Check out the following ESL lesson plans and lesson plan templates to get your teaching on in style! It's English teaching made easy!

Begin each of your classes with bell ringers or warm up activities that your middle or high school English students will love!

Check out the best ESL kindergarten games, activities, lesson plans, worksheets and more. Have better kindy English classes today!

ESL instruction is often vague because, in most cases, there's no curriculum to follow or even to guide. We are left to our own devices to plan and provide

Full year lesson plans provide huge time savings to busy teachers. It is important to have lesson structures and assignments in your classroom that can be used all year.

This blog post explores innovative and engaging lesson plans for any novel unit... ranging from task cards to book instagram pages to a novel podcast project. Student choice is key here, and students can find something they would like to complete in order to convey their reading, comprehension, and

Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

Check out our best ESL activities for kindergarten kids to try out in your classes today. Have some fun with English and kindy kids.

If your non-English speaking students aren't ready to do the regular class work, what should you have them do instead? This handy tool can help.

The Fall Preschool Unit is packed full of hands on math & literacy activities as well as no prep worksheets for easy lesson planning.

Looking for fun Weather Activities for Preschool? This set is packed with weather charts, activities, and weather worksheets you'll love.

All English as a Second or Foreign Language classes need a good warm-up activity to gets brains working and bodies active. Here are my top choices for ESL and EFL Warm-up games for kids to adults.

Starting a new semester— whether at the beginning of the school year or calendar year— is a time of tough transition as we begin to restart our minds and work habits. Here are SEVEN engaging activities for the first week back to school in middle school and high school English Language Arts.

Looking for fun Preschool Zoo Theme Activities for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On Preschool Zoo inspired Learning Activities and Crafts for Preschool or Kindergarten.

Grab FREE back to school printables like lesson plans, activity sheets, bulletin board posters and more to start the new school year off right.

There are three kinds of teacher-decorators: those who were born for Pinterest, those who can’t, and all the ones in between (such as the broke, the tired, and the I-have-no-time-to-decorate). However, making a classroom appeal to middle and high school students doesn’t HAVE to involve serious crafting or expensive, time-intensive projects. Check out these tips from me and Bonnie from Presto Plans as you prepare your classroom for the fall (or at any time of year that you want to give it a boost!) You might also like Sara's more recent blog post, Inside My Farmhouse Classroom Makeover. 1. Have a color scheme (if you can) Sara: My principal gave each teacher the paint for one accent wall, so that shade of turquoise inspired the rest of my blue decor: milk crates, bulletin board borders, etc. It helped unify the room to make it look pulled-together instead of random. I've also learned about the importance of contrast. Even a full-blown rainbow color palette can look clean and cohesive (instead of cluttered) if you pair it with black or white to balance it out. Bonnie: If you are looking for inspiration for colors that look great together, check out this Pinterest board. There are lots of combinations that will help you choose colors when you are shopping for classroom materials. 