Middle schoolers are likely very familiar with the concept of bullying and cliques. Discuss their experiences and brainstorm ways to handle peer conflict and feelings of exclusion with a poem that focuses on bullying, and a second lesson...

Expand addition concepts by challenging your pupils with these multi-digit addends. They add up numbers with up to seven digits, regrouping where needed. The first six are written vertically and the next two are horizontal. Make...

As teachers, it is our job to encourage learners to stand up for what they believe in and help them learn lessons from life's events. A set of practice questions designed for the ELA MCAS assessment features passages that teach positive...

Prepositions are an important part of descriptive writing. Fourth graders fill in the blanks with prepositions from a word bank, then write ten sentences with the remaining words. 

Through grand conversation, help scholars identify issues that harm the Earth and find solutions on how to solve them. After voting—on what your class deems the most important problem—stretch writing muscles with a problem-solution...

Begin your persuasive writing with a helpful exercise on making points. With a list of ten points on transportation in a city, third graders map a logical order to their argument. They then write one or two paragraphs about the points...

Why don't dinosaurs wander the earth any longer? Answer this fascinating question with young readers as they examine a brief informational text. There are bolded words to separate text sections which are an excellent example of...

Need some punctuation practice? Challenge your third or fourth graders' editing skills with a helpful instructional activity on punctuation. After naming different types of punctuation marks, they rewrite a paragraph that has multiple...

Do your fourth graders need a little help with punctuation? Use this run-on paragraph to demonstrate proofreading for capitalization, punctuation, and separating ideas into separate paragraphs. At the end of the activity, learners...

Get scholars thinking about the scientific process with this fun experiment they can do at home. Learners practice reading directions as they underline each instruction in a procedural paragraph. They create a flow chart and record...

Have fun with shape poems! First and second graders write calligrams that add to the meaning of their poems. Great for your poetry unit or if you want to combine poetry and art lessons. 

A current and engaging informational text with some superb scaffolding activities, this six paragraph article discusses the release of the iPad from Apple, eBooks, and the history of reading and writing materials. After reading the...

Pass the time...creating rhymes! Writers connect rhyming words  with -ough in them, writing them as rhyming pairs. Next, they put their poetic skills to the test by applying the words in rhyming couplets. There is an example...

Riddles can be a fun way to practice word decoding. Scholars read two riddles to determine the word each is referencing. These riddles are based on word analysis to build letters one at a time rather than big-picture idea concepts....

Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the...

If the Lorax were to write a letter, what would he write? Introduce your class to systems and feedback loops through the whimsical stylings of Dr. Seuss. Learners take on the Lorax's point of view to write a letter, among other activities.

When it comes to teaching writing, it helps to start small. A supplementary guide to A Writer's Guide to Powerful Paragraphs provides suggested activities to help writers craft a variety of paragraphs. Each assignment covers a...

What a fantastic resource to guide youngsters in persuasive letter writing. They read a brief letter to the editor and answer question about the author's purpose, word choice, and structure. Next, scholars draft their own letter by...

Two narrative excerpts tell the same story from different points of view. In the first excerpt (first person), sequencing words and phrases are bolded and learners write down what the bold type does. The second excerpt is in third...

Young poets use word cards to prompt a metaphor poem comparing to very dissimilar items.

An exceptionally creative approach is taken to assessing your biologists' grasp of natural selection concepts. They are to imagine hosting Charles Darwin for dinner and having, to their surpise, a few other noted scientists crash the...

Here are three well-thought-out tasks intended to build good note taking and letter writing skills. The class reads three short letters, determines who wrote them (based on context) and takes notes as a pre-writing activity. They...

Have a go at this exercise in thinking by asking thinkers to think about thinking, of what they think of, and what they think about. The worksheets in the packet provide much food for thought.

Bananas are an important part of a healthy diet - but where do they come from? Third graders write an explanatory text about the origins of bananas. The bottom part of the paper includes necessary information about bananas, as well as a...