What a fun way to explore new vocabulary words! Marjorie Priceman's book Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride offers plenty of new words for scholars to learn in context: amateur, assembled,...

Dinosaurs don't go to school...but what if they did? Use Jane Yolen's book How Do Dinosaurs Go To School to explore vocabulary in context. Find this on YouTube if you don't have the text on hand. These in-text words give some...

Explore the world's beauty with Jean Marzollo's colorful book I Am Planet Earth, the context of a vocabulary study focused on the following in-text words: globe, jungle, paddy, planet, and valley. Discuss the...

Here is a fabulous, five-page lesson plan on how keywords can help a reader with his/her reading comprehension. After a teacher-led discussion, pupils pair off with each other and work together to identify the main idea in a passage of...

Students read a "letter" from Dr. Suess' Bartholomew Cubbins and note differences between their lives and Bartholomew's. They utilize prewriting strategies to draft a letter of response to Bartholomew.

In this emotional health learning exercise, students explore the feelings of sadness, grief and loss by first reading and decorating a poem which states that it is all right to feel sad. Students color emotion pictures and discuss as a...

If you are just starting out with Animal Farm by George Orwell, consider this resource. Titled as discussion notes, you might use these questions in a variety of different ways. The questions and prompts start out simple and gradually...

A lesson shines a spotlight on what makes Kwanzaa special by taking a close look at its seven principles. Gift ideas encourage scholars to make and give one to their family members. Class members celebrate heroes and role models of...

A lesson centers itself around the topic of family roles. A whole-class discussion uses puppets and posters to go in-depth into the following character traits; caring, responsibility, respect, and cooperation. The discussion closes with...

Second graders read a book as stated in the lesson and then reread the first two pages aloud modeling how not to read, without fluency and with no expression. Then they reread the same two pages again fluently and with expression and...

Second graders read a short story and discuss whether they would give it a thumbs up or down and why. students write a group review on that story supporting why they gave it the up or down thumb. They choose and read a short story and...

Students participate in a statewide Battle of the Books competition. They read books and answer questions about them to earn points for their school.

Students create a studenT book following an introduction to the publication process. Through exposure to several sources, students learn the steps involved in publishing a book.

Students practice reading with fluency and expression in this lesson. Students work with a partner with a set of sentence strips. They take turns pulling sentence strips out of the envelope and reading them aloud to each other using...

Students study the United States Constitution and create a year-long cumulative activity for social studies. In this social studies lesson, students complete activities throughout the year to learn the 5Ws for the United States...

Student increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing good reader strategies, students complete an initial read of a novel text. Working with a partner, they read complete a timed assessment of...

Students practice rereading selected passages to improve their reading fluency. Working in pairs, students read and reread decodable, leveled passages fluently and with expression. They are assessed by their partner, using a fluency...

Students read and explore the themes of the book The Eighty Yard Run. In this literature lesson plan, students discuss their observations and predictions. Students develop their own story which is similar to that of The Eighty Yard Run.

Young scholars engage in reading comprehension activities for the story "Pinky and Rex and the Just Right Pet". In this reading comprehension lesson, students make prediction drawings before reading the story, create new illustrations...

Fourth graders make predictions and go over vocabulary for the story The Secret School. In this reading lesson plan, 4th graders use comprehension skills as they read the story and have to read to them.

Second graders read the book Hole Mole and complete activities that teach them about Mexican culture. In this Holy Mole lesson plan, 2nd graders complete cooking, drawing, writing, and other activities.

Third graders examine how to summarize the most important details in a reading passage in order to increase their comprehension. They design a story web using the summarization skills. Before class, they complete a reading assignment...

Students explore cryptids.  In this story writing and technology lesson, students define "cryptid," write a short script, and draw an illustration for an imaginary animal character. Students read their script aloud into a microphone...

Eighth graders choose topics of interest, and select books from the library about them. They utilize a worksheet embedded in the text which has the students rate the text they've read based on it's "believability factor." An interesting...