Non-Fiction Ready Readers - High Interest Low Level AND On Level

Ready Reader Informational Text Packets/Units. These are non-fiction/ informational Text, print-and-go Ready Readers at two levels for turnkey differentiation.

Each reader has approximately FIVE reading passages and 25 pages of activities that include close reading, fluency, comprehension, word work, conventions, informational text skills, writing and more.

The readers are standards-based, engaging and may be used for classroom, take-home packets, online, or a hybrid of any and all combinations. They perfect for whole class, early finishers, centers and more. The "Below Level Readers" may be used for intervention, ESL or coupled with the "At Level Reader" - for all students in your class to access important standards-based activities at their level.Ready Readers are written at two levels – grade level and below grade level. Each reading passage, article, or story in Ready Readers is leveled - so you know exactly which reader to assign to each student. Be sure to check out the preview.

EXAMPLE: In the Kamala Harris Edition, you will find:

25-page Form Fillable PDFs of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels

• 25-page PDF of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels for packets

• 2 - 25-page PowerPoints of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels

• Instructions and Information

• Standards Alignment Chart

• Passage 1: Fluency – page 2 – 1010L - 1200L

• Passage 2: Pages 5-6 – Lexile Level 610L – 800L

• Passage 3: page 9-11 – Lexile Level 1010L-1200L

• Passage 4: page 16 – Lexile Level 1010L-1200L

• Passage 5: page 22 - Lexile Level 810L- 1000L

• Passage 1: Fluency – page 2 – 410L - 600L

• Passage 2: Pages 5 and 6 – Lexile Level 410L to 600L

• Passage 3: page 9 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 4: page 14 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 5: page 20 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

Tik Tok Famous Ready Reader LevelsReadings:

• Passage 1: page 2 – Lexile 410L-600L

• Passage 2: page 5 - Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 3: page 7 – Lexile Level 610L-800L

• Passage 4: page 9 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 5: page 14 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 6: page 15 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

Readers - Non-Fiction Units Under $3.00 - GRADES 4-12

Also Available:

FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader Hybrid, Distance and Packet

FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Kamala Harris High-Low Reader Reader & Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris High Low Ready Reader & Kamala Harris GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Tulsa Race Riots - At Level and High - Low Ready Readers

Tulsa Race Riots - At Level & High Low Ready Readers GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Ready Reader

Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Ready Reader GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Marvel Universe High Low Ready Reader - Informational Text for Grades 5-12 - GOOGLE SLIDE

Marvel High Low Ready Reader Informational Text for Grades 5-12

Tuskegee Airmen - Low Level

Maya Angelou High Low Ready Reader

GOOGLE Maya Angelou High Low Ready Reader

And the list keeps growing.

This list will continue to grow as I vet units - and freebies!
On Level Ready Reader:
Below Level Ready Reader:

Fabulous Fall Lessons

The air is crisp, the leaves are turning and children are settling into the school year! The beginning of the year excitement is ending and the time for ultra engaging lessons is upon us. Here are a few that will keep your kiddos attentive.

Native American Studies - Native American Legends. This unit is so much more than Readers Theater.  With eight scrips and Point cultural lessons and printable for several Native American tribes  -  this is an entire, in depth unit. The Eight READERS THEATERs are based on NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS from the Virginia Algonquin, Miwok, Cherokee and Haudenosaunee.

Each readers theater script is rounded out with fluency passages, comprehension checks, warm-ups, informational reading, close reading and more. 

Morning Message Slide Freebie Editable Slide Templates with Timers for  Morning Messages, Morning Meetings, Morning Work, Classroom Management, or to use  in Google Classroom for Distance/Remote Learning! The  templates are perfect for: homework reminders, organizing the tasks for the day, putting up writing prompts and/or bell work/bell ringers. There are a variety of themes included, The titles of the slides are not editable, but you can fill in the spaces with your own text.

66 Early Finishers for Fall These are engaging, standards-based activities that reinforce learning. These printable or digital Finishers are perfect for early finishers or daily warm-ups. They are high interest, creative, fun, challenging and offer a broad range of print-in-go puzzles, brainteasers and creative activities to enable practice of CCSS based and 21st Century Learning skills.

The printable activities can be used independently, in pairs, as bell ringers or as early
finishers and more...

Fall Math Riddle Activity Free

20 SPOOKY High Low Passages - Google, Form Fillable PDF - Hybrid Ready

Murder Mystery and Mystery Without the Murder Games for the Classroom

Classroom murder mysteries are the ultimate way to engage students in learning.

Students practice reading, comprehension, inference and other important fiction skills, non-fiction skills and critical thinking as they work together to problem solve. Mystery games are also the ultimate way to introduce a mystery unit or discussion on genre, tone, setting...