2. Stick to a few favorite fonts Sara: Just like businesses create a brand, you are creating a classroom “look” or persona that you will be known for... or, at least a mood you will create. (Friendly? Professional? Fun? Minimalist?) Try to pick a few fonts that most of your labels, signs, and other wall-hangings will consistently use. For example, I used the Google font Crushed to make and laminate labels for my whiteboard (see below), along with mint-colored painter's tape. 3. Make your classroom library a focal point Bonnie: Your class library should draw students in and works well as the focal point for any English classroom. Here are a few things you can do to make your library stand out: Give bookshelves a makeover by rolling them a new coat of paint and/or taking the shelves out and attaching wallpaper or scrapbook paper to the back. Put a few floating shelves on the walls near your library area where you can feature particular novels recommended by students. Add comfortable, flexible seating near a library to make it more welcoming. These items can be more expensive, so shop around online or scour garage sales until you find seating that may work. Use old books as decorations! When a book is unusable, find a way to repurpose it. One easy way to do this is to cut out the pages and write a reading-inspired quote in black permanent marker on top of the page. Frame the page and put it on your bookshelf! Sara: If your classroom library is small, nonexistent, or needs some attention, check out this blog post for more ideas about how to strengthen it. 4. Display student work Bonnie: Use student work as decor by making a framed gallery wall. All you have to do is pick up some inexpensive 8x10 frames (check your dollar store) and arrange them on your wall. When you get a piece of exceptional student work, add it into the frame! If you don’t want the hassle of buying and hanging frames, order a pack of mixed color picture mats and use them to frame student work on a bulletin board. Sara: Another way to get student work on display (while also practicing literary analysis!) is to have them complete this Quote Illustration and Analysis assignment; students use Canva (or any tool you wish) to make an inspirational or literary quote come to life. The results are stunning! 5. Use author-inspired decor Bonnie: Find ways to incorporate the authors you will be studying into your classroom decor. You can do this by featuring fun facts or by sharing quotes by the author. For example, I use an interactive Shakespeare Hashtag of the Week bulletin display that exposes students to one quote from a Shakespeare play each week. If you don’t want to make your own, you might even consider assigning an author to each student and having them develop a bulletin display with a biography, fun facts, and quotes that you can swap out weekly. Sara: Don't forget to interject moments of literary ALLUSION or author-inspired inside jokes as well, like my favorite light switch art... 6. Make your posters work together Sara: On at least one bulletin board or section of wall space, add some symmetry or consistency by hanging posters in a similar style (color, font, or other), or by displaying images that have a common theme. For example, check out these posters of stylized quotes to get some English class wisdom on your walls. Bonnie: If you are looking for some ideas of common themes you could use for posters, try some of these ideas that could work in any English classroom: funny grammar quotes or fails, literary terms or genres, author quotes, famous lines from literature, idiomatic expressions, or jokes using puns! To read more about my favorite bulletin board ideas for middle and high ELA, check out this blog post. "English is Weird" poster set 7. Make displays that are EASY to update Sara: Two of my favorite bulletin board spaces were ones that took VERY little effort in updating, so I didn't have the self-imposed pressure to redo the whole thing multiple times per year. For example, my Word Nerd Challenge is quick to update on a Monday morning because all I have to do is add this week's word to the list. (I made each word tile a magnet that can go on my whiteboard!) I also made low-prep Quote of the Week flipbooks of reading and writing quotes, which students often asked to flip FOR me. I used Command hooks and spiral binding to hang it on a cabinet. Do you have additional ideas? Tell us in the comments!

