Teachers: Free Student Texts & Teacher Guides
FYI for Kids- Magazine articles for second grade through fifth grade
April 2, 2013
A collection of engaging and high-quality magazine articles designed to enhance the Common Core classroom’s reading repertoire.
Read-Aloud Favorites
March 18, 2013
A collection of reviewed tradebooks that were selected for use as a read-aloud in a classroom or home setting.
Transportation
February 14, 2013
There are lots of words that describe the way we move from place to place. We’ve sorted them into four groups.
Core Vocabulary Word Pictures: Semantic Maps for the Core Vocabulary
February 11, 2013
The core vocabulary consists of the 4,000 simple word families which account for 90% of the words in written English. Function words (e.g., the, of) and general academic words (e.g., compare, relate) are prominent in the core vocabulary but there are also many concept words which can be pictured.
Ban on Junk Food in Schools
January 8, 2013
This issue of TP4K examines the use of school bans in order to teach students about health and nutrition.
Ban on Plastic Bags
December 5, 2012
This issue of TP4K examines the costs and benefits of using plastic bags.
Heavy Backpacks
October 6, 2011
Backpacks are useful for carrying school supplies. A student can fill their backpack with books, notebooks, pens, pencils, and other things a student may need at school. The question asked in this Talking Points for Kids is: Can a backpack be too full, or too heavy?
BeginningReads™: Free Texts for Beginning Readers
August 30, 2011
TextProject’s BeginningReads program supports teachers, parents, and tutors in bringing children into reading. The goal of BeginningReads is to connect student’s oral language knowledge with written language. Ten levels (of 12 books each) are available.
Living in Zoos
June 30, 2011
A day at a zoo can be quite memorable for the zoo visitors. But what about the animals that live at the zoo?
Homework
May 25, 2011
Did you know students didn’t always have homework? Before the 1950’s teachers didn’t assign homework to elementary school kids. This is no longer the case now. In a 2008 survey, “77% students regardless of grade level, spend at least 30 minutes doing homework on a typical school day, while 45% reported spending at least an hour.” (MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: The Homework Experience, 2008). The question we ask in this TPFK is “Does homework help students learn? Are students getting the right amount of homework?”