The games listed here are interactive mystery games. In interactive games players are free to roam, mingle and interview each other. As players interrogate each other they explore plots and subplots.

Murder mystery offers basic questions for students to answer: Who is the victim? Who is the suspect? Were there accomplices? How did the crime occur? What was the weapon? Where did the murder happen: What is the setting? Why did the murder happen: What is the motive?

Additionally, murder mysteries are engaging. Student love them. Scholastic polled students and found mysteries were at the top of the list for what they want to read. 

The following activities are interactive classroom activities that promote collaboration, logic, inference, critical thinking, character analysis and fun in your classroom. Students work to solve a mystery involving some of the greatest literary characters of all time.

These are great group activity, classroom team activity, or center activity. Again they are great ways to introduce units on mystery, character, literature or just for a fun and engaging activity. They are also great for classroom parties or bonus time. These mystery games have alternative versions where student teams serve as juries and detectives - as well a players.

Who Poisoned Sherlock Holmes -- a murder without the mystery

This game includes two different game versions.  

Scenario: 

The characters of great literary works, including Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Jay Gatsby, Jo March, Gandalf, Holden Caulfield, Nancy Drew, Hermione Granger, Hamlet, Katniss Everdeen, Juliet Capulet, Simon, Jonas, Victor Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes gathered at UKTMU (You Know Too Much U) for the Annual Library Association Convention. All have been nominated for the honor of best literary character of all time. The award is more than the prestige of the title. It also comes with a monetary prize of $4 million. The prize is to be given on the last day of the convention.

At dinner last night, this particular group of notables sat at the table of honor. Some knew each other – Juliet, Hamlet and Othello often hang together in the pages of anthologies and Harry and Hermione are old buds. Others were just meeting for the first time.

What they didn’t know, until halfway through the main course, is that Sherlock Holmes had spent the last several weeks gathering information about each and every one of them. Some of the information, Sherlock stated was damaging enough to disqualify that particular character from the competition. He knew if he revealed that information, he would be sure to win the prize. Then he laughed – actually laughed - and said: “Good thing I am of strong moral character. Or am I? One never can tell.”

The characters looked around the table, wondering who the great detective was referring to, and if he would reveal such a secret. Most worried that something in their past, a character flaw or momentary action, could be what Sherlock Holmes was referring to.

After the party, the group returned together to the villa they were sharing. The villa was on a large estate with a lake, horse stables, cottages and a house that could be considered a hotel if not for the meticulous European decor.

At the villa they went their separate ways.

At 8 a.m. the following morning, the county sheriff knocked on the door. The engagement begins.

Two Frankenstein Murder Mysteries

Who  Murdered Professor Waldman?

Scenario: The novel is over, and Mary Shelley is not happy. Someone changed her work. Her work! This does not please her! Mary is very protective of her original story, only someone has ripped original pages from early chapters and replaced them with pages depicting Professor Waldman’s death! Mary did not kill Professor Waldman. Waldman was the link to knowledge and light and now he is gone. One of the characters is the murderer. The page where the murderer is revealed is missing. Mary must now rewrite her story. Of course, the outcome will be different because she can’t bring Waldman back. It is up to students to find the murderer and rewrite the story.

Who Killed the House Maid?  - A Frankenstein Murder Mystery - No Frankenstein Novel Knowledge Required!

Classroom Murder Mystery: Murder in Gold Rush Gulch - 3 Games in One

Thanks for stopping by.

#murdermystery #murdermysterygame #lesson #teaching #teacher #education

Quick Lessons - Great for the End of the Year

This has been a unique year - to say the least! In class, distance learning, hybrid settings - exhausting! Some I've spoken with have no energy left to pull fillers, mini-lessons and engaging assignments out of their hats for those times when it is essential to work with some, but not all students, or when early finishers are pulling at our shirt strings or when end of the year activities are sped through by some and lollied by others. (Lollied is a word coined by a class of second graders a few years back - now all my classes use it to mean one who is slow finishing a task - usually one they don't want to do.

With all this in mind, and the end near - I decided to put together a list of free or moderately priced resources together - that students can do on their own. I've checked out ever resource and they are engaging and student-centered.

