Curated OER
Encouraging Students to Embrace Their Inner Author
Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. For this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...
Curated OER
Scary Stuff
Fourth graders interview community members for a newspaper, design a business brochure, write a disappearing ghost story, and try their hands at monoprinting. This series of three lessons combines art, journalism, and creative writing....
Curated OER
Field Trips Can Inspire Students to Write Creatively
Fieldtrips can lead to a variety of writing experiences for students.
Curated OER
It's a Matter of Opinion
Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...
Creative Competitions, Inc.
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Fantastic Fairy Tale
Learning about literature can be so much fun; it can also be made more accessible through projects and dramatic play. As they explore theme, character, and setting, the class gets creative and makes a dramatic recreation of a classic...
Teacher Writing Center
Spring Lesson
Ring in the spring with a study of adverbs. These spring worksheets cover when and how to use adverbs, provide plenty of adverbs to try out, and use images of spring as inspiration for students to tap into as they write original sentences.
Paging Supermom
Postcard Template
A basic postcard worksheet could be a creative addition to your novel unit, pen pal project, or any other activity involving writing letters or sending mail. The template provides two postcards, each with lines for a message, a space for...
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: Grandmother's Cottage
This writing prompt provides students with an introduction paragraph about a trip to Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. Students can finish the story in a creative writing exercise. The prompt could be a good addition to a...
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: Tired of the Snow
This writing prompt about Earl, the polar bear, who is tired of the snow, helps students complete the story by providing the first few sentences. The prompt also sets students up with the first conflict, which they can complete as they...
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: Mothers Day
In this writing prompt, students can continue the story of Prince Rosco, whose mother has gone away for Mother's Day. The prompt provides the introduction of the story, and students can choose how to continue and end the tale of Rosco....
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: The Newest Reindeer
Students can finish the story of Pluto, the newest Reindeer, and his adventures at Rudolf's Reindeer Academy in this writing prompt. The prompt provides students with an introduction to the story and allows them to continue with details...
EngageNY
Researching and Note-Taking: Becoming an Expert on a Colonial Trade
Fourth graders work in small groups to become experts on different colonial trades in the eighth instructional activity of this unit. Working toward the long-term goal of writing a piece of historical fiction, young scholars read...
Curated OER
Exploring the Families of Instruments
Students investigate the families of instruments. In this instrument lesson, students discuss how each instrument family makes their sound. Students then make their own instruments. Students write a paragraph about their favorite musical...
Curated OER
Vocabulary / Writing Strategies
Young scholars will increase spelling and vocabulary skills. Then they will develop critical thinking skills. Next, they will develop expository writing skills. Finally, students will practice language skills with non-traditional text: a...
Teach Hub
Super Bowl Classroom Activities
Need some help getting young football fans to focus on something besides the Super Bowl? Use a list of football-themed activities for art, math, science, nutrition, language arts, and social studies to get their heads in the game!
Reed Novel Studies
The Year of Billy Miller: Novel Study
Can you really knock the sense into someone? It seems that the bump on Billy's head changed his perspective on things in The Year of Billy Miller. Readers discover that after his injury, Billy appreciates his parents more and is nicer to...
Curated OER
Who Am I?
Get to know a person in your class or a famous figure in history. With questions about the person's birthplace, parents, and what they are famous for. A space at the bottom prompts writers to list three things they have learned.
Curated OER
Printable Story Starter: Christmas Morning
A writing prompt about a surprise on Christmas morning provides students with the beginning of the story, and invites them to finish the middle and ending. This prompt could be a good addition to a Christmas-themed unit, or as a lesson...
Curated OER
Weather the Storm
Fourth graders complete multi-curricular activities for weather. In this weather lesson, 4th graders complete creative writing, research, and weather data analysis activities for the lesson.
Curated OER
Back to the Future
Learners imagine what it would be like to travel back in time. In this creative writing lesson plan, students watch parts of the film Back to the Future and examine artifacts from the past. Learners write a short story in which they...
Curated OER
Mighty Earth Movers
Note that although the publisher lists almost all of the Common Core standards for both math and language arts, you will most likely want to take the general topic and choose which area to focus on. Regarding math, pupils measure worms...
Denver Art Museum
My Animal Symbol
Here is an art lesson that combines visual arts and language arts into one very nice package. In it, youngsters study a fascinating painting called Painting of Bear and Sun Dances. They begin to understand the importance of traditional...
Curated OER
Slimy Advertising and a Wicked Resume
Students compare and contrast a classic fairy tale with a fractured one. They write an advertisement that would entice a witch and a resume for a frog prince who is hiring. They publish their completed work.
Curated OER
Human Body Corp.
Learners investigate body systems by participating in a role-play activity. Third, fourth, and fifth graders pretend that they are an organ or system of the human body, and they must write a letter to the body "corporation" discussing...