Curated OER
Collective Poetry: Teaching Tolerance
Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...
Curated OER
Creature From The Deep
Students become familiar with oceanography terms by writing an oceanography horror story.
K12 Reader
The Magic Egg
A butterfly? A dragon? A golden fairy? Young writers create a tale about a magic egg, its contents, and what happens next. No yoke.
Curated OER
Character Bust: Ceramics Lesson
Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...
Schools Linking Network & Lifeworlds Learning
How Do We All Live Together?
Explore the concepts of community and point of view with these activities complementing the children's book Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Following a class reading of the story, ask students to either draw a map of the...
Curated OER
Once upon a Time in the 1800's
Young readers examine the details in an 1821 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting two sisters who are exiled princesses. They read a tale about the Brothers Grimm, who were writing fairy tales during the same time period that these...
Tellagami Labs
Tellagami
Bring the world of video messaging into your classroom with this creative communication application. Offering the ability to create animations with customized characters, backgrounds, and recorded messages, this resource is guaranteed to...
Curated OER
My Feelings
In this writing instructional activity, students make a list of all the things that make them sad, happy, lonely, angry, afraid and silly. Students then write 6 short poems and put them together to make their own personal book of poems.
Curated OER
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
Third graders participate in a pre-writing activity that reinforces organization in writing. They write a piece of narrative writing using the traits of organization.
Lakeshore Learning
Report Card Comments
Every teacher should keep this document handy when it comes time to writing report cards. It includes a plethora of ideas to look to for inspiration when commenting on student strengths and areas of...
Curated OER
Dear Peter Rabbit
Write dear old Peter Rabbit a letter with this activity. First, youngsters listen to the story Peter Rabbit and analyze the story elements. Then they complete a story map graphic organizer in order to write a letter to...
Curated OER
Pam Munoz Ryan Shares Writing Secrets
Students conduct interviews. In this interviewing lesson, students read an interview of Pam Munoz Ryan to see where she got her ideas from in her story. They interview someone and create a scrapbook to show details of the...
Curated OER
Writing a Storybook
Students explore language arts by creating their own stories in class. In this book making lesson, students read the story City Pig in class and create storyboard illustrations in order to analyze the story. Students utilize these...
Curated OER
Crazy Critters Creative Writing
Students brainstorm animals with unusual characteristics such as a giraffe with a short neck or a zebra without stripes. They write paragraphs about their animals and work in peer editing groups to refine their stories.
Curated OER
Story Pyramids
Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-The Gadget War
Students read The Gadget War by Betsy Duffey. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding inventors and inventions. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and library connections.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You
Ask not what the lesson here can do for you, but what you can do with the lesson. The answer is quite a lot! Young scholars revisit JFK's famous inaugural address with a focus on his plea for civic engagement. There's a...
Curated OER
Solar System Adventure
Students study the solar system and our galaxy, then write a science fiction story based on what they discover. They utilize worksheets and access websites imbedded in this plan to gain ideas for their stories.
Curated OER
Paul Revere's Ride
Third graders read and discuss the selection "Paul Revere's Ride" (included with the lesson plan). Students imagine they live in one of the villages that Paul Revere stopped. They are awakened by his knock on the door. Students write an...
Curated OER
Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures
Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...
Curated OER
Woodland Indians
Third graders research Woodland Indians. In this Woodland Indian activity, 3rd graders have a classroom discussion and write facts about the Miami Indian group. They write a narrative from the perspective of an Indian child.
Curated OER
Write Your Own Cultural Connections
Students write a cultural narrative. In this multicultural writing lesson, students create an expository narrative to teach others about their lives. Students complete the narrative and use a buddy editing strategy to revise their papers.
Curated OER
Nudging Questions
Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...
Curated OER
What Kind of Vessel Are You?
This is a strange question; but what kind of vessel would you be and why? After examining images of a large Inca jug, the class sets to writing a creative narrative that answers that very interesting question. They start by researching...