Promote thinking!Analysis is the ability to break a whole into its component parts and understand how each functions as part of the whole. The ability to reason logically is a major skill at this step of the critical thinking process. The 27 lessons in this unit include a variety of analogies and puzzles. As students work the exercises they learn to examine the whole, make judgments about the pieces, and finally see how these pieces relate to each other.Example: “Hoot. Clang. Creak. Yelp. Whinny…: A door that needs oiling would ____. A hungryHorse would ____. A frightened puppy would ____.”These sequential activities are sure to improve thinking and logic skills. And, because they seem more like games than work, students will have loads of fun.

Building early comprehension skills!Presented with context clues and a word list, students are challenged to complete brief stories.Example: Cleared - Good – The - Cooked… “Mrs. Rodrigues ___ dinner. Her family enjoyed the ___ food. Jose ___ the table. Juanita washed ___ dishes. Who cleared the table?”Each of the 43 exercises found in this book features four words and a delightful illustration of the story. Reading and writing skills are enhanced while students get plenty of practice with comprehension, spelling, and thinking. Coloring the accompanying picture is a fun way to hone fine motor skills.

Building early comprehension skills!Presented with context clues and a word list, students are challenged to complete brief stories. Example: “Horns. Has. Goat… Tim ___ a goat. His goat has ____. The ___ likes corn. Who has a goat?”Each of the 43 exercises found in this book features three or four words and a delightful illustration of the story. Reading and writing skills are enhanced while students get plenty of practice with comprehension, spelling, and thinking. Coloring the accompanying picture is a fun way to hone fine motor skills.

“Synthesis” is the ability to combine parts of a whole in new and different ways. It requires students to think flexibly, determine alternatives, and find new ways to accomplish a given task. A more advanced level of abstract thinking is needed for synthesis. The 25 lessons in this unit encourage students to go beyond the obvious to more original thoughts. Example: An illustration of a bulb connected to a battery is presented. “Electricity is stored in a battery.” Look at the accompanying pictures of batteries, wires, and light bulbs. “Which bulbs do you think will light up?”The sequential activities featured here are sure to develop critical thinking skills.

Developing observation! Packed into this unit are 22 creatively illustrated lessons. Each boasts a drawing of a real-life situation complete with familiar objects. From “a visit to the ice cream parlor” to “a busy street corner,” students are given time to absorb the visual information from each picture. After putting the image aside, 12 questions are asked about what was depicted and students are asked to draw something they remember. Plenty of observation practice will be had by all as thinking and comprehension skills are given a workout.

Being able to determine main ideas is crucial to writing book reports, outlining, reading social studies and science materials, and general reading comprehension. That is why the lessons in this unit are so important.The 26 exercises in found here have been designed to help develop a thinking process for finding the main idea. Students begin by finding topics in sentences, then identify the main idea in a sentence. From here they move on to finding the focus of a paragraph, writing the main idea, and finally coming up with summary sentences for books. 28-page book includes an answer key. Reading Level 3-4 | Interest Level 4-8

A springboard for comprehension! The 20 cloze procedure lessons in this book will help students not only gain a greater understanding of concepts, but will assist in expanding their vocabulary.Questions follow each cloze paragraph exercise - thus insuring that students have a broad understanding of the story by incorporating thinking skills as well as recall activities. The questions involve inference, prediction, and relationship.Of course, creative content choice keeps it all interesting with subjects ranging from “dolphins” to “lightening” and “magical mold” to “the Loch Ness monster.”

Paying attention! The 30 lessons in this learning unit will teach students to listen, remember what they have been told, and execute the oral directions given. To begin, students listen as an explanation of each exercise is given. “Your worksheet is filled with empty boxes that you will begin to fill.”Next children are given specific instructions. “In the middle box on the bottom row, put an 8.” “In the middle box on the top row put an M.”While having fun with these imaginative activities, students will boost their listening, comprehension, and motor skills.

Paying attention! The 30 lessons in this learning unit will teach students to listen, remember what they have been told, and execute the oral directions given. To begin, students listen as an explanation of each exercise is given. “On your worksheets there are three rows of boxes. You will be told what to do in each row.”Next children are given instructions. “Draw a line from the fish to the ball; make it go over the pig.” “Draw a triangle in the middle box.” While having fun with these imaginative activities, students will boost their listening, comprehension, and motor skills.

Retaining what is heard! Short, bright, read-aloud stories about subjects ranging from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to “Helping Baby Birds” are at the core of the 30 lessons in this learning unit. After listening closely to each story, students are given independent activities that focus on drawing conclusions, finding the main idea, and remembering details. By getting youngsters involved in the stories, they will gradually learn more thoughtful listening techniques.

Putting knowledge to work. Comprehension implies the understanding of information and the ability to see basic relationships. The 26 lessons in this unit provide plenty of practice in areas that emphasize comprehension. Students are involved in interpreting verbal and visual communications (A dinosaur “size chart” is provided. “How long was the Tyrannosaurus?”), making comparisons (Using the Table of Contents provided: “Which chapter is shorter?”), and finding relationships with the “big picture” (Using the map of the Lone Star Camp: “Where does the trail from the cabin lead?”). The sequential activities featured here are sure to develop critical thinking skills.

From Dust Storms and Glaciers to Tsunamis and Droughts, this lesson unit explores 13 different natural phenomena. Students are challenged to increase their comprehension skills by reading the information-packed stories, then answer questions and work the crossword puzzles that follow. Students read-and-learn oodles of insightful facts. They will learn, for example, that thousands of tons of dust can be lifted by a storm that boasts 25 miles-an-hour winds. Reading Level 3-4

Reading. Thinking. Writing! Illustrations and corresponding sentences are combined in the 25 lessons featured here to challenge discrimination and comparison abilities. Rather than multiple choice answers or underlined responses, students are asked to write complete sentences. This extra step will reinforce the thinking process as students work through each of the intriguing activities. Difficulty progresses with each exercise.

Taking on contractions! This book of five boldly illustrated game board lessons challenges students to create contractions (he will = he’ll) and break them down (they’re = they are). While playing the challenging word games, students get plenty of practice mastering formation and use of contractions. A student contract, a pre/post test, and seven practice/review exercises are included. This 40-page unit includes an answer key.

Help your students develop important writing skills with this fun and delightfully illustrated book. Easy Sentence Writing will inspire students to develop sentence-writing skills. Four formats add variety as they write original sentences, create sentences from pictures, form sentences from a word bank and more.

Reading for comprehension. Packed with informative short stories, comprehension questions, and various research activities, this 23-lesson book provides valuable practice with the reading skills needed to locate specific information in written text. Each fact-based story is followed by questions that require students to locate the information in the story and give precise answers. Subjects covered range from “The Stars in the Sky” and “Amazons,” to “Komodo Dragons” and “Going Bananas.” 28-page book includes an answer key. Reading Level 3-4 | Interest Level 4-12