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.
First Step Nonfiction — Habitats
Readers will travel to a variety of environments in this engaging series. The simple text and striking photography explore the types of plants and animals that live in each habitat. The books also shows the contrasts within a type of habitat—illustrating, for example, that some… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Kinds of Matter
Students will enjoy learning about solids, liquids, and gases while improving their reading skills. Full-color photographs and easy sentences introduce students to the three types of matter. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Kinds of Plants
Vibrant photographs and simple vocabulary introduce students to fruits, vegetables, grains, and flowers. Students learn about different types of plants while improving their reading skills. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Kinds of Weather
Students will learn general terms to describe various weather conditions in this easy-to-read series. Key terms are repeated while sensory cues describe what a child might see or feel in various weather conditions. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Landforms
Simple sentences and vivid color photos explain the features of various landforms. These books define each landform and explain what it looks like, how it is formed, and how it is useful to people, plants, and animals. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Let's Look at Plants
Vibrant color photographs and simple sentences introduce students to the parts of plants. Students will love learning about plants while improving their reading skills. This series meets both science and reading standards. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Let's Watch the Weather
This simple series introduces emergent readers to the ins and outs of weather, from what sunlight does to what a weather forecast is. Vibrant photos directly match the text on each page, and curricular features such as chapter headings and photo captions help kids learn about weather in… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Light and Sound
This simple, engaging series for beginning readers illuminates the basic properties of light and sound, from colors, shadows, and vibrations to ways we use light and sound to communicate. Bright photos, accessible text, and curricular features such as chapter headings and photo captions… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Living or Nonliving
This series explains the criteria for determining whether items are living or nonliving. Each book gives many examples, using text that directly corresponds with the photographs on each page. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Look at Trees
Vibrant color photographs and simple vocabulary introduce students to a variety of trees. The books can be used together to compare the various types of roots, trunks, seeds, leaves, and bark. This series meets both science and reading standards. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Materials
Build awareness of the many types of manufacturing materials. Photographs and text offer kid-friendly examples of products and what they are made from, such as cotton cloth made from cotton plants, and wool that comes from sheep. A spread in each book briefly explains a manufacturing… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Observing Fall
Take readers on a virtual autumn nature walk with these appealing informational texts! Readers will examine a wide range of curricular topics from size, shape, and color to various animal traits and categories of autumn crops while observing nature in the fall. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Parts of Plants
Introduce students to the parts of plants, from roots and stems to flowers and leaves. Support science concepts while building reading skills. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Plant Life Cycles
Readers will have a close-up view of plant life through the detailed photographs in this series. The images show a variety of plants, uncovering the secrets of how roots sprout from seeds, tubers, and bulbs and following the young plants through to maturity. Illustrated diagrams sum up… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Pollination
Emergent readers discover the process of pollination through simple nonfiction text. The books showcase connections between plants and animals as they depend on each other for survival. Main ideas are clearly explained, and science-specific vocabulary is supported by diagrams and photos. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Properties of Matter
This series teaches students about the various ways in which objects can be described and compared. Color photos accompany the simple sentences on each page. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Seasons
Learn how weather, daylight, plants, animals, and people all change their behaviors and activities in each season. A diagram and text in the back of each book explains how the amount of sunlight changes in each season. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Simple Machines to the Rescue
This series allows readers to compare simple machines to see which one works best in a particular situation. Each book sets up a problem. The kids test two simple machines and determine a winner. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Simple Tools
Each book in this series explains the uses for a simple tool found in the elementary classroom. With simple sentences and colorful photographs, this series corresponds directly to science standards. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Space
Develop young astronomers by exploring basic space concepts. Images from recognizable perspectives—viewing a night sky, for example—keep readers grounded, while scientific models and images from space expand their horizons. Simple diagrams help introduce readers to concepts… View →
First Step Nonfiction — States of Matter
This science series explores the physical properties of solids, liquids, and gases. The texts describe changes in states of matter using simple texts and corresponding color photographs. Meets national science standards. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Tools at Work
Vibrant color photographs and simple sentences introduce students to a variety of tools. Students will learn how these basic tools work while improving their reading skills. This series meets both physical science and reading standards. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Water
This simple series explores the world of water—from what it is and where it’s found to the process of freezing and melting, the water cycle, and how we use water. A simple diagram in the back of each book shows readers how information such as how much of the world’s… View →
First Step Nonfiction — Weather
This breezy series teaches basic weather concepts and builds readers’ observational skills. Additional back matter provides information about the types of clouds, the water cycle, the movement of the sun, how to tell the direction of the wind, and what snowflakes look like. View →