Language Arts - ELA

Favorites by Category

Language Arts (ELA - English Language Arts) is composed of multiple subject strands and it’s almost impossible to find 1 curriculum to cover them all. I find it easiest to break up the focus of learning over different semesters. There are many perspectives on what strands should be included but this is what I teach as fundamental skills:

  • Reading - this can be a controversial topic with so many methods (whole language, phonics, balanced literacy, etc.) I use a variety of books and tools for exposure to reading. We use puzzles, games, books, and real life activity through daily life. Initially I approach with phonics in Logic of English, but I also love the Dick and Jane/Bob Books series because they are repetitive which quickly builds confidence to move into leveled reading books that hold interest longer. Learning to read is different for every child and takes a mix of skills which requires a mix of tools.

    • Logic of English

    • All About Reading

  • Handwriting

    • Logic of English

  • Writing (sentence, paragraph, essay, critical response, literary analysis, etc.)

    • I start early writing with copywork

    • In 1st grade we do daily book reports using templates to practice reading, comprehension and guide early literary analysis. These are the templates I love

    • You can also find may lists and books of writing prompts, keep a notebook and have your student spend 10 minutes writing about a prompt. Using a set amount of time starts to teach time management, focus and understanding how getting the ideas down on paper without getting it perfect the first time is ok.

    • IEW Structure & Style - My kids love this as a writing curriculum, however I think the fix it grammar option doesn’t teach well because it is just correcting sentences and if a student hasn’t learned and practiced the grammar rules it’s impossible to find the mistakes…we found it very frustrating.

    • Thoughtful Learning - I love the writer’s express books, they are writing focused but include tidbits of grammar and vocabulary. We typically work through 1 book each summer and practice writing as we go.

  • Public Speaking

    • Evan Moor Reader’s Theater series is great for practicing reading fluency in a group. My girls LOVE theater, these are fun and easy to use.

    • I love Evan Moor Easy File Folder Reports to research, create lapbooks/reports and then practice as a presentation that we record.

  • Listening

  • Viewing

  • Vocabulary

    • Wordly Wise

    • Mrs. Wordsmith

  • Reading Comprehension

    • Evan Moor Read & Understand Leveled Texts (not my favorite way to work on comprehension, but efficient if you don’t want to work through entire chapter books.)

    • I have also used REACH and Journeys textbooks to practice reading comprehension because they have critical thinking questions included in the book and cover a wide variety of short text. They are inexpensive to find used and work well if a student needs just a little more practice to develop this skill. I also like the exposure to a wide variety of topics and reading styles these books offer.

  • Spelling

  • All About Spelling

  • Spelling Power

  • Grammar

    • Saxon Grammar

    • Easy Grammar

    • Daily Grams

    • Shurley English

  • Literary Analysis

  • Media Literacy (library skills, research tools skills/dictionary/thesaurus/encyclopedia, internet skills, etc.)

I have had very early readers, both of my oldest started at age 3, we read a lot and I encourage prereading skills as soon as they start recognizing objects, animals and letters. Reading is a part of the natural flow of our interaction. But I also know it doesn’t come easily for everyone so the resources I’ve included as favorites are also tried and true for kids that find it challenging. Even though I have early readers I still go through phonics programs because there are words they recognize and read easily, but others they do not and a point does come where their reading growth is halted because they don’t know how to decode the phonics in words that don’t follow the standard patterns they have memorized.

The items below are my favorite tools to teach 3 children across a
wide age range - photos are linked!