FREE

• Grades 2-4 - Spring Themed Early Finishers - NOT Print and Go
• Grades 3-5 FREE: Early Finishers Math Challenges - Print or Digital Grades 3-5
• Grades 5-8 Earlier Finisher Activities
• Grades 6-7 Early Finishers Math Activities and Puzzles
• Grades 7-12 Poetry Bellringers 
• Grades 5-12 Women in History Short Readings and Activities 
• FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader Hybrid, Distance and Packet
• FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader GOOGLE SLIDES

Mini-Units Under $2.00 - GRADES 4-12

• Kamala Harris High-Low Reader Reader & Kamala Harris Mini Unit
• Kamala Harris High Low Ready Reader & Kamala Harris At Level Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION
• Tulsa Race Riots - At Level and High - Low Mini Unit
• Tulsa Race Riots - At Level & High Low Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDES

• Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Mini Unit
• Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDES
• Marvel Universe High Low Mini Unit - Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDES
• Marvel High Low Mini Unitt Informational Text for Grades 5-12
• Tuskegee Airmen - Low Level
• Maya Angelou High Low Ready Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDES
• Maya Angelou High Low Ready Reader Mini Unit
• Mae Jamison Mini Unit
• Mae Jamison Mini Unit GOOGLE SLIDES

This list will continue to grow as I vet units - and freebies!

FREEBIE An Old West Cinderella Story, Book Unit and Classroom Game

49er CinderMiner - ebook 

49er_cinderminer_book_unit.pdf Novel Unit

Mystery Game - Classroom and Home Versions Directions

An old west take on the classic Cinderella story for children off all ages! Entire ebook and Book  Unit FREE!

Book Unit includes engaging standards-aligned activities and the Mystery Game fosters critical thinking and problem solving.

The gold rush is on and hoards of people are heading to California seeking their fortune - unfortunately for the people of Plymouth, California - most of those heading west are men, so when the new town's richest resident, Oliver Keyes, announces he's planning a huge shindig for his beautiful daughter to choose a husband - the mining town turns upside down.
Kindhearted, hardworking Luke wants a chance at her hand, but his nasty step-brothers and rattlesnake of a step-mother will stop at nothing to keep him from the party. With the help of a very special "godmother" - kindness may very well win in the end.
​
This fun take on the classic Cinderella story written and illustrated by Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti - begs to be read over and over and over again.

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Classroom Games for the End of the Year

Classroom Games for Maximum Achievement

Games are a great way to introduce concepts, reinforce standards and engage students in learning. There are whole class games, quiz games, projectable PowerPoint games, board games and so many more.

Games can be excellent informal assessments, project culminations, and center activities. 

There are 100s of studies regarding the benefits of games in the classroom.These studies showed that, on average, using academic games in the classroom is associated with a 20 percentile point gain in student achievement. This is a relatively strong finding (Robert Marzano, 2008).

How to get the most out of games:  

• Don't make the stakes too high. Students like to compete but don't like to be embarrassed. Create teams to ensure equality in answers. 
• Switch teams up during the year so that everyone experiences their share of winning and losing.
• Target academic content - like the games below - from literacy to social studies to math - make sure the games you use are learning opportunities.
• Debrief after play. Since the whole point of games in the classroom is to provide students the opportunity to examine content in an engaging environment - don't forget to recap - allowing students to highlight what they've learned. Take the time to reinforce important elements.
• Have students journal after gameplay. This provides them with meaningful opportunities to reexamine knowledge.

Games are a powerful tool to examine difficult content - any content - while engaging students and raising achievement.

Know more great classroom games - share them in the comments below.

10 Answers - 20 Questions Only Better US Colonial History - Board and PowerPoint

Fast-paced quiz game - 2 versions: paper "board game" for groups, center or whole class play.

Students are given 10 answers - one at a time. With each clue students have the opportunity to guess the person, place or thing related to the topic. Gameplay generates maximum participation for students at all levels. 10 Answers is engaging and super fun with learning happening almost by accident.

The Clickable PowerPoint version is great for assessment or to team up your students and have a fast-paced quiz round. Perfect for bell-ringers, filler, assessments, to learn facts, to reinforce content, as a center activity, for distance learning practice and more.

This unique game is ideal for any age students who study US History – from 5th to 12th grade.

It is fun, engaging, provides fact-testing and reading practice. Critical thinking is a must as students use clues to determine answers.

Group play and individual play instructions are included.

End of the Year Activity Mystery Game for the Whole Class

The end of the year is the perfect time to pull out this mystery activity game. Students use the detective skills of listening and the process of elimination to solve the mystery of who took the test. Perfect whole class game, let the fun begin.

Games 4 Learning

Games 4 Learning has 100s of games for all ages - from math to brain teasers to puzzles to board games  - there is something for everyone.

Multiplication Freebie

Free End of Year Math and Literacy Games: Summer Activities Packet

Summer Freebies 

1  Haystead, M. W., & Marzano, R. J. (2009). Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on Instructional Strategies. Englewood, CO: Marzano Research Laboratory.

Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti