Curated OER
Descriptive Writing Using the Book Rumpelstiltskin
Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...
Curated OER
Fortune Cookies Motivate Writing
Fortune cookies are used as motivation for a story. In this creative writing lesson, young writers review the six traits process. They discuss interesting characters, setting, problem and solution in a story. Original stories based on...
Scholastic
Quick as a Cricket Lesson Plan
Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts activity. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of a simile as...
Curated OER
The Rooms in a Home
Enhance your foreign language students' skills to describe a house. After reading a description of rooms in a house in their target language, they work to answer corresponding questions correctly. Additionally, they view a PowerPoint...
Curated OER
Let's Go Exploring!
Use a Courbet painting of a cave or tunnel opening to reinforce the importance of descriptive writing. Writers of all ages use sensory details to describe what the scene depicts as they pretend to be in the painting. Then they imagine...
Curated OER
What A Pair! A Cross Grade Writing Activity
What a pair! Older pupils interview younger ones and use what they learn to write a short, illustrated storybook that features the youngster as the main character. The youngster responds with a thank-you note in which they identify their...
K12 Reader
Describe It with Adjectives
Put children's descriptive writing skills to the test with these fun collaborative writing activities. Presented with the picture of an object, young writers are are tasked with creating a description that provides enough detail for one...
T. Smith Publishing
Writing a Friendly Letter
Just because kids today are well-versed in texting and emails doesn't mean they shouldn't learn how to write a friendly letter! Reinforce their letter-writing skills with a lesson focused on the elements of a friendly letter, as well as...
Education World
Take Five: Writing a Color-Coded Paragraph
Use a traffic light to model a very basic paragraph plan. The Go, or topic sentence, is written in green and expresses an opinion about the topic. Information that supports the opinion of the Go sentence is written in yellow and the...
Curated OER
Lesson: Uncovering a Mystery: Making a Hypothesis
The class is presented with an image of a hand-carved leg. They act as art historians and hypothesize as to the purpose, nature, and creators of this amazing wooden leg. They compose journal entries from the point of view of an art...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing
Second graders analyze descriptive writing. In this writing instructional activity, 2nd graders read a story with a villain, describe the villain in words, and create a Wanted Poster describing him on paper.
Curated OER
Traditional Writing vs. Collaborative Writing
Students examine language arts by completing a group activity. In this writing styles instructional activity, students define and discuss the differences between collaborative writing and traditional writing while answering questions in...
Curated OER
Learning About Trees
After looking at pictures of trees, discussing tree growth, and identifying the parts of a tree, lead your class on a nature walk and have them collect samples and record their observations. They then work in pairs to polish the...
Berkshire Museum
Nature Journaling: Experience the Outdoors Through Writing and Drawing
Step into the great outdoors and develop young scientists' skills of observation with a nature journaling lesson plan. Given a specific focus or goal, children practice making and recording observations of nature through written...
Curated OER
"Snapshot" Exercises & Sensory Detail Word Bank
Read a sample of creative descriptive writing to your science class. Discuss how writing can be used to record and communicate observations that scientists make. Reading selections and thought-provoking questions are suggested. Also...
Curated OER
Monster Descriptions
Monsters take center stage! Elementary schoolers are assigned to write a descriptive paragraph by a toy company to help in designing a new monster for their toy line. One student composes the paragraph, another uses that to create a...
Curated OER
Lesson: Possible Perspectives
Visual art is the inspiration for a creative writing activity focused on having learners write from different perspectives. They analyze the image Yellow Rain Jacket, picking out details to help their storytelling. They use the details...
Curated OER
Writing Expository Paragraphs
Students read Arthur's Pet Business and complete a pre-writing worksheet for expository writing. In this paragraph writing instructional activity, students gather and organize material for a paragraph about pets.
Curated OER
Harmony and Expression in Writing Form
How do you write an interesting beginning, middle, and end of a story? With this lesson plan, young writers look to other stories as examples. Then, they use some of the attached graphic organizers to help them create their own story....
Curated OER
Write Letters to Commemorate 9/11
Students commemorate 9/11 by writing letters to fire, police, or emergency medical personnel in local communities or to the service men and women who fight terrorism overseas in this activity. The idea is to show appreciation to those...
Curated OER
Write a Story
Here is a great way to explore narrative writing! Learners review a previously constructed story map and identify the characters, setting, and main events in the book Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel. They...
Curated OER
Imagery
Students write using imagery. In this descriptive writing lesson students write a descriptive paragraph about their favorite season. They use a chart to compile words related to their senses and emotions.
Curated OER
My Favorite Room
Students practice describing a room. In this descriptive writing lesson plan, students use all of their five senses to describe their favorite room. The teacher will model for the class by creating a word list that describe the classroom...
Berkshire Museum
Adopt a Schoolyard Tree
Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it in...