Box of Bob Books Deluxe Reader Collection with 200 books and 30 flashcards, featuring a snowman on the cover.
A collection of eight book covers for the 'Dick and Jane' series, each with colorful illustrations and titles such as 'Look,' 'We Look,' 'Fun with Dick and Jane,' and 'Go Away, Spot.'
Blue box of Scholastic Phonics First Little Readers with cartoon pig characters and a small mouse
Red box of Scholastic Sight Word Stories educational books, featuring colorful bunny and raccoon characters, and a small picture of a bear at the fair.
Blue box of Scholastic Sight Word Stories with a red handle, featuring an animated purple bug and a small girl reading a book, and a pamphlet titled 'The Red Sneakers'
Green box of Scholastic Sight Word Stories with a red handle, featuring a snowman with a black top hat and red scarf, and a pair of colorful boots, promoting 25 high-frequency words for young readers.
A Scholastic Sight Word Stories book set box with a red handle, orange background, and yellow title text. It features a cartoon dragon, a blue bird, and a cupcake illustration.
A box of First Little Readers, a Scholastic book set for beginning readers, featuring 25 books with guided reading level A, including titles like Cold Rose, Sweet Treat, and Hello Beach.
A red box of More First Little Readers, a children's book set with 25 beginner books for early readers, featuring illustrations of children and animals.
Box of First Little Readers beginner books, 25 books, guided reading level B, includes titles like "Meet My Baby Brother," "Party Shapes," and "Gingerbread Soup."
Red educational box of Buddy Readers guided reading level A books with cartoon animals, including a bear, a pig, a bird wearing glasses, and a green crayon, from Scholastic.
A blue box labeled 'Buddy Readers' contains 20 leveled books for children. The box features cartoon characters including two robots, a girl holding a blue character, and a bearded man, and mentions a parent guide, activity book, and stickers. It is d
Orange box with red handle labeled 'Buddy Readers' and 'Guided Reading Level D'. Features a snowman, a blue spider reading a book, and three children, one with wings, on the front. Includes a label mentioning a parent guide, activity book, and sticke
A green Scholastic Buddy Readers book set box with a red handle, featuring cartoon characters including a unicorn, a clown, and a friendly ghost, labeled for guided reading level C.
A purple set of teens called 'Buddy Readers' by Scholastic, containing 16 leveled children's books, with a red handle on top and illustrations of cartoon animals and a dog dressed as a scientist on the front.
A book titled '100 Great Words', with flashcards surrounding it, one with the word 'xenophobia' and a definition, and another with the word 'cantankerous' and a note about pronunciation.
Cover of a children's educational book titled '100 Words Kids Need to Read by 2nd Grade,' featuring colorful illustrations and a yellow background with green polka dots.
Educational toy with alphabet letters and an pointing wand, used for teaching spelling and pronunciation.
Four colorful pens designed to look like horseshoes or neck pillows in purple, blue, yellow, and purple with star patterns.
Cover of a poetry workbook titled 'Poetry Patterns & Themes' showing a smiling child thinking with a thought bubble of a yellow boat on water with a small flag, and a list of lessons for creating poems.
Cover of a children's writing workbook titled 'Writing Fabulous Sentences & Paragraphs' by Evan-Moor, for grades 4-6. The cover features an illustration of a blonde boy in a yellow shirt holding a pen and drawing a star with other shapes around it on
Cover of a children's book titled 'Writing Poetry with Children'. It features a cartoon girl with brown hair and blue hair clips, holding a pencil. The cover has colorful starfish illustrations and text advertising lessons on creating original verses
Cover of a children's educational book titled "Paragraph Writing" showing a boy with dark skin and short black hair holding a fishbowl with a goldfish inside.
Educational workbook titled 'Read and Understand Poetry' for grades 4-5, featuring a cover with a puffy cloud, green hills, and a body of water, published by Evan-Moor.
Book cover titled 'The Writing Rope'; subtitle 'A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects'; author Joan Sedita.
Educational set including a display box, a handbook titled 'Structure and Style for Students', a spiral notebook, a tablet, and a DVD, all branded with 'Level 1A' and featuring an image of a young boy.
