The author, Helen Lester, traces her writing career from the age of three to adulthood. She shares her struggles with writing in elementary school and even later as a successful writer. Helens story demonstrates that even the most challenging struggles can be overcome with persistence and a good sense of humor.

This site offers 5,390+ robust, original stories based on primary sources and presented in various media formats: written, dramatized narrations, videos, images, maps, and more!
Free stories each day are available for access - see the home page and the What Matters Now tabs

This historical fiction story takes place in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression in New York City. Baseball was king and Babe Ruth was at the top of his game. In this story, a young boy and his father become a team as they both work to support their family.

This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary from the modern fable and play, The Baker's Neighbor. In this play, the neighborhood baker Manuel bakes delicious smelling pastries and puts them out for sale each morning, but his neighbor, Pablo, loves to smell the fresh bakery every morning without purchasing any pastries. This irritates Manuel to the point where he feels Pable should pay to smell his baked goods, and Manuel takes his complain to the town judge who eventually offers a ruling that allows Manuel to get the pleasure of "touching" Pablo's gold coins in return for Pable "smelling" the bakery.

When war breaks out in Mulans land and her father is drafted into the army, Mulan makes a great sacrifice when she disguises herself as a male to take her fathers place.

Diphtheria has broken out in Nome, Alaska. Teams of sled dogs carry medicine 800 miles over snow and ice to prevent an epidemic. Everyone was brave but one dog, Balto, made the difference between failure and success.

A Prince must find a girl who will love him, in spite of his frightening curse.

Encourage students to become “Writing Thieves” Ruth Culham suggests that we pickpocket our way through the world of print and non-print as writers, not just readers. Be a cat burglar of great writing. Bring the great treasures you find into your teaching and learning. Use things that jump out at you, that are unforgettable. When you get excited by something an author writes about or the way they write it, steal bit of it in the hope that you can improve your own writing –BE A WRITING THIEF!

Fourth graders are independent explorers, full of ideas and opinions. They have an impressive skill set and are ready to go deeper. With that in mind, we’ve gathered together learning links and fun activities that will help kids build skills in literacy, math, science, and social studies—plus some just for fun! This list of 4th grade websites and activities is something kids can easily do at home with their families.

Second graders are full of curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. Parents can supplement any education with these amazing second grade websites and activities kids can enjoy at home with their families. (They won’t even know they’re learning!) These learning links and fun activities will help kids build skills in literacy, math, science, and social studies—plus we included some that are just for enjoyment.

Third graders are curious, capable and eager to share their ideas. With that in mind, we’ve gathered together learning links and fun activities that will help kids build skills in literacy, math, science, and social studies—plus some just for fun! This list of third grade websites and activities is something kids can easily do at home with their families.

We used blogging for many assignments, journals, and in place of exit slips often. We started out with familiarizing ourselves with how to log in and create posts. Our earliest posts were very basic, starting with introducing ourselves and writing about our likes, dislikes, what we did on the weekend, etc. Students were asked to create responses about a novel study we had done, The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I created prompts and had students submit their posts. After finishing the novel, we watched the video and then posted a compare/contrast assignment on the blog. We also used the "Piracy Pirates" game at mediasmarts and blogged about 3 things we learned and the connections we made between online privacy/safety and our own experiences. Students were always encouraged to make quality comments to their peers after posting.

This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary from the text Blue Willow. Janey's father is an immigrant worker and this forces Janey and her family to move around every few months, but Janey finds a friend named Lupe and a place she would like to call home permanently. Janey has to go to Camp Miller School for immigrant children like herself and she finds once again she must learn whether the new teacher will be a friend or just another teacher like the ones before her.

A family moves into an unpopulated area. With the ingenuity of one young girl, a town is established and grows. The idea of supply and demand is evident in this story. The businesses in town grow to include a tanner, a cooper, a miller, a blacksmith and a laundry.

This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary from the biographical text, Boss of the Plains. This biography relates the life of John Batterson Stetson as a hatting apprentice until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and decided to explore the American West. During his time with the people of the West, he invents a better hat, nicknamed "Boss of the Plains," - the first real cowboy hat.

BrainPOP invites students to discover, play and create, enriching and deepening their understanding of topics across the curriculum. Children are encouraged to make movies out of images, build maps and develop their block-based coding skills. BrianPOP Jr. targets children from 0 to 3 whereas BrainPOP focuses on K-12 grade children.

Breaking News English is a free current events based lesson builder. New lesson every three days. All lessons are based on stories currently in the news - as the world's news breaks, teach it.

This site is very valuable for EAL students as it allows the speed of the audio of the article to be adjusted to the pace best suited to the language level of the student. It also offers a wide range of language activities to support EAL students.

This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary using the fictional text The Bridge Dancers. In this book, two sisters, Maisie and Callie, are faced with a challenging situation. Callie gets hurt while their mother is away and Maisie must decide if she can rely on her knowledge of herbal medicine to save her sister's life.

This site has a list of Caldecott Medal winning books from 1938 until now.

This is a great place to start when filling a classroom or school library with quality books!

Register now for FREE ONLINE Educator Training for Manitoba and Saskatchewan Teachers. This FREE workshop utilizes easy-to-use, adaptable teaching resources aimed at students 13-18 years of age.

The workshop will run on Tuesday evenings in November, 2020. Participants are expected to complete reading between sessions.

Session dates:
Tuesdays - November 3, 10, 17, 24 (7:00-9:00 CST) - ONLINE

Highlights of the course:
- Learn to implement practical activities dealing with issues relating to global conflict, bystanders, human rights, international law, refugees, child soldiers, gender-based violence and attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools.
- Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) educator training utilizes an easy-to-use, adaptable toolkit aimed at students 13 – 18 years of age.
- The content of the EHL educator training complements academic subjects such as global issues, social studies, history, law, and language arts.
- Includes instruction from Canadian Red Cross personnel and trained local teachers currently using the Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) curriculum in their classrooms.
- Participants utilize the Exploring Humanitarian Law toolkit, Canada and Conflict toolkit, and Forced to Fight.
- Participants will receive a certificate of completion.
- This training will be conducted in English but all above mentioned resources are also available in French.