Hey there, fellow English teacher! I want to share what my secondary English curriculum for the first six weeks of school looks like.

Teaching theme is not an easy task! Not only do students need to have a strong comprehension of the story's elements (like plot, setting, and characters), but they also have to be able to make inferences to find the author's message, since most themes are not overtly stated by the author. So, what are some of my favorite activities for helping kids understand theme? I'll list a number of them here. 1. Make an Anchor Chart Anchor charts are a great way to make learning visual and to have a record that kids can refer to when they need a bit of extra support. Theme may be defined in a number of ways. To me, the theme is the author's message or what he/she wants the reader to take away/learn from the story. It is a BIG idea, with a real-world or universal concern and can be applied to anyone. Besides talking about what a theme is, you'll also want to go over what it isn't. For example, some kids confuse the main idea of the story with its theme. To help students understand the difference, it's helpful to use stories that everyone in the class knows, like previous read alouds or classic stories like The Three Little Pigs. You can take each story and discuss the main idea (what the story was mostly about - specific to the story) vs. the theme (the lesson the author wants the reader to know - not specific to the story), to contrast the two ideas. The second area of confusion for some kids is that the theme is not specific to the characters in the story. In the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for example. The theme would not be that...A little mouse named Chrysanthemum learned to accept the uniqueness of her name. The theme would be larger than the book and would be something like...It's important to accept oneself. Also, you'll want to explain to your students that often times, a book has multiple themes and there are several answers which work equally well to describe a book's theme. Since theme is very subjective, I tell students that I will accept any answer, as long as they have the text evidence to prove it. For example, in the book, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, one might argue that the theme is about friendship, another might say family, or even courage, or kindness. Any one of these themes would be right, and counted as such, since they each fit the story and could be supported by text evidence. 2. Use Pixar Shorts to Practice Theme Besides the sheer enjoyment which comes from watching these mini-films, your students can learn a lot about reading concepts from these. They're great for ELL students or for struggling readers, and for all readers really since the text complexity piece is removed. You can find these clips on YouTube, but you'll want to make sure to preview them first, so you're more familiar with the plot and are able to focus on theme questions. Here are some of my favorite Pixar Shorts for teaching theme: Piper Partly Cloudy Lava Boundin' 3. Use Mentor Texts Mentor texts are one of my go-to teaching tools as picture books are able to portray examples of just about any reading concept you need to teach. One thing I like to do when using mentor texts for theme, is to vary the types of questions I ask. Rather than always saying What is the theme?, I might ask... What is the deeper meaning of this story? After reading this book, what do you think matters to this author? Which idea from the story do you think might stay with you? What did the author want people to learn from this story?... Once kids answer, you might say, Ah...so that's the theme! Some of my current mentor text favorites for theme include the following: Ish by Peter H. Reynolds I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe Journey by Aaron Becker (a wordless book) Beautiful Oops by Barry Saltzberg The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed If you're looking for more titles, I have a FREE Mentor Text List for Literature which includes a page on theme which you can download from my TpT store. 4. Use Posters with Themes to Chart Book Themes I like to choose 8 - 10 common themes and place posters of them in the classroom. These are included in my Theme unit but you could easily make them yourself if you'd like. After we finish a class novel, a read aloud, or a mentor text as part of a mini-lesson, I like to have the kids discuss the theme of the book. Once we decide on the theme, I place a miniaturized copy of the book's cover (about 3 x 3 inches or so) under the correct theme poster. You can also make the posters more interactive by allowing kids to write titles of books they have recently read on sticky notes, under the posters as well. 5. Use Songs to Practice Finding the Theme I love to add music to the classroom whenever possible. Not only does it add instant motivation for some kids, but it is also just good for them in so many ways. There are lots of songs you can use to teach theme, from current pop songs to oldies, rap songs, and country songs. While all of these work well, I especially enjoy using Disney songs. Disney songs are easily recognized for some kids, have catchy, fun tunes, and have lyrics that need no censoring (yay!). You can easily find the lyrics online to project on a smartboard or document projector, and the song clips may be found on YouTube, Here are some of my favorite Disney songs which work well for theme: Hakuna Matata from Lion King Just Keep Swimming from Finding Dory Reflection from Mulan Let it Go from Frozen Something There from Beauty and the Beast A Whole New World from Aladdin 6. Introduce Short Texts Using Task Cards Using task cards for theme gives your students a great deal of practice in a short period of time, which makes them a perfect way to begin to practice finding the theme using text. I love the fact that students can read multiple task card stories and practice finding the theme 20 - 30 times, in the time it might take to read a story and find the theme once. You can do task cards as a center activity, to play Scoot, or as a whole class scavenger hunt. One thing I like to do for the scavenger hunt is to make sure everyone has a partner and to pair stronger readers with struggling readers. 7. Add Some Writing After students have worked on theme for a week or two, I like to have students create their own short stories which show a strong theme, without directly stating it. This changes each student's role from a theme finder, to a theme creator and gives students insight into how authors create a situation that allows a theme to unfold. When I introduce this project, we refer back to the task cards we just completed, as an example of story length and rich content. In a matter of 2 - 3 paragraphs, students learn that they can include enough information to let our readers know our message. After students are finished creating these short stories, it's fun to share them in some way, to give more theme practice. Sometimes I have students meet in small groups to share out, with group members guessing the theme. Other years, I leave a stack on my desk and grab several if we have a few minutes. Either the students or I read the short story out loud, and the class discusses the theme. 8. Move to Passages, Short Stories, and Novels. Once we have scaffolded a great foundation for the understanding of theme, there comes a point where kids have to move on to text which is more challenging. I like to use page-long passages which I have created, before using short stories, and ultimately novels. If you're looking for some ready made materials to help you teach theme, here's a packet I love to use which works well for 4th and 5th Graders. Click here to read more about the Theme unit. Want some more teaching ideas and activities to teach theme? Click here to read Teaching Themes in Literature. If you like this post, make sure to share it with a teacher friend! Thanks so much for stopping by! For more ideas and strategies focused on upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter! Bonus, you'll also gain access to my FREE Resource Library which contains exclusive upper elementary freebies that you won't find anywhere else! I'd love to connect with you! The Teacher Next Door's Website Pinterest Facebook Instagram TpT Store

