Books in Total Basic Skills series

Go beyond memorizing names and borders. Explore new routes to learning about maps. Map Skills - Grade 3 journeys from reviewing the compass rose to using a map scale and lines of latitude and longitude. Your students will experience a wide range of adventures using map symbols and keys as they visit a mall, help a mail carrier follow her route, track down a mission person, and travel the United States. Every page offers opportunities for discussion. Work together as a class or with partners, or alone. Your students will have lots of fun learning and exploring.

The skill of inferencing, using information to draw a logical conclusion, is a higher-level thinking skill that is sometimes difficult for young students to master but very important to reading comprehension. The high-interest lessons in this book aresupplemented with a variety of activities to make learning the skill of inferencing fun. The exercises increase in difficulty as the book progresses, so the students practice more advanced skills as they work through the book.With a variety of fun and instructional formats, teachers can provide direct instruction, reinforcement, or independent practice throughout the year.

Diagramming helps students understand sentence structure and the different parts of speech. Book 2 builds on the diagramming skills taught in Book 1 and introduces appositive phrases, the different kinds of sentences, noun clauses, and more. Each lesson describes the specific structure under study, gives examples, and provides sentences for diagramming practice. Students are then challenged to generate their own sentences to fit the models. Even teachers unfamiliar with the diagramming process will find the step-by-step format easy to follow and use to instruct students. Hands-on practice with grammar strategies such as diagramming and sentence variety is a step in the right direction for proficiency in writing and oral communication.

Dictionary skills are the building blocks for using all reference materials. However, many students are not confident using dictionaries. Building Dictionary Skills familiarizes students with the information included in dictionaries, as well as tools to help them quickly locate words and find meanings. Practicing dictionary skills will help students effectively use dictionaries to verify spellings, look up new words, and learn new meanings.The enjoyable activities, puzzles, codes, and riddles in Building Dictionary Skills introduce the most essential reference skills supported by the NCTE and IRA standards. The reproducible worksheets provide progressive instruction of topics such as alphabetizing, guide words, and phonetic spellings. Students will learn to look up words, pronounce words, and understand dictionary entries. Dictionary skills are strengthened by specific activities on parts of speech, syllabic divisions, prefixes and suffixes, and multiple definitions. This workbook will help your students learn to successfully use any dictionary, including The McGraw-Hill Children's Dictionary.

The skill of inferencing, using information to draw a logical conclusion, is a higher-level thinking skill that is sometimes difficult for young students to master but very important to reading comprehension. The high-interest lessons in this book aresupplemented with a variety of activities to make learning the skill of inferencing fun. The exercises increase in difficulty as the book progresses, so the students practice more advanced skills as they work through the book.With a variety of fun and instructional formats, teachers can provide direct instruction, reinforcement, or independent practice throughout the year.

Total Basic Skills provides second graders with the key to total school success! This 352 page workbook features 4 core subjects that provide in-depth practice in essential skills. With easy-to-understand directions this workbook also features fun, interactive games in addition to a complete answer key. Skills include: •Reading comprehension •Numbers, math operations, and problem solving •Phonics, vocabulary, and spelling •Writing and grammar

Total Basic Skills provides first graders with the key to total school success! This 352 page workbook features 4 core subjects that provide in-depth practice in essential skills. With easy-to-understand directions this workbook also features fun, interactive games in addition to a complete answer key. Skills include: ~Reading comprehension ~Numbers, math operations, and problem solving ~Phonics, vocabulary, and spelling ~Writing and grammar

Story Elements, Grades 5-6 reviews the elements necessary to critique and discuss a story. Teachers, parents, and students who read through the pages of this workbook are encouraged to consider such literary elements as genre, character, setting,action, plot, subplot, climax, point of view, and conflict/problem. Pages from this book can be used individually to strengthen the recognition of a specific element, or to introduce it as a topic. Workbook activities can also act asspringboards prior to creative writing sessions. Teachers might want to use certain pages on more difficult concepts-such as point of view-to help review the material after it has been worked on in class.

Story Elements, Grades 3-4 is designed to introduce young readers and writers to the tools that authors use as they create stories. The activities explore the concepts of character, setting, problem (conflict), and plot. The book is divided into sectionsfor each concept, with mixed-skills pages at the end. In each section, activities progress from an introductory page to more challenging exercises. Pages from this book can be used individually to strengthen the recognition of a specific element, or tointroduce it as a topic. Teachers might want to use certain pages on more difficult concepts-such as identifying a story's climax-to help review the material after it has been worked on in class.

Summarizing, Grades 3-4 contains guided activities that help develop and achieve this skill. Students will progress from selecting main ideas and details to writing their own summaries. As this skill is practiced in reading, students will naturally beginto use the skill in writing and speaking. Summarization is a concept used throughout the curriculum. Social studies, science, language, and reading all use the skill of summarization in written, read, and oral lessons.This book is especially designed to help practice the concept of summarization by modeling examples of summaries and providing practice in pinpointing important events in stories, poems, and cartoons.

Summarizing, Grades 1-2 uses guided activities that help develop and achieve this skill. Students will progress from selecting main ideas and details to writing their own summaries. As this skill is practiced and achieved in reading, the student willnaturally begin to use the skill in writing and speaking. Summarization is a concept used throughout the curriculum. Social studies, science, language, and reading all use the skill of summarization in writing, reading, and oral lessons.This book contains cross-curricular topics as well as fiction. It provides opportunities for students to summarize material that is familiar and relevant to daily life such as maps, lists, recipes, and schedules.