards of the...

Students read Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the life of Abraham Lincoln, including, but not limited to, the Civil War. Included are reading, art, math,...

After reading Pat Hutchins’ Rosie’s Walk, have your young cartographers create a map of Rosie’s walk. Then lead them on a walk around the school. When you return class members sequence the walk by making a list of how the class got from...

In this order of events worksheet, students read a story about a boy joining a baseball team the correctly order a series of given events from the story. Worksheet contains a link to additional activities.

Invite your class on a ride through the American Revolution. Young historians travel through time as they explore the events that led to the foundation of the United States of America. Over the course of eight lessons, this unit...

Young scholars explore Aboriginal storytelling traditions through the spoken word and through visual culture. They listen to stories of the Dreamtime told by the Aboriginal people and investigate Aboriginal storytelling in contemporary...

Upper graders read the book Holes as a class or by themselves. In groups, they identify symbols and discuss how they are connected  among the many plots in the story. They create a timeline in which they sequence the main...

Reading fairy tales is so much fun! Learners use dramatic play to assist them in defining and expressing the main theme found in the story of Cinderella. Each group is given a story card and will create a tableau based on the main point...

How do you catch a leprechaun? Let your writers decide with a resource that has them thinking about story elements and writing creatively. Learners plan their writing in two graphic organizers—one with setting, characters, problem, and...

Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is...

Ideas take flight in an exciting activity on the NASA Gemini Program. Young scholars analyze photos from NASA's Gemini Program and place photos in the correct sequence of events. Academics also discuss the program and how the steps to...

First graders participate in a guided reading lesson. In this guided reading lesson, 1st graders read David's Drawings by Cathryn Falwell, which is a realistic fiction book on the DRA:16 level. They determine the author's message, and...

Class members explore cultural diversity through a variety of texts that showcase the importance of traditions. Then, they interview their family members to research their own cultural background and write their findings on quilt...

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in...

Let's see how the story unfolds. Scholars examine paragraphs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to determine how King unfolds his analysis of the church. Before arriving at an answer, learners work in pairs and...

After reading a version of "The Tortoise and the Hare," scholars complete a plot diagram. They pinpoint the tale's beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and ending. 

After a grand conversation about immigration to the United States, scholars interview a family member to learn about their journey to America. They then take their new-found knowledge and apply their findings to tracking their family...