Fourth graders explore language arts by reciting a famous nursery rhyme to their classroom. In this oral storytelling lesson, 4th graders read the story "The Three Little Pigs" and identify the characters, setting and story. Students...

Fourth graders examine the new vocabulary associated with the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly before listening to a teacher read aloud of the book. They complete a choral reading of the story, sequence it, and write...

Students read African folk tales to learn about story elements and writing techniques. In this writing and reading skills lesson, students listen and retell African folk tales about Anansi the spider. Students complete four lessons to...

Second graders will create their own story and read it aloud. In this literacy/technology lesson, 2nd graders use computer software to create their own story, which is read back to them while they write it. Afterward, the student should...

While this resource is actually attempting to sell a product, the foundational ideas may be worth looking into. Using Braidy the StoryBraid doll, learners will gain a better understanding of beginning, middle, and end, as well as story...

Learn how to summarize by identifying main ideas and supporting details. Readers cross out unimportant information as they read through a text. Is it a random detail? Cross it out! They then draw a concept map, placing the main idea in...

Who is Emmet Till? An important historical figure, your kids will be shocked by his story! Discover the details of his life and collaborate to write a crown of sonnets in the style of Marilyn Nelson.

Young scholars identify a veteran to interview. This could be a family member of one of students or someone contacted through an organization in the community. They use a storyboard to plan their movie about their subject.

Incorporate technology into a literature lesson with an innovative language arts lesson. Middle schoolers read an electronic version of original stories or fairy tales, and after determining the point of view, rewrite the tale from...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

If friendship were a soup, what ingredients would be in it? As part of a study of Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale, kids engage in a series of friendship-themed activities using materials contained in this richly...

An activity work alongside a narrative text of your choice. With reading comprehension at its focus, readers complete worksheets covering character descriptions.

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

Challenge young scholars with a counting-themed series of activities. Your counters will write invitations to a feast, create books about dinner parties and animals, design posters, draw pictures of their favorite peaceful places,...

Learners explore language arts by completing a graphic organizer in class. In this story structure instructional activity, students read the poem "Sick" by Shel Silverstein and discuss the different elements in the piece which make...

Students explore the concept of retelling a story.  In this retelling lesson plan, students use Play-Doh to create models of the objects in Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Students use these models to to retell the...

Young scholars understand the meaning of alliteration. In this alliteration lesson, students write sentences using alliteration and recognize how it changes the writing in a story.

Learners use writing processes effectively to adapt and retell stories. They reread a favorite fairy tale, then adapt and retell in a PowerPoint or other multimedia presentation. They present their rewritten and edited presentations to...

After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...

Learners read a story and retell it through role playing. They will read Big Pumpkin, identify the main ideas and important characters, retell the story through dramatic play, and identify their favorite character.

Ask your class to puzzle out the meaning of various affixes. Learners read sentences and develop a new word with an affix to replace the underlined words. They write down the words and help to categorize them by affix.

Students explore the story of the Gingerbread Man, and compare the story's neighbors and neighborhoods with those of their school. They bake Gingerbread Friends cookies, retell the story, take a neighborhood walk, and create a class book.

Natasha Wing's story The Night Before Thanksgiving is a great way to incorporate rhyme and literature into the Thanksgiving season. Learners make text-to-self connections, recall main events, and choose post-reading activities...

This nine-page packet, the first in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on journeys, contains enrichment activities for learners who have mastered the basic concepts of the lessons....