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...

Elementary writers practice writing descriptive paragraphs by adding adjectives and sensory words to their writing. They use a picture of a monster for their descriptive paragraph. This 12-page lesson should increase your charges...

How better to get your writers painting a picture with words than to actually have them paint a picture? Well, drawing works just fine in this case, but the idea here is to get budding authors illustrating settings from their novel to...

Have you assigned your learners a creative writing project, only to find that their incredible creativity doesn't easily translate to writing? Here's some practice to kick them into sensory overload! Using their five senses, they choose...

A vivid setting can bring a story to life. Challenge your writers to dive into this element as they complete worksheets in preparation for their first draft. This packet starts by giving an example of a description that simply tells who...

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 note-taking...

Writer's workshop is an idea that's been around for years. Students write, read, and comment on each others writing in an authentic and thoughtful way. Here is a 21st century twist, 6th graders will use the class blog to create a...

If you could build your own world from the ground up, what would you include? Ask your pupils this question, and have them write about their worlds and share with partners. Then, show the short film, which includes some impressive world...

Give your class a tour of London! Before you get started, pupils can brainstorm what they do and do not know about the city and discuss how they think it may have changed over the years. The provided video shows footage from London in...

Add many seconds of beauty to your class with a short film and related project. The resource centers around a competition based on one-second segments of film, and the final compilation that came from the contest. Pupils identify moments...

Much of Robinson Jeffers' poetry is grounded in place. Read three poems with your class ("Carmel Point," "Bixby's Landing," and "Hands") and examine the locations described and language used in the poems. Pupils locate the locations on a...

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

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...

Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts instructional activity. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of...

The best stories ever written are those with characters that come to life. The fifth lesson of this narrative writing series teaches young writers how thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue add depth to characters. Pause the video at...

Dialogue really brings a story to life and can reveal a lot about its characters, plot, and setting. Explore how this literary technique is used to engage an audience as young writers begin drafting their narrative response to The Story...

Here is a lesson that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to create (write)...

Improve your youngsters' descriptive writing. They study an object and write about what they see as a warm-up, then they read an excerpt from Paul Guest's memoir, One More Theory about Happiness. The next part of the activity prompts...

Set your class up for success with writing descriptive settings with these two graphic organizers. On the first page, writers note specifc details about their chosen setting and comment on how each character views the setting. The second...

A woven rug depicting birds and cornstalks becomes the inspiration for a lesson on critical thinking and creative writing. Learners analyze the symbolism found in the rug and then compose a descriptive paragraph or poem that embodies the...

Cross-media analysis takes time and attention to detail. The class analyzes the painting Long Jakes and the poem "Backward Bill." They pay attention to the similarities and differences in each piece, looking for details that describe the...

Kids love to write fantastic and suspenseful stories, but they can sometimes get out of hand and confusing. To clear up all the clutter, they read a wonderful fictitious white-knuckle story and use it as a model for their own tales of...

There is nothing more real for some children than being torn between mom and dad and the world of divorce. Learners read a touching story about a girl between families, they analyze how the author used descriptive language to show rather...

Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...