When is a staple remover a fanged monster? In your ELA classroom when you're teaching this fun figurative language instructional activity, of course! Get your young writers using figurative language by making a game of it. Give groups a...

Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...

Engage little learners in this moderately developed three-instructional activity unit on the composer Camille Saint-Saens and his piece "The Carnival of Animals." Each instructional activity includes a listening, discussion, and an art...

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...

Use this writing and photography lesson plan in your descriptive writing unit. Elementary and middle schoolers write and create a story line incorporating photos from Inspiration or their own personal photos. They experiment with...

For this ninth lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit, close reading skills are used independently to find the gist of the story That Book Woman. Rereading for important details is the targeted skill to unlock a deeper...

A reading of Pat Street's There's a Frog in My Throat launches a study of figurative language. Using a pocket chart, display one phrase containing figurative language. Class members choose the best explanation from three...

Students discover enunciation and alliteration by reading tongue twisters in class.  In this language arts instructional activity, students listen and repeat some of the classic childhood tongue twisters along with their teacher....

First graders explore language arts by undergoing a writing assignment. In this descriptive writing instructional activity, 1st graders identify the skills necessary to write in depth about a subject which they must do based upon a...

Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured...

Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science instructional activity. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing...

Study how plants grow with your English language learners with a cross-curricular lesson revolving around pumpkins. These activities provide opportunities to practice new scientific vocabulary while practicing skills such as estimating...

Students create nature journals. In this introduction to the nature journal lesson, students discover the uses of nature journals and begin their own. Students are challenged to use vivid, concise terms in their descriptive language....

Learners brainstorm ideas about how and why legends are created. In groups, they discuss how legends show cultural ideas. After watching a video, they use descriptive language to write their own legend using different cultures...

Enhance your foreign language young scholars' 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...

You don't have to travel far to learn about rocks, just step outside, pick up a stone, and begin investigating. After taking a class walk around the school grounds collecting rocks, young scientists practice their skills of observation...

Inspire your class to look at their environments as if they were seeing them for the first time in order to gain a better understanding of the concept of perspective. After exploring their communities and keeping a journal of major...

All about Canada! Learners explore the geography and providences of Canada by watching videos, studying maps and conducting internet research. By the end of this lesson, your class should be able to locate major areas and compare and...

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...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream," is one of the most famous in United States history, but why was it so effective? Ask your class to determine the answer to this question. While the resource includes a description of...

Explore language arts by completing a story worksheet in class. Readers will identify the importance of plot, setting, and character while they write their own short story. They also retell their story to a classmate and participate in a...

Do you remember the days when a cup of coffee cost five cents? At A.W. Dennett restaurant in 1894, you could buy a five-cent cup of coffee and as well as a five-cent slice of pie to accompany it. The menu from that year is a primary...

Writing can become one-dimensional if authors don't involve all their senses. First, scholars observe a strange object which, ideally, they can touch and even smell. Without using certain words (you can create a list or have the class...

Students describe properties of liquids and use descriptive language as a springboard to develop precise vocabulary for properties of liquids. They also use vocabulary as practiced with liquid-vocabulary card games. Finally, students...