This clever lesson has your students listen to story about bugs, work together to brainstorm list of "ing" words that describe bugs, create t-chart of words, choose words to place in poem template to create class poem about bugs, and use...

Useful in an Of Mice and Men unit, or in a unit that focuses on descriptive writing, this lesson plan prompts young authors to impersonate John Steinbeck's writing style in the opening passages of the novel. A Six Trait writing...

Even though this is technically an art lesson, haiku poetry is actually the main focus! Learners view photographs of Japanese tea caddies. They list five descriptive words for the caddies, then write haiku poems using the caddies as...

Learners create a new super hero based on their knowledge of root words. In this word roots and origins lesson, students choose a Latin or Green root word to use as part of their super here name, then create a drawing and description of...

At the beginning of this Halloween instructional activity, learners generate a list of spooky characters and words that they will use when creating their original stories. Teams of 3-4 members create the stories together. The...

Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...

Through reading and writing, learners explore common elements found in fairy tales. After discussing traditional fairy tales, class members listen to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka, a hilarious retelling of the...

Second graders practice their creative writing by using descriptive words.  In this language arts lesson plan, 2nd graders utilize their best descriptive writing to elaborate on one of 20 different bean bag characters. ...

Show a Powerpoint presentation about descriptive writing. Fourth graders brainstorm a list of writing topics and place them in graphic organizers. Then they write their own paragraphs describing topics of their choice and create...

Young journalists write diary entries from the point of view of a person involved in a historical event. They focus on including facts, clear narration, and accurate description of the individual's feelings. 

After listening to the story, The Best Part of Me, learners will identify a positive physical feature of themselves, and create a descriptive poem about their favorite feature. Photographs are taken, and a nice final draft of the poem is...

A picture can speak louder than words. An interesting lesson introduces the themes of social justice and diversity to young learners by having them create artwork. Scholars create collages from a variety of sources to showcase what...

Learners explore teh use of texture. After compiling a list of descriptive words for various textures, students use modeling clay and tools to create a tile to demonstrate one of the textures from their list.

Young scholars explore the element of "line." In this beginning art lesson, students listen to the book Harold and the Purple Crayon, then describe the types of lines Harold drew. Young scholars identify straight lines,  jagged...

Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...

Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...

Students examine the battle of Gettysburg as they write news articles. In this Battle of Gettysburg instructional activity, students become familiar with the job of the news reporter as they report on the events of the Battle of...

Students read the book Because of Winn Dixie and then create a personal decalogue, which is a list of 10 personal beliefs. In this decalogue lesson plan, students then write a decalogue of a fictional character and write a story based on...

English learners practice using the past tense by participating in a time description activity. They identify the differences between verbs when they are used to describe current events or past events. Students answer questions using...

Students explore descriptive writing by creating headstones. In this memorial lesson, students utilize an 11" x 17" piece of paper to create a cemetery headstone memorializing a word rather than a person. Students decorate their...

Explore descriptive writing and visual art. Listen to the story Go Away Big, Green Monster by Ed Emberley and generate a list of adjectives used in the book. Name familiar shapes and create a shapes list. Choose an adjective and shape to...

Help learners improve multiplication skills by skip counting and creating their own multiplication word problems. They will begin by practicing skip counting and then illustrate word problems using a software program. Pixie is a software...

Here is lesson 5 from a 7 lesson unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this lesson is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use material data to study the past. They compose a...

What kind of shoe is this person? What time of day is this person? Aspiring poets’ responses to a list of questions provide descriptive words and phrases that can be crafted into a blank verse poem. A link to sample poems is provided.