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 — 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 — Learn about Advertising
Build critical thinking skills in young readers by helping them understand the concept of advertising. Simple texts focus on the places where kids encounter advertising and explain how ad messages influence viewers. This series supports media literacy standards and shows students how to… 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 — Location
Students will learn key vocabulary words to describe the locations of objects. Repetition and color photographs reinforce vocabulary terms. 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 — Map It Out
In this series, students learn how to read a variety of maps, from a map of North America down to a map of furniture in a room. Simple text introduces map features, including a compass and legend key. 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 — Money
Covering the basic principles of money, commerce, and economics, these titles teach readers that everything has a comparative value. Simple examples—such as earning an allowance or selling lemonade—show ways that money is used in society. 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 — Responsibility in Action
This easy-reading series gives examples of how young people can show responsibility. Simple, straightforward text helps beginning readers understand what a process is and teaches them sequencing vocabulary. View →
First Step Nonfiction — Safety
This series offers early emergent readers an introduction to safety topics and describes precautions they can take to stay safe in various situations. Color photographs of children their own age along with corresponding text encourage students to practice making healthy and safe decisions. 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 — Shapes
These simple books for beginning readers introduce students to two-dimensional shapes and the vocabulary to describe these geometric concepts. The repetitive sentence structure familiarize students with sight words while vocabulary is reinforced with interesting full-color images. These… 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 →