It seems like most kids go through a phase when they are interested in maps and globes and where things are in the world (though my daughter hilariously protests every time I pull out an atlas; no …

Enon United Methodist Preschool recently held a fun and educational activity that combined math and creativity. The children built a math city out of Legos, using a city plan drawn on a mat that in

Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

Check out the top ESL conversation activities for adults—make your English speaking classes fun, engaging and filled with happy students.

100+ Printable board games and templates for kids and beginner ESL students. Download and use in class today!

Whether you’re a brand new teacher or you’ve been at this for a while, the first week of school is a crazy, roller-coaster ride of a week. Students' emotions are intense this week, and so are yours as their teacher. Plus, a lot more administrative stuff is asked of you. It can be a tough week, to put it mildly. What you need to make that first week run smoothly is a strong plan that allows everyone to feel safe. So, I went ahead and planned that week for you. I’ve laid it all out here. It includes ways to connect with your students (on their terms); it also allows for you to begin equipping them with what they need to be successful in your class. Over the last two decades, here are a few things I've found to be the most important things to focus on that first week: That students get a sense of who you are--that you are knowledgeable and caring That you start building relationships and rapport with your students, but on their terms That you start establishing class norms, routines, and expectations That you start getting into the material of the course in a way that sets them up to do well in your class Everything you do that first week should have one or more of those elements in mind. I've got a lot of FREE LESSONS in this post. If you want to jump straight to those, click here. Without further ado, here's your first week of school, planned. Monday: Welcome and Writing When I was a brand-new teacher I did icebreakers that first day and then I would talk for a solid 30 minutes about my syllabus. Whatever you do, don’t do that. That was not a great plan because it threatened some students (icebreakers are hard), and then it bored all of them (syllabi are boring). Here’s a much better plan that I discovered over the years with help from colleagues: Save your syllabus for the second day of school. The first day of school is filled with so much listening for your students, and it’s exhausting for them. But when I say “listening,” I don’t really mean that they hear and register what the teacher is saying. It’s more like the listening that appears to be happening when a group of students is sitting at desks silently. They aren’t talking, but they aren’t listening. Because who could actually take all that information in when they’ve heard 5 other syllabi presentations that day? What’s more, why even bother listening if all that information is printed on the syllabus? They can just read it when they have questions. If you do your syllabus the first day of school, that's fine, but only spend 10-15 minutes on it. Instead of talking at length through your syllabus, have them do this first-day-of-school activity. This activity allows you to give your students either a set of questions geared toward their history as a reader and a writer or a creative writing opportunity to see what their writing style is like (which can work great for more advanced classes or creative writing classes). You can grab this lesson and over 100 more resources when you become a member of the English Teacher Vault! My History as a Reader and Writer Assignment One of the options in this activity asks students a set of questions about their history as a reader and as a writer. These questions are broad as well as specific and work great with 9th-11th graders. Have them write for a pretty big chunk of the class period. Then, over the next several days you can read through these and get a sense of who your students are in a way that did not require them to embarrass themselves or think of something clever that rhymes with their names. Having students create name plates on that first day of school that they then bring back all week is also incredibly helpful as you start learning names. I go into a lot more details about this lesson in this blog post “Want An Outstanding Activity For The First Day of School?” One added benefit of this activity for the first day of school is that it immediately gets students writing in your classroom, and they will start to relate your class with a place where meaningful writing is going to happen. It sets the tone. I like to start with a narrative writing unit early in the school year, and this first-day activity is narrative writing. Some students could later draw from what they’ve started here and develop it into a longer narrative writing piece. Tuesday: Syllabus, Accounts, and Norms Briefly, cover your syllabus. For Tuesday, hit the high points of your syllabus if you didn't go over it Monday, but do not read the syllabus to your students. I find it best to explain the late work policy, when you are available to respond to emails, and what your “office hours” are. Besides these things, students can read what’s on your syllabus. It’s also helpful to have your syllabus designed as an infographic that draws students’ attention to key places and lets them take the information in quickly and easily. We have an editable syllabus template in the English Teacher Vault that you can make your own when you become a member! Set up accounts. If students need to set up any type of account for your classroom, this