Launch a year-long writing program with a narrative writing unit that introduces young writers to the systems, routines, and procedures of the writing workshop.

Are your young writers unsure of what to look for when asked to edit a draft of writing? Direct them to this simple and attractive printable, which uses two acronyms—ARMS (add, remove, move, substitute) and CUPS capitalize, usage,...

Track instances of foreshadowing in any text with a straightforward graphic organizer. In one column, learners note down the events that happened, and in the other they list the clues that indicated that those events would happen. Some...

Are video games sports? Pupils investigate this question as well as various nonfiction selections to learn more about claims and the support that defines them. All of the selections mimic the rigor on state tests and encourage close...

Sad, depressed, miserable, inconsolable, forlorn: so many synonyms have a lot of variety with their connotations. Through the guided imagery activity, writers explore the use of connotation and its influence on imagery and description by...

Students read stories and explore the importance of sequential order. In groups, students are given sentence strips. Students holding the sentence strips, place themselves in a logical order to make a story. Individually, students...

Need some ideas for poetry lessons? Check out this packet loaded with suggestions for elementary, middle, and high school writers.

Who am I? Pupils work to answer this question through a unit that explores personal narratives and identity. Exit tickets for activities that examine different poems, short stories, and autobiographical writing serve as prewriting for...

Sometimes it feels like young writers just place commas as they please! Ensure that your pupils uses these important punctuation marks properly by requiring them to study the information here and complete the grammar exercise....

Academics turn into storytellers in an engaging activity on activism. The activity focuses on promoting social change in local communities with stories. Young historians plan a storybook to target a specific audience and social issue and...

Second graders read a book about carpets, a magic carpet ride, or some other type of story involving rugs/carpets. They examine discuss the classroom carpet, designate it the share carpet and develop rules for classroom carpet behavior.

Here is a must-have resource for studying fairy tales, myths, and folktales with your class! It includes instructional ideas, activities, and materials to support a month-long review of these three unique genres of writing.

Second graders focus on how descriptive words help them see, feel, and hear a story better. They listen to a read aloud of Angela Johnson's, "The Leaving Morning," while giving a thumbs up signal each time they hear a "sense or how"...

Students discuss the use of labels. They read the story "Cassie's Word Quilt" by Faith Ringgold. Students view the illustrations in the story. They discuss how the author used labels in the story. Students create labels for their own...

Young scholars research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.

The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.

Do talk back! The transcript of one side of a telephone conversation launches a study of dialogue. Class members imagine the response of the speaker on the other side of the conversation and record these responses on the provided...

Students discuss how to create a bully free classroom. They share teasing and bullying stories and read books on bullying and teasing. Students buddy read with second grade students in order to create friends at the school. They discuss...

Students read a story in which they identify the instances of dialogue. As a class, they determine how to tell someone is talking in their reading and use different sentences to identify where the quotations marks should be placed. To...

Students work with partner to look at and read pen pal letters. Students identify, highlight, and discuss five parts of friendly letter, including heading, salutation, body, closing, and signature, and write their own friendly letters.

Pupils discover how to use various tools to measure and draw angles. With protractors, they classify angles according to angle measure, identify vertical angles, and perform angle additions. For their final project, students create...

Students explore how to use quotation marks in writing to add dialogue to a paper. In groups, students observe pictures and add quotations to them. Students follow rules of punctuation and capitalization as they proofread and edit each...

Students investigate politics by writing a formal letter. In this U.S. Government instructional activity, students discuss political issues they would like to address and research their topic using the Internet. Students locate an...

First graders listen to "Behind the Mask" and identify all the descriptive adjectives in the story. After discussing the importance of using adjectives, they brainstorm lists of adjectives to describe jack o lanterns. Finally, 1st...