Teaching Guides for Summer Reading

Easily adapt If You Take a Mouse to School to classroom lesson plans with this teacher's guide to the book by Laura Numeroff. This literature guide includes pre-reading activities, classroom management suggestions, and curriculum connections for math, art, science, and language arts. This is a perfect resource for back to school.

Utilize the resources in this teacher's guide to extend students' enjoyment of books in the Henry and Mudge series. This printable packet includes discussion questions, activities, projects, and research ideas for several books in the series.

Celebrate 50 years of adventure with games and printables featuring detective Leroy Brown, a.k.a Encyclopedia Brown. Organize a scavenger hunt around the library, help students discover the value of a quarter in the 1960s, and build recall skills with a memory game.

Take a journey into outer space with your class by reading Zathura, an adventure story by Chris Van Allsburg that blends fiction with science. This printable teacher's guide includes a synopsis of the book, discussion questions, and two lesson planning ideas.

Give kids these fun activity sheets featuring characters and illustrations from Dragons Love Tacos and Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri. Kids will unscramble the taco-flavored words, sort toppings, make a raccoon mask, cut-out toppings for a pizza, and find all of Raccoon's favorite toppings in a word search.

This colorful picture book introduces children to Swahili and the continent of Africa.

Promote discussion about the meaning of family with the resources in this educator's guide for And Tango Makes Three, a true story about a nontraditional family of penguins. This printable includes several research topics for studying zoo animals and learning more about penguins.

Promote literature and reading with these pre-reading exercises, classroom activities, and event ideas for Read All About It by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush. This literature guide also includes tips to motivate reluctant readers.

Enrich your reading of the Gooney Bird Greene series by Lois Lowry with discussion guides for each book. This printable packet includes discussion questions, an English language arts/literacy graphic organizer, and a project idea for each book. Students will practice storytelling, retell and summarize fables, try different poetic forms, describe characters, and determine the meaning of words as they are used in a text.

Find great suggestions for using Beverly Cleary's Ramona books in your classroom. This teacher's guide includes an interview with the author, book descriptions and extension activities for Beezus and Ramona, Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona Forever, and Ramona's World.

Extend this well-loved book with enrichment ideas and resources.

Students will demonstrate a beginning understanding of how to use dialogue journals or written conversations to express themselves in a written format by identifying previous experiences and relating them to the story.

Deepen students' reading comprehension through the pre-reading questions, reading instruction, and connection activities in this literature guide for The Tale of Despereaux. This printable packet includes worksheets, a graphic organizer, and lesson planning resources for each section of the book.

Use the discussion questions in this guide to engage pupils in a conversation about Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant, a magical story about the impossible quests facing a little boy, an old musician, and a lost elephant. This literature guide also includes extension activities that will enliven children's imaginations and spark creativity.

Brush up on the novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder with this teacher's guide to the classic Little House books, including Little House on the Prairie. In addition to discussion questions and classroom activities for each book, this printable packet includes thematic and interdisciplinary connections.

Find enrichment activities and resources to use with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal. This book was originally published online at FunBrain.com, but is now a best-selling print series as well!

This printable literature guide to Savvy, a novel by Ingrid Law, includes pre-reading points, discussion questions, and activities to extend students' learning and enjoyment of the book. The book features a family with a gift: they each earn special powers when they turn thirteen. The almost-13-year-old girl at the center of the story is awaiting her "savvy" when she receives terrible news. Her coming-of-age story will resonate deeply with intermediate students.

Incorporate the books from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events into your classroom curriculum. This literature guide includes in-depth teaching plans for The Bad Beginning and many activities to use across the rest of the series (books 2-13). Use these discussion questions, vocabulary activities, writing activities, character studies, and cross-curricular activities to supplement and enhance your teaching of these books.

Reach reluctant readers with a captivating story that will delight baseball fans. This literature guide to Keeping Score by Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park includes pre-reading and classroom discussion questions. It also has project ideas to connect the novel to core subjects including reading, history, math, and language arts. The novel is set during the Korean War.

Enhance students' reading experience with discussion questions and extension activities for A Tale Dark and Grimm, a novel about what happens when Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight classic Grimm-inspired tales. Students are sure to enjoy this clever take on classic fairy tales by teacher and storyteller Adam Gidwitz.

Provoke students' thoughts on peer pressure, friendship, and their goals in life with discussion questions for We Beat the Street, a true story about three teenagers and the obstacles they overcame. This guide also includes a short biography on the authors, a journaling exercise, and an art activity.