is the day to do it. Set aside 10 minutes for students to do this and then move on. Establish classroom norms. The most important thing you will do on day two is to establish your classroom norms for the year. If you are not familiar with the concept of classroom norms, this will revolutionize how you handle classroom management, especially with secondary students. High school students are transitioning between childhood and adulthood, so it’s important they have some voice in what the expectations are for them at school. They have more ownership this way and more buy-in. If this is all totally new to you, please jump over to this blog post and take 5 minutes to read all about what classroom norms are and the benefits of using them in your secondary classroom. In this blog post, my former colleague, Sam Bradford breaks down what norms are and how you can set them up early in the school year. Essentially, norms are principles decided upon by all your students--they are not rules that the teacher created and imposes on students. They are short and easy to remember, and they should also be revisited frequently. You can have your students brainstorm individually, and then work in small groups to start developing the classroom norms. As a class, you will ultimately decide on a handful of norms that will be your guiding principles every day. These norms might change later in the school year, and that is totally fine. They are dynamic! Here is a great free resource that walks you through how to set up norms in your high school ELA classroom: Norms Construction – A Process of Negotiation – School Reform Initiative Wednesday: Get Into Grammar Now that you’ve set up your classroom norms, you can jump into the content of your class. It’s important to get to meaningful learning in that first week to set the tone that this is a place where purposeful learning will happen. A focus on grammar is a way that students can be successful that first week, get needed review, and have the essentials that they will need to do well in your class going forward. By teaching a few highly-engaging grammar lessons this first week of school, you will set your students up for a clear path toward powerful writing for the rest of the school year. Teach vivid verbs on third day of school. Verbs are familiar to your students, but most students don’t realize the power of using action verbs instead of linking verbs. This lesson gets them there. I’ve put together a free parts of speech unit that I’d love to give to you, so you have nothing to prep on this day at all (and for several other days those first few weeks). Each lesson includes: Direct instruction on the concepts of action and liking verbs, strong nouns, adjectives, and adverbs Amazing mentor sentences that showcase the power of each part of speech Sentence frames for students to start practicing using parts of speech well A video writing prompt that will further instruct students in using the concepts in their own writing Quick writes to follow up the lesson and to allow students to work with each part of speech The free lessons will give students a sense that they have a path to becoming better writers, and your classroom is the place where that will happen. Thursday: Build On Grammar For Writing Success For the fourth day of school, continue teaching grammar in a way that is engaging, purposeful, and with a clear purpose: for students to become better writers. From time to time, it’s good to start class with a very short hands-on game to review grammar concepts. These games should be low-stakes, and early in the school year they should not be competitive. Remember, you’re working hard to create a safe place that first week. This hands-on grammar game allows students to look at mentor sentences and then determine if each sentence has a linking verb or an action verb. Students can do this activity in pairs, or you can do it as a full class. There are several variations of how you could use this game depending on the size of your class. This activity comes with the free parts of speech unit! After this game, jump into a lesson on using strong nouns. I know what you are probably thinking, “My high school students know all about nouns.” And I hear you, and I get that. They do know a thing or two about nouns, but let me tell you what this lesson does and does not do: It does not: Require students write down the definition of nouns Require students do tedious worksheets finding nouns It does: Challenge students to think about how to use nouns intentionally Remind students of the difference between concrete and abstract nouns Immediately give students a chance to write meaningful prose using nouns intentionally Let students have a little fun thinking about and playing around with nouns If you’re worried that around this time (two grammar lessons in two days) your students will start to moan, whine, and complain that “grammar is boring,” or that they “know all this already,” or that “there’s no point in knowing grammar,” let me say this can be your response: Grammar is a tool for better writing. It is my strong belief that knowing grammar is indeed useless if you are only memorizing a bunch of terms (i.e. an adjective modifies a noun or pronoun). It's also useless if students are only working with grammar in isolation on worksheets or drills that don't affect their writing. The purpose of grammar is for students to understand how language works, so they can apply those concepts to their own writing, creating powerful pieces of writing that let their voices be heard and even effect change. That’s it in a nutshell, but if you want to read more so that you are ready for your students (totally valid) questions regarding the point of grammar, check out this blog post,

