Students explore the history of the Caldecott Medal and create a classroom literary award modeled after the Caldecott.
Randolph Caldecott was born on March 22, 1846.
Celebrate Children's Authors and Illustrators Week
Students "step into the shoes" of their favorite author by reading several of their books, conducting research, and preparing displays and presentations for the class.
Get ready to go back to school!
Students share details about their lives with one another using the interactive Graphic Map and share their memories in small groups or with the whole class.
Caldecott-winning illustrator Lane Smith was born in 1959.
Students discuss some of the ways in which illustrations can enhance a story and then become illustrators, using a variety of media.
Walter Dean Myers, author of the Printz Award-winning novel Monster, was born in 1937.
Students discuss how the form of a film script affects the story, why the author may have selected this writing style, and write a story using a similar format.
Alex Haley, author of Roots, was born in 1921.
Students explore their own roots by interviewing family members and use their family history to write a fictional account of their roots.
Science writer Seymour Simon was born in 1931.
Students select and explore a scientific topic in detail using Simon's nonfiction science books and then use what they learn to write original poetry on the topic.
Paperback books were first introduced in 1935.
Independent reading is promoted among students by organizing a paperback book swap in the classroom or with other classes at the same grade level.
Children's author Patricia Polacco was born in 1944.
Students share family stories of their own by writing original poems and reviewing parts of speech using the Diamante Poems tool.
Celebrate the first day of summer with summer reading.
Families are invited to a June literacy fair to end the school year and get students on the right track for the summer.
Today is Chris Van Allsburg's birthday.
Students explore varying points of view, one of Van Allsburg's common themes, by rewriting a traditional story.
Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series, was born in 1939.
After students have read one of Brian Jacques' Redwall stories, a class newspaper is created based on the story.
Celebrate Cynthia Rylant's birthday!
Students work in small groups or as a class to map the plot of a selected Cynthia Rylant story and create original literary works using the plot diagrams.
CNN debuted as the first television news network in 1980.
Students brainstorm a list of modern news sources and from previous centuries. Groups then research one of these sources and create a timeline showing the evolution of news.
Newbery Medal winner Christopher Paul Curtis was born in 1953.
Students brainstorm a list of civil rights-related issues and use the Acrostic Poems interactive to create poems.
May is Get Caught Reading Month!
Students celebrate Get Caught Reading Month by doing a reading-related service project such as planning an intergenerational reading day or organizing a book drive.
Write letters that make things happen!
In a small group or as individuals, students write letters related to a unit of study or particular topic they have studied.
Children's publisher John Newbery was born in 1713.
Each student chooses a book that is special and writes a short story about why it deserves special mention. Students can plan the pages of their own stories and then make a Stapleless Book or use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press.
Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817.
Students make mental "snapshots" of a natural setting, then capture the details of their setting by writing and then creating a class booklet of the nature walk.
The Scopes Trial began today in 1925.
Students brainstorm a list of objects and processes that have changed over time and use the Timeline tool to sketch out the evolution of the item they have chosen. A giant class timeline can be created to show the evolution of the items students have investigated.