An extensive portfolio project encourages your kids to reflect on their personalities with multiple writing assignments. From activities on extended metaphors to writing about an important day in their lives, kids explore the way they...

Follow the format of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with a journal-writing activity. Readers choose a character and examine the character's life and circumstances through brainstorming, research, and discussion before...

Can letter writing really create social change? Pupils create and mail formal letters addressing a specific organization to promote social change they wish to see. Class members reflect on the process and responses they received in small...

Tap into the wisdom and knowledge of older members of the community with this New York Times plan. To warm up, learners write about and discuss advice they have been given. After reading "The Life Report," an op-ed column that asks older...

If you asked a fifth grader what went wrong in their day, you may get a more thorough answer than if you asked what went well. Help young learners find moments of gratitude throughout the week with a journal template that focuses on...

Keep your class in conversation with others across the country or across the sea by writing letters to pen pals. The activity calls for students to be pan pals with pupils in Africa; however, the listed steps could be used for any...

Academics take turns as actors in an engaging poetry cafe. Elementary learners work in small groups to create original poems or stories addressing community issues and read their work in front of a live audience. Scholars also reflect...

Do some good with social media. Secondary scholars participate in a live Twitter chat focusing on social justice issues. The thought-provoking activity allows academics to set up a live chat, create responses, and express their personal...

An activity boosts self-management through goal setting and reflection. Scholars choose one goal they wish to obtain by the end of the week. Participants brainstorm ways to make their goal a reality then reflect on whether or not their...

Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...

Encourage scholars to perform random acts of kindness. A lesson challenges participants to choose a peer they wish to be kind to without them knowing. Learners list five good deeds and choose one to fulfill. Pupils reflect on the process...

A hand-drawn thermometer provides a strong visual for how much of an emotion a child is feeling. Scholars color the thermometer's mercury to showcase whether what they are feeling is high or low at a certain moment. Questions allow...

This pre-reading activity will certainly make your class ponder. With five questions to reflect upon, get insight to the moral dilemma Percy faced in the novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. 

Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...

Strengthen the bonds of friendship within your class with a reading of E.B. White's award-winning novel, Charlotte's Web. Focusing on the unique characters in the story and the relationships they develop, young readers draw...

Students participate in end of the school year activities. In this reflective lesson, students take part in a closing circle, journaling, weaving a web, and hopes and expectations activities to reflect on what they have learned.

Middle schoolers will sing the praises of this music program. The resource, designed as an overview for music instructors, is loaded with ideas, activities, and links. Not a sour note in the packet. 

By writing a list of "The Top Ten Ways to Lose a Best Friend", students explore the true meaning of friendship by defining "how not to be a friend".

Explore the world of journal writing with this valuable lesson plan filled with suggestions.