Fourth graders, after reading the story, "Family Pictures," discuss the format of the story and then recall a favorite family experience of their own. They then write a paragraph as modeled by the author describing that experience with...

Fifth graders listen as the teacher reads "Voices in the Park." They discuss the character's feelings and write vivid descriptive words to indicate how the character feels about his experience. Students select one character in the story...

In this writing activity, students write an original short story on Puffins. Students utilize vivid verbs and adjectives in their stories.

In this coloring letters worksheet, students color two letters K and L. Both letters have animal images within the actual letter and make for a vivid reminder about the sound the letter makes and the words associated with them. K has a...

In this coloring letters worksheet, students color in the letters I and J and also the pictures of an insect and a jackrabbit. The objective is to enhance students' letter recognition skills and provide vivid images to help students...

Students create vivid, active characters for a story. For this character lesson, students discuss the characters in books they are familiar with. Students create a list of novels they have read and discuss the character types. Students...

Students write an essay about a special Christmas memory they have. In this Christmas essay lesson, students use vivid description to write an essay about a special Christmas memory they have.

Primary learners grasp sequence of events by discussing morning routines and reviewing the story of Little Red Riding Hood. They explore the necessity of correct order of events. As a class, create a story with a beginning, middle, and...

Young scholars create an illustration based upon a read-aloud. In this visual arts lesson, students listen to the book The Tarantula Scientist and listen for details. Young scholars create a picture based upon what they imagined during...

Teach your class the basics of narrative writing! The resource first describes the Common Core standard for narrative writing in-depth, and then moves into how to apply the standard. Show your class the example essay and quiz them...

Learners examine strategies an author uses to provide qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China. They apply the strategies to their own writing.

Review the narrative writing process with your emerging story writers. They read a sample narrative and identify five vague verbs that could be replaced with a more exact, exciting verb. Then they write a personal narrative making sure...

Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...

Direct your class’s attention to the elements that make their community unique. After examining sample travel brochures, groups select something from their community to use as the subject, and then research, create, and publish a...

Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...

Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...

Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...

High schoolers read and analyze Shakespeare's play, 'Macbeth.' They analyze how Shakespeare uses metaphors, imagery and dramatic cues to demonstrate Macbeth's response to fear, and perform without words a scene dramatizing Macbeth's...

Learners brainstorm all the possible scenarios that would help them tell a story in detail with the whole class and with partners. They create web outlines to create a name story and then illustrate it with creative grammar usage and...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

Analogies demonstrate how words relate to each other and crafting analogies is a good way to encourage learners to develop their understanding of the layers of meanings in words. This instructional activity provides pupils practice...

Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

Deep down, everyone is the same. Discuss the similarities and differences between people across cultures with a series of reading activities based on the beautiful story and illustrations in Whoever You Are by Mem Fox.