Book Units Teacher
Skill Lessons – Prefixes and Suffixes
Sometimes the best way to understand a concept is to break it down. Young vocabulary pupils work with word parts in a hands-on activity that prompts them to connect flash cards with affixes to their root and base words....
American Museum of Natural History
If Rocks Could Talk
Meet some interesting rocks. Learners discover information about the three types of rocks and different rocks that are within each group. They read imaginary interviews with six rocks as each rock tells the story of their formation and a...
CPO Science
The Periodic Table
Here is a six-page exploration that will spark interest in the periodic table of elements. After reading a diagram-supported explanation of the periodic table's organization, pupils answer questions to familiarize themselves with it. To...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: The Dinka and Nuer Tribes Until the Mid-1980s (“Sudanese Tribes Confront Modern War” Excerpt 1) (Version 1)
Readers consider comparisons between the Dinka and Nuer tribes in South Sudan, making connections between an informational article about Sudanese tribes and the novel A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They annotate the text to help...
Gourmet Curriculum Press
James and the Giant Peach
Here is a 19-page sample lesson that uses an interesting format. It starts with an appetizer or activity to make reading the book James and the Giant Peach fun. Then it dives into the main course or core content instruction which...
Beth Kupper-Herr
Taking Notes
When you ask your students to take notes during class, do they really know what you mean? Are they taking the right kind of notes and using their time effectively? Make sure they are by offering this handout, a comprehensive guide...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness - Phoneme Segmenting and Blending, Treasure Chest
Working in pairs, scholars use picture cards to practice segmenting words into phonemes and blending phonemes into words. When a peer answers correctly they place a penny in a treasure chest. Incorrect responses make the card go back in...
Savvas Learning
"The Digestive Process Begins" and "Final Digestion and Absorption"
Want your class to digest text more thoroughly? Middle schoolers learn about the digestive system in the lesson and reinforce informational text reading skills through a variety of strategies. They engage in a close reading...
Curated OER
Identifying Personification in Poetry
Improve your young poets' descriptive writing with this lesson on personification. A SMART board and PowerPoint presentation guide your class through the process of identifying human qualities attributed to various non-human objects. A...
Scholastic
What Happened Next? (Grades K-4)
Explore the structure of narrative writing with this fun, collaborative instructional activity. Start by reading aloud a short story, asking small groups of learners to fill in key events on a large story board prepared on the class...
Weebly
Holocaust Diary Project
Here is a good interdisciplinary project that combines creative and narrative writing with studies of the Holocaust. Your young historians will compose a diary of experiences from the perspective of an individual living during the time...
Novelinks
The Giver: Biopoem
The characters in Lois Lowry's The Giver are rich and complex as they weave their way through the plot. Examine the character traits of one chosen person with a biopoem, which enables learners to follow a poetic format in writing a...
LearnEnglishFeelGood.com
Adjectives: Comparative or Superlative?
When do you use a comparative adjective instead of a superlative adjective? Review grammar usage with a worksheet about comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, in which readers use context clues to select the correct...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Comparing and Contrasting Two Texts: Simulated Research
Shoo fly. Scholars read DDT Spray Scares Mosquitoes Away, Study Finds and You Think You Have It Tough? to complete a mid-unit assessment. The learners compare and contrast author presentation and conduct a credibility check on each...
Curated OER
Mississippi Trial, 1955: Vocabulary Strategy (Acquisition)
Readers of Mississippi Trial, 1955 engage in a desktop teaching activity and teach other class members the meaning of a word from Christopher Crowe's novel using an embellished illustration of their word.
Pearson
Articles: Indefinite
When do you use a or an before a noun? What about the? Learn about indefinite and definite articles with a brief grammar presentation, which focuses on using context clues to determine proper article usage.
Mr. Mansour
Mouse and the Motorcycle: Vocabulary 1
Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle is full of adventure, friendship—and vocabulary! Review the meanings of words in context with a straightforward fill-in-the-blank worksheet.
K12 Reader
Working with Adverbs
Encourage critical thinking with a grammar exercise that focuses on adverbs and adverbial phrases. Kids read the first parts of 16 sentences, then decide which question to answer (how, how much, where, or when) based on the context, and...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, Defining Depictions
A picture is worth a thousand words! Young learners use the included templates to demonstrate their understanding of target vocabulary by creating pictures that depict their meaning.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
DNA Is Only the Beginning for Understanding the Human Genome
Mario Capecchi requested funding for a new procedure targeting genes and was rejected. Four years later, after he proved it worked, the NIH apologized and funded his research. Use an online interactive to learn about his research and the...
Prestwick House
The Great Gatsby
Here's a fresh twist on a comprehension quiz. Readers of The Great Gatsby use their answers to questions about the story to complete a crossword puzzle.
K12 Reader
Appositive Hunt
How do you find appositives? Why you look for clues, those words or phrases, set off by commas, that tell readers more about nouns. Young grammarians can practice finding them with this worksheet.
PHET
Planet Designer: Kelvin Climb
It's time to get those creative juices flowing! This second instructional activity in a series of five continues allowing pupils to design their own planets. It the same format as the first, but, this time, allows students to alter...