A favorite activity for teachers – when not actually in class teaching – seems to be gathering classroom materials and sorting them for use throughout the year.  Teaching materials are one of those things that you can never have too many of!  There always seems to be a class, or maybe just one kid, who needs something different than what you used the year before.  And then there are those times when you just want to use something new!

So maybe it’s no wonder that teachers love to collect teaching materials!

So with that thought in mind,  here are some free teaching resources for  language arts.  They are designed for fourth through seventh grade language arts or reading classes.  Use the links to download one or all of them now!

Text Structures

These three free text structure activity sheets have activities based on photos and reading passages. The content of all three worksheets is climate-themed. Four different text structures are addressed.

Activity Sheet 1

• Descriptive text structure – photo with questions
• Cause and effect text structure – reading passage with questions

Activity Sheet 2

• Compare and contrast text structure – Venn Diagram based on photos
• Problem and solution text structure – reading passage with questions

Activity Sheet 3

• Writing activity about three text structures of the student’s choice about a photo

Here you can see one of the activities:

Task Cards

Here is a little set of free task cards for some extra reading practice.  It comes in two versions – a PDF for printing with two cards per page, and a set on Google slides ready for students to use on their tablets.   The pdf version has 12 cards, and the Google slides set has 6.

The short passages on the cards include a mix of fiction and non-fiction and skills such as making inferences and identifying the sequence.

These are two of the cards:

Book Response Foldable

This neat little book response foldable folds up into just the right shape and size to use as a bookmark –  perfect for not getting lost as kids read their novels!  It works for any novel, and other foldable bookmarks are available for sale as well for specific non-fiction and fiction genres.

There are eight sections for students to fill in about the elements of the story including characters, character traits, setting, problem and solution, and more. Students write, draw, and color to complete their bookmark.

Story Elements Card Game

Here’s a fun, whole-class card game for reviewing story elements.  The terms in this card game include: characters, setting, plot, theme, conflict, character traits, exposition, rising action, climax, static character, dynamic character, first person, third person, foreshadowing, and more for a total of 28 questions. Four blank cards are included so that you can customize the game to suit your classes. Directions and an answer key are also included. The cards are arranged four to a page.

Here you can see a few of the cards:

I hope that you and your students will enjoy using these free resources!  Check out my TPT store, Classroom in the Middle, for more reading resources as well as materials for teaching vocabulary, writing, and other language arts skills – including more free activities!