Cover of a book titled "Writing Down the Days" with a smiling sun, a moon, and stars on a blue background. It mentions 365 creative journaling ideas for young people and notes it is revised and updated.
Cover of the English Grammar Workbook for grades 3, 4, and 5 featuring a yellow school bus with three children inside and text highlighting three books in one, 140+ exercises.
Cover of a children's grammar and punctuation book titled "Usborne Junior Illustrated Grammar and Punctuation". The cover features illustrations of a whale, a boy in a diving suit, two children with a boat, a whale, a boat, a helicopter, a dinosaur,
Cover of "The Dragon Grammar Book" featuring a cartoon dragon and a kid with a mistake bubble, with a gold seal in the bottom right corner.
Cover of a children's educational book titled 'Read & Understand' with leveled texts. The cover features sections labeled 'Phonics,' 'Comprehension,' and 'Reading,' each with example pages shown. There is a yellow speech bubble indicating 25 reproduc
Collection of educational books titled 'Read & Understand' with leveled texts, including vocabulary, comprehension, and reading activities, feature a cover with a gear design and a story about Max and the Funny Fox.
A set of educational reading and understanding books for third grade, featuring colorful covers with titles like 'Vocabulary,' 'Comprehension,' and 'Reading.' The books emphasize leveled texts, vocabulary activities, and reproducible stories, and are
Cover of a Grade 4 reading and understanding workbook titled 'Read & Understand with Leveled Texts' by Evan-Moor, featuring sections on vocabulary, comprehension, and reading about 'The Greatest Athlete in the World' by Jim Thorpe.
Cover of a reading comprehension workbook titled 'Read & Understand with Levelled Texts' for Grade 5, published by Evan-Moor. The cover features sections labeled 'Vocabulary,' 'Comprehension,' and 'Reading,' with a purple banner mentioning 21 reprodu
Cover of a book titled 'Quizzes for 220 Great Children's Books' by Polly Jeanne Wickstrom, labeled as the revised first edition, with a green background filled with white question marks surrounding an oval white space with the title and author's name
Cover of a teacher's manual titled 'All About Reading Level Pre-1,' featuring a yellow background, a label with a bee and a quill, and a list of program features such as fun lesson plans and research-based program.
Cover of a book titled 'Falling Up' with a drawing of a girl falling, her hair flying upward, and a small shoe falling below. The book is by Shel Silverstein.
Book cover titled "A Light in the Attic" featuring a drawing of a child's face with a small attic roof on top of the head as a hat, with the subtitle "poems and drawings by Shel Silverstein."
Line drawing of a rabbit with a turtle on its back and a worm in its mouth, titled 'Runny Rabbit' by Shel Silverstein.
Book cover titled "Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies" by Shel Silverstein, featuring a tall, thin, pinkish creature with long legs, bent over near a small house and tree.
Cover of a book titled 'Every Thing On It' with drawings of various objects and a child holding a book.
Cover of a book titled "Where the Sidewalk Ends" with a child drawing at the edge of a sidewalk, with a dog and a doghouse in the background.
A child reaching up to a hanging apple on a large tree labeled 'The Giving Tree' by Shel Silverstein.
Book cover titled 'Funny Read-Aloud Plays with Leveled Parts' by Justin McCory Marlin. Features a cartoon speech bubble with a pizza slice and a character voice acting. Highlights include speaking parts at two levels and reading levels from 2.0 to 5.
Cover of a children's book titled '25 Fun Phonics Plays for Beginning Readers,' featuring a green cartoon dinosaur, a knight, a duck in a boat, and a puppy on a pond, with clouds and grass in the background.
Book cover titled 'Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays' for grades 2-4, featuring a cartoon princess with a crown, a prince, and various fairy tale characters including frogs, a witch, and animals in a colorful, whimsical style.
Cover of a book titled "Zany Tractured Fairy Tale Plays" by J.M. Wolf, featuring cartoon characters including a young girl reading a book, a boy with a pig, and other whimsical characters in a fairy tale setting.
Children sitting on chairs on a stage, participating in a theater performance, with yellow curtains above.
Three children sitting in chairs on stage, participating in a Readers' Theater performance. One girl is pointing, a boy is holding a paper, and another girl is raising her hand.
Three young students sitting in a classroom engaged in a theater activity, holding papers and pointing as they participate, with a colorful backdrop including yellow curtains.
Cover of Reader's Theater Grade 4 book, showing four children on stage with yellow curtains, seated on chairs, performing a play with scripts in hand.
Colorful illustration of three children sitting in a circle on chairs on a red carpet, engaging in a discussion with one child raising their hand and another pointing, under a yellow curtain.
Children sitting in a circle reading scripts during a theater practice, with a yellow curtain backdrop and a purple and white striped border.
Cover of a U.S. History readers' theater guide for grades 5-8, featuring historic black and white photos of two women and two men, with text describing the book's features like original scripts, background info, response activities, and pull-out scri
Ancient history Reader's Theater educational resource cover with images of ancient statues and ruins, purple and orange design elements, and text describing features for grades 5-8.
Cover of a World History Readers' Theater educational resource with historical figures and children, promoting bringing history to life through scripts based on historic events.
Book cover titled "Readers Theater for Building Fluency" by Jo Worthy, featuring children performing in a classroom setting.
Book cover of "Interactive Think-Aloud Lessons" by Lori Oczkus, with images of children and a teacher engaging in classroom activities, and a CD icon at the bottom left.
Cover of 'The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists,' sixth edition, authored by Jacqueline E. Kress and Edward B. Fry, featuring an open book with pages glowing, with black, yellow, and white colors and a sticker indicating a bestseller guide.
Book cover titled 'The Writing Teacher's Book of Lists, Second Edition' by Gary Robert Muschla, with a background of a blue sky with clouds and a yellow notepad with a pencil resting on it.
Cover of 'The Vocabulary Teacher's Book of Lists' by Edward B. Fry, featuring a person with a backpack looking at a row of large books.
Cover of a book titled 'Short Scripts for 2-3 Kids' by Marian Scadden, featuring cartoon children on stage in front of a castle backdrop.
Cover of a children's educational workbook titled "Read & Understand with leveled texts," featuring sections on vocabulary, comprehension, and reading, with bright colors and a yellow "New Edition" badge.
Five sets of black 13mm HB pencils in clear plastic cases with orange caps.
A white binder with a label showing a heavy-duty clear cover file folder, highlighting features like resistance to tears, high-quality material, split resistance, and easy opening and closing.
Package of Paper Mate handwriting pens with five colorful pens in green, blue, pink, red, and orange, a white eraser, and a pink and teal dual-ended pencil, designed for kids.
A package of Avery customizable tab dividers with 3 sets, featuring January to December months, designed for use with laser inkjet printers. The package highlights features such as landscape format and durability, with a focus on printable section ti
Cover of the American Authors card game featuring a portrait of an older man with a white beard and gray hair, against a blue background with vertical lines.
Book cover titled 'Children's Authors Card Game', edited by Thomas C. Clarie II, with portraits by Yury Shakov, featuring an illustrated portrait of an elderly man with glasses and a beard.
Box of educational Bingo game focusing on prefixes and suffixes, with a colorful design, showing a portion of a Bingo card with words like "include," "lovely," "mistrorm," and "unsafe," highlighting the game's features and age range for children 8 an
Bingo game set featuring rhyming words with images of a snail, clown, pail, top, cake, fan, moon, and frog, designed for children aged 4 and up.
Bingo game box titled 'Sight Words Level 1' with colorful lettering and images of red bingo balls, stating 'Exciting Learning Fun for Everyone!' and instructions for ages 5 and up, 3 to 36 players.
Bingo game card titled "Homophones" with words and red circles marking selected words, and text indicating it is for ages 8 and up with 3 to 36 players.
Educational Bingo game box titled 'Sight Words Level 2,' with the words 'after,' 'call,' 'have,' 'right,' 'over,' 'us,' 'about,' and 'don't' shown on the game sheet. The box highlights it is for ages 5 and up, with 3 to 36 players, and includes pract
Bingo game sheet with words like 'hush,' 'novel,' 'repair,' 'construct,' 'proceed,' 'terminate,' 'cooperate,' 'dense,' 'quick,' 'sombre,' 'miniature,' 'step,' 'attain,' 'approve,' 'discover,' and 'beneficial.' The words are connected with red markers
Bingo game box titled 'Parts of Speech' with colorful text and a chart showing parts of speech like adjectives, adverbs, and nouns, and a yellow starburst indicating it is for ages 9 and up.
Cover of a book titled 'Drawn Into the Heart of Reading: A Multi-Level Reading Program to Be Used with Books by Choice' by Carrie Austin, M.Ed. It features a green armchair, a lamp, a teddy bear, and a small stuffed animal.
Cover of a book titled 'Drawn Into the Heart of Reading' with a green armchair, a yellow lampshade, and a small teddy bear on the floor.
Cover of a student book titled 'Drawn Into the Heart of Reading' featuring a green armchair, a teddy bear, a side table with a lamp, and a pink wall.
Cover of a Grade 4 student workbook titled 'Daily Grams' by Easy Grammar Systems, authored by Wanda C. Phillips.
Book cover titled 'Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids' by Jess Zafarris, featuring illustrations of a unicorn, tulips, a seahorse, a skull, and a pencil on an orange background.
Cover of a book titled 'It Figures! Fun Pictures of Speech' by Marvin Terban, illustrated by Giulio Maestro, depicting cartoon characters and objects illustrating speech figures emerging from an open book.
Spanish flash cards displaying words and images for morado (purple), el cerdo (pig), la mesa (table), el avión (airplane), el sol (sun), and la camisa (shirt).
Cover of a study guide titled 'Everything You Need to Ace English Language Arts in One Big Fat Notebook.' It has a black background with white and red text, and an orange bar at the top reading 'The Complete Middle School Study Guide.' The cover also
Set of three Merriam-Webster reference books: Vocabulary Builder in teal, Dictionary in red, and Thesaurus in yellow.
Cover of Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary featuring a starry sky, moon, planets, children reading, animals, and nature scenes.
Cover of the book titled "The Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary" by Sue Young, featuring a yellow background with red, black, and purple text, and a red and blue border.
Image of a Zingo! Bingo game box, a red plastic Zingo! tile dispenser with tiles visible, and a Zingo! game card with images of a shoe, clock, dog, heart, and apple.
Zingo! Boost educational game box, game cards with images of objects, and green reward tokens with images of animals and objects.
Zingo! Boost game box, picture tiles with pictures and words, and stack of matching tiles.
Box of ThinkFun Zingo Sight Words Boost game with stacks of orange word tiles including words like "look," "good," "play," "thank," "see," "walk," and "find."
Hedbanz game box featuring three children, one dressed as a cat and others as a unicorn and a scientist, with questions like "Am I a bird?", "Am I an apple?", "Am I an animal?", and "Am I a cat?".
The image shows a children's board game called Jr. Boggle. It features a bright orange game board with white dice displaying letters. There is a cartoon bumblebee character flying above the game box, which has a playful font. The package indicates th
Box of spelling puzzle cards with animal and food images and words for children, age 4+.
A box of Rory's Story Cubes Classic, a storytelling game for ages 6 and up, featuring die with various images to create stories.
The packaging of Rory's Harry Potter story cubes game, designed for ages 6 and up, featuring Harry Potter characters and the Hogwarts logo, with dice and the instruction to roll and make a story.
A teal box of Rory's Story Cubes Actions with a cutout window showing illustrated dice featuring various action images, and the tagline 'Roll the cubes. Make a story.'
Book cover titled 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' with a pointing hand and a small orange circle indicating 'Fully Revised and Updated'.
Box for 'Frida's Fruit Fiesta Game' featuring colorful toucans, fruits like pineapples, berries, banana, and watermelon, with a lush jungle background and trees. Contains text about the game and a warning label.
A green and black box of Story Cubes Voyage game, with the lid open showing game pieces inside and an instruction booklet next to the box.
Spanish vocabulary bingo game with colorful cards featuring pictures of clothing, animals, and common objects, includes instructions and game boards.
Box for Illustory create your own book kit, featuring illustrations of children drawing and a whimsical cityscape with boats and clouds.
Colorful plastic letter and number construction set with a box and instruction cards.
Box of 'Apples to Apples' family party game featuring a cartoon old woman with glasses, a pug dog, and a brain, with cards in front of them and the game's title in large red, green, and black letters.