eSource: Free Teaching Guides
Select a product from the list below to view available teaching guides. Use the tags on left to filter the list.

Cloverleaf Books ™ — Space Adventures
Come along on an adventure to outer space! Fueled by imagination, the enthusiastic characters in this series take thrilling journeys to the moon, Mars, the sun, and more! This approach delivers space facts and teaches science concepts in an engaging way. View →

Crayola ® Seasons
The blue of the summer sky, orange leaves in fall. Celebrate the colors of the seasons with this charming Crayola® series. Vibrant photos and descriptive text encourage readers to notice color in the real world. Illustrations demonstrate art techniques and encourage readers to create art View →

Cycles
A well-illustrated series on nature’s cyclical phenomena. Each book offers three examples of a cycle and the scientific reasons behind them, all while providing an overview of the wondrous order of our world. View →

Early Bird Nonfiction Readers — Silver (Early Bird Stories ™)
Imagine you are an alien exploring earth and discover nonfiction topics that capture the attention of young readers—food, animals, weather, and more. A quiz to test reading comprehension is included at the end of each book. View →

Estaciones Crayola ® (Crayola ® Seasons)
The blue of the summer sky, the orange leaves in fall—celebrate the colors of the season with this charming Crayola ® series in Spanish. Vibrant photos and lyrical text encourage readers to notice color in the real world. Illustrations demonstrate art techniques and encourage readers to… View →

Fall Fun (Early Bird Stories ™)
Entertaining stories follow diverse characters as they celebrate aspects of fall. Each book is sprinkled with critical thinking, recall, and text feature questions to encourage reader engagement. In the back of the books, photos accompany fun facts about fall, and educators can also… View →

First Step Nonfiction — Animal Adaptations
Introduce the concepts of adaptation and habitat to beginning readers. Each title presents the animals found in a specific habitat and invites readers to explore how the animals are adapted to their surroundings. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Animal Families
Facilitate students’ understanding of how young animals resemble their parents. Engaging photos and simple sentence structure will help early emergent readers grasp these concepts quickly. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Animal Homes
Trees aren’t just for birds! Animals live in a variety of homes in every habitat. Direct picture-to-text correspondence makes this series an excellent choice for the budding zoologists in the classroom. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Animal Life Cycles
Captivating photographs of familiar animals help readers learn about a variety of animal life cycles. The selected subjects represent five major classes of animals—insects, birds, amphibians, mammals, and reptiles. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Animal Traits
Beginning readers will enjoy discovering the traits shared by different animals. They will delight in learning that humans share some of those traits too! Full-color photographs support the text. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Backyard Critters
Engage young readers with basic yet astounding scientific facts about the tiny creatures that live in backyards and parks across the country. Caption call-outs highlight key visual details in the books’ eye-catching images, and informative chapter headings assist emergent readers… View →

First Step Nonfiction — Balance and Motion
This series introduces students to different motion concepts—from spinning and rolling and staying still to going from here to there. Colorful photos and simple sentence constructions support beginning readers while teaching key science content. This series meets both science and reading View →

First Step Nonfiction — Body Coverings
This beginning reader series describes the different body coverings of familiar animals. Vibrant color photos correspond directly with each page’s simple text to reinforce concepts and vocabulary. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Changing Forms
This series will help students discover how familiar objects change form through heating and cooling. See what happens to popcorn, ice cream, or candles when they are heated or cooled. Each book offers a close yet accessible look at physical or chemical processes—a key component of View →

First Step Nonfiction — Changing Matter
This science series explains how some forms of matter respond to various forces. Simple text and vivid color photographs encourage students to observe, describe, record, and predict the many types of changes in matter. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Classroom Pets
Introduce students to the dos and dont’s of taking care of common classroom pets. Readers will learn what type of container their pet needs, what their pet eats, and what its daily habits are. Fun facts in the back of each book will also capture interest. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Colors
Using simple vocabulary and photographs, this series introduces beginning readers to colors. The easy-to-read, repetitive format helps students recognize sight words and become familiar with simple sentence construction. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Discovering Nature's Cycles
Designed for students at a first grade reading level, these titles help young readers identify and predict cycles in the natural world through examining animal behavior or natural phenomena. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Ecology
Explore the concept of interdependence of life with young readers. Each of these engaging, photographic books looks at how people, plants, and animals need a healthy environment—and each other—to survive. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Exploring Materials
Clear photographs introduce beginning readers to common objects made from the same material. Students can compare and contrast the properties of the materials while improving their reading skills. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Farm Animals
This series explains the unique features and roles of various farm animals using simple text and color photographs. A diagram and fun facts complete this introduction to familiar, kid-friendly animals. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Food Groups
Build nutritional awareness in beginning readers through this appetizing series. The main text explains why each food group is beneficial and how much to eat. Kids will especially enjoy the trivia in the back of the book. View →

First Step Nonfiction — Forces and Motion
Readers will easily grasp central concepts of physics in this fun series. From roller coasters to pool floats, and swings to hula hoops, the examples in the text and photographs illustrated each force or motion in the series. Rich back matter offers additional facts about the physical… View →