Fables are an important part of English Language Arts instruction. The genre, which often includes animals that act like humans and moral lessons, is perfect for targeted lessons in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and analyzing. Classic and modern fables are both entertaining and approachable. Fables also shed light on other cultures, characterization, and moral lessons. Most importantly, they're just plain fun to teach! Here are 6 easy ways to teach fables in your classroom... I LOVE giving students a chance to write their very own fable. I recommend starting with mentor texts so that students can become experts on the genre. Then, through targeted writing instruction, students can write their own story that includes a moral, animal characters, story elements, and illustrations. As students develop their stories, you can even have them "pitch" their stories to their peers acting as storybook editors. Once students have written a strong fable, take these lessons to the next level and let students create a children's book filled with illustrations. You could even have them share their fables with younger students. Check out this ready-to-teach Fable Writing Unit! Don't you just love lessons that meet a ton of instructional standards at once? Well, this fable unit does just that! It’s a 7-day unit designed around Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” and in it students read three different versions of the fable. After building background on each form, they have the opportunity to critically read and respond to the fable in prose, verse, and drama form. Through small group work, independent studies, and class discussions students will not only understand and appreciate the elements of a fable and each form of literature, but they’ll also develop a deep understanding of each text. Learn more about this unit here. Of course, fables are wonderful to read in the classroom. But, why just read a fable when you can also connect, investigate, write, and draw? I created this Foldable Fables resource with Art with Jenny K. to combine reading, writing, and illustrating. This resource is super engaging because students create an accordion-style booklet filled with their learning and creativity. It's fun and educational! The seven learning activities help students connect deeply to their reading. Check out the super engaging Foldable Fable here! I've found that fables are wonderful to add to learning stations focused on reading comprehension skills. For instance, in this sequencing centers resource, students investigate "Fox and the Goat" at one of the learning stations. At the station, they're tasked to read the fable and then put the fable in the correct sequence with an interactive shape. Since fables are often short and focused they're the perfect addition to reading comprehension learning stations! Fables lend themselves perfectly to plays. I've found that students respond really well to opportunities to perform short skits and plays in the classroom. In this theme mini-unit, students get to act out "The Four Oxen and a Lion." As a small group, they practice reading out loud, acting, and investigating theme. It's fun for students to get into different characters as they act out a fable! I'm a big fan of reading out loud to students. Often, I would read stories to students as they completed their daily warm-ups. My read alouds included novels, poems, short stories, and of course, fables. You might mix-up your own read alouds with fables from around the world or modern fables. Here are a few collections of fables that you might want to add to your classroom library... --- Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition --- Buddhist Stories for Kids --- Filipino Children's Favorite Stories ------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found some simple ways to teach fables in your classroom! Fables really are wonderful literature treasures for teaching reading, writing, investigating, performing, and more! Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. My friend, Art with Jenny K., has another idea for adding fables to the classroom. Check out her post here. *This post contains affiliate links.

Need Wonder activities for your classroom or home school Wonder teaching resources? We have Wonder lesson plans, Wonder worksheets, and more ideas for book projects, kindness activities for middle school, and diversity lessons to make a great study unit for students using both the novel by RJ Palacio and teaching with movies (including the popular precepts project!).

Plan the new school year with these goal setting worksheets for kids. Use this goal planning printable to help kids plan and take action on their goals.

Helpful collection of Alexander Calder teaching resources and complete Calder Famous Artist Unit lesson plans to teach elementary art class.

As students head back to school, ELA teachers everywhere are considering how they are going to begin the school year, so I wanted to walk you through one of my favorite lesson plans entitled, “Why do we read?” As an educator, there are few things as exciting and rewarding as introducing a young person to […]

Using sentence frames to get ell students writing. Click here for more: