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Ideas + Resources
Free guides, activities, and teaching ideas.
Start with a book or find what your readers need.
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Select below to find activities, articles, and listening for your readers.
Find what your readers need
Explore the resource collection.
Choose a download, read a teaching idea, or listen for inspiration. Check each activity’s book requirements before you begin.
Downloads + activities (17)
- Download the guide
STEM Starter Pack
A design-thinking challenge using recycled materials. Students plan, prototype, test, and revise a flying machine.
Multi-book STEM pack
- Download the guide
Visual Literacy Classroom Toolkit
Use the pictures to notice facial expressions, motion, and details the short text leaves for readers to infer. K–5 toolkit, with teacher adaptation for Pre-K.
General picture-book activities
- Download the guide
Discussion + project guide
Ready-to-use creative activities help students see how stories work and start building their own.
Book-specific guide
Guide created by Debbie Gonzales
- Download the guide
Discussion + activity guide
Read, discuss, and write with Warning: Do Not Open This Book! and Please, Open This Book!.
Both named books
Guide created by Marcie Colleen
- Download the guide
Discussion + activity guide
Explore nouns, verbs, and the way language makes a story work.
Book-specific guide
Guide created by Debbie Gonzales
- Download the printable
Zoey Coloring Sheet
Bring Zoey to life with color. A printable for the Chicken series.
Chicken-series printable
- Download the guide
Zoey + Sam’s Word Search
Find words from Zoey and Sam’s world, including school and space vocabulary.
Chicken-series printable
- Download the printable
Noun Coloring Sheet
A Wordplay character printable for color and language exploration.
Wordplay printable
- Download the printable
Verb Coloring Sheet
A Wordplay character printable for color and language exploration.
Wordplay printable
- Download the printable
Noun + Verb’s Word Search
A quick Wordplay word-finding activity.
Wordplay printable
- Download the guide
Create Your Own Idea Jar
Collect characters, settings, and possibilities in an idea jar of your own.
Idea Jar printable
- Download the guide
Discussion, project + reader’s theater guide
Bring Idea Jar into writing, discussion, and collaborative storytelling.
Book-specific guide
Guide created by Debbie Gonzales
- Download the guide
Empowering Students with Picture Books
Explore voice, confidence, and creative expression. Includes I Don’t Draw, I Color!, Warning, Please, and books by Carmen Oliver.
Multi-book activity pack
- Download the guide
Emotional Memory / Mining Memory Activity Guide
Explore memory through art and writing with Lisa Rogers’s Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony and Beautiful Noise.
Uses named books by Lisa Rogers
- Download the guide
Interactive Reading Lesson Kit
Invite readers into a story through interactive reading techniques. Includes Bear Snores On, Jam, Too?, and Mahogany as examples.
Adaptable; named-book examples
- Download the guide
Improv Story + Heart Mapping Lesson Plans
Use collaborative storytelling and heart mapping to explore ideas, personal connections, and community.
Flexible storytelling activities
- Download the guide
Creative Writing Lesson Kit
Explore narrative structure and writing with picture books. Choose a narrative picture book that fits the lesson; examples include We Love Fishing!.
Requires a suitable narrative picture book
Teaching articles (9)
- Read the article
STEM picture books: engineering launchpads
Classroom activities that use picture books as a starting point for STEM thinking.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Build an idea incubator
Collect questions and possibilities that can grow into nonfiction writing.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Interactive reading techniques
Invite readers into the story with interactive reading techniques.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Build writing confidence
Explore belonging and story structure through inclusive picture books.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Picture books for tough topics
Explore how picture books can open conversations about grief, anxiety, and other tough topics. Includes There Was a Hole.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Build voice and confidence
Creative picture-book activities that help students express themselves. Includes I Don’t Draw, I Color!, Warning, and Please.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Visual literacy in the classroom
Read visual clues and explore how illustrations tell a story. Includes I Will Not Eat You.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Memory, art, and creative expression
Explore emotional learning, memory, and creative expression through picture books. Includes There Was a Hole.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Turn a picture book into a classroom activity
Find a starting point for extending picture-book reading into classroom activity.
Teaching article
Picture This listening (7)
- Open episode audio
Interactive Read-Alouds with JaNay Brown-Wood
Join JaNay Brown-Wood for ideas about interactive read-alouds, literacy, and STEM.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Crafting Stories with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Explore picture books, chapter books, and writing lessons with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Picture Books for Tough Topics
Explore picture books that open conversations about grief, identity, and more.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Unlock student creativity
Move beyond story time and explore classroom creativity through picture books.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Picture This: visual literacy
Explore why visual literacy matters in elementary classrooms.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Creativity with nonfiction picture books
Explore creative possibilities for teaching with nonfiction picture books.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Picture Books + STEM
Explore creative STEM lessons with picture books.
Picture This podcast
Have a book in mind?
Select a title to find its guides and activities.
This Is a Good Story
A story worth building.
Discussion + project guide
Ready-to-use creative activities help students see how stories work and start building their own.
Book-specific guide
Download the guideGuide created by Debbie Gonzales
Also useful: activities to adapt
- Download the guide
Creative Writing Lesson Kit
Explore narrative structure and writing with picture books. Choose a narrative picture book that fits the lesson; examples include We Love Fishing!.
Requires a suitable narrative picture book
Read. Create. Take it further.
Explore a teaching theme. Take the activity, read the article, or listen for more ideas—each works on its own.
Get everyone into the story.
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- Listen
Look closer. Find a story.
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- Create
- Listen
School visits
From the page.Into your school.
Bring creativity, critical thinking, and storytelling to life with a visit built around your students.
Spark curiosity.Curiosity
Build creative thinkers.Creativity
Give ideas a voice.Confidence