Curated OER
Garden Grid
Basically, your class reads about different garden plants from an included handout and seed packets that you provide, and then uses a grid to plan out where to place the plants. They can practice counting with the seeds, grouping,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Investigating the Weather
Learners study, record, and predict weather. They work in groups to create a weather word wall, research and make a barometer, and create a video about weather. They use the Internet to research weather.
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Identifying an Author's Purpose
Different types of text are written for very different reasons. Learners discuss the differences in writing to entertain, to inform, and to persuade their audiences. They work on identifying the author's purpose by reading and charting...
Curated OER
Facts and Opinions in a Variety of Genres
Here is a lesson dedicated to helping learners understand the differences between facts and opinions. They examine the first page of several books from the class library to determine if the book is fact or opinion based. A Venn diagram...
Curated OER
Lesson 2: Identifying an Author's Purpose (part 2)
Keep reinforcing the concept of author's purpose with a practice activity. After discussing the three purposes of writing, third graders will complete a graphic organizer intended to help them pin point textual evidence that proves...
Curated OER
Baby Peanut Plants
Science is a subject ripe with opportunities to read informational text. Kids read to learn about peanuts! They read an informational passage, fill out two comprehension worksheets, and then conduct a lab experiment on a peanut. The...
Curated OER
The Peanut Wizard
Peanuts inspire this lesson about George Washington Carver, called The Peanut Wizard in the included informational text. Class members read about peanuts and George Washington Carver and create a timeline of his life. In addition, pupils...
Curated OER
Bread in a Bag
This lesson focuses on making bread, but also spends some time on the origins of wheat. In order to make the bread, each class member receives a kit full of the materials they will need. Included here is a detailed list of instructions...
Curated OER
Ag In The Outfield
Young scholars explore baseball. This is a cross-curricular plan that includes math, history, and agriculture. Pupils use their five senses to observe the materials a baseball is made from and identify the agricultural products used. In...
Curated OER
Wheat: From Field to Oven
How does wheat go from the seed to the table? While focusing on main ideas and supporting statements, class members read an excerpt about wheat production and complete a worksheet. The end goal is a display that shows the different...
Curated OER
Mighty Earth Movers
Note that although the publisher lists almost all of the Common Core standards for both math and language arts, you will most likely want to take the general topic and choose which area to focus on. Regarding math, pupils measure worms...
Curated OER
Just Lookin' For a Home
What is a boll weevil? Your class can find out that and more by following the activities included here. Pupils read an article, sing a boll weevil song, add to the song with their own original lyrics, illustrate the song, study the...
Curated OER
Back to the Farm
Read up on farming and ranching and connect this information to your learners' lives. After reading, send class members home to fill out a family tree and trace their family history, focusing on farming and ranching backgrounds. Once...
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Teaching Strategies (Reading) [Pdf]
Printable, fifty-five page PDF file of a staff development manual containing strategies for teaching reading. Includes chapters on vocabulary, main ideas and supporting details, author's purpose, chronological order, plot and conflict...
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Semantic Feature Analysis
Site provides extensive assistance in preparing 4th grade students for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This section on semantic features helps students recognize supporting details as they read.
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Selective Underlining
Site provides extensive assistance in preparing 4th grade students for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This section focuses on identifying main ideas and significant details by selectively underlining them in a text.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing With Scientists
After students investigate a topic through research, hypothesizing, observing, and experimentating, teachers can use this lesson to help their students prepare short science reports and publish them online. The Writing with Scientists...
University of Houston
University of Houston: Extra! Extra! What's the Big Idea?!
Get the feel of running a newspaper by selecting articles and pictures. If you are interested in checking out real newspapers, there is a clickable list of online newspapers for younger readers.
University of South Florida
Fcat Express: Main Idea With Supporting Details
Strategies to help students recognize main ideas and supporting details provided by a standardized test preparation site intended for fourth grade. Includes strategies such as Main Idea Pyramids, Number Notes, QAR (Question/Answer...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Pingus Penguins: Writing Good Instructions
Students use the free computer game Pingus to learn how engineers, specifically environmental engineers, use their technical writing skills to give instructions and follow the instructions of others. Students learn to write instructions...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Lessons From Fishing
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a fiction text about a boy named Morgan who loved to fish and answer questions about comprehension, comparing details, supporting details, main idea, vocabulary, and more. Links to a...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Determining Importance & Summarizing Informational Text
These teacher resources focuses on why it is important to teach elementary students to determine the importance and to summarize informational text. It leads an activity to help teachers experience when and how we use these strategies.
Read Works
Read Works: Lesson 2: First and Last Sentences (Passage)
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students comprehension will be reinforced as they reading first and last sentences of paragraphs. Direct teaching, guided practice, and independent worksheets are available for this third grade lesson.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Visual Representations in Informational Text
Students will look at examples of illustrations and diagrams in informational texts and discuss how each one helps enhance the text. Students gain the knowledge that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words because a complex idea...