Fun awaits both you and your class as you embark on a musical activity. After discussing different rhythmic meters they choose a poem to set to music. The poem must rhyme and be set to a melody in the key of C Major. Because the activity...

Students research an author and gather information that seems to support that person as author of The Night Before Christmas. They work in groups to gather the most solid evidence and they write a persuasive essay presenting their argument.

Use nursery rhymes to help teach pronouns. Learners read the familiar sentences and replace the repeated words with the proper pronouns. Prior knowledge of these phrases helps to scaffold the exercise.

Put on some music and get moving as a way to represent the life cycle of a caterpillar. Kids listen to the story The Very Hungary Caterpillar, discuss the life cycle, then create vocal expression that represent each stage of the cycle....

Here's a really cute activity that utilizes all of your children's teddy bears. Each pupil brings their favorite teddy bear to school. The activity has many wonderful suggestions for learning activities that can be done with the bears...

Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...

Learners follow five steps to compose an alliteration poem. They choose one consonant and brainstorm as many nouns, verbs, and adjectives they can think of to create rhyming sentences that come together in a poetic fashion. 

Are you looking for a way to bring writing into your history lesson - or history into your writing lesson? This cross-curricular activity is helpful and fun, no matter what class you're teaching! Using "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by the...

Poetry comes in all shapes and sizes. Young writers pick a shape, select words and phrases that describe how the shape makes them feel, and create a shape poem. A raindrop example and step-by-step instructions give your...

If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...

Explication may sound like a fancy word, but it's just a fancy way to say analysis. Using a handout on poetry explications, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, writers learn how to break down and analyze a poem. The...

If anyone suffers from metrophobia—the fear of poetry—the PowerPoint on the elements of poetry may help alleviate their worries. The presentation introduces learners to poetic elements, including simile, metaphor, and personification....

Enhance your learners' knowledge of Emily Dickinson and her poetry. Specific questions ask for lines and words from poems. Feedback for an online quiz is available immediately.

This lengthy assignment was designed for English language learners. It includes a 1-page reading on the rapper, Jay-Z, and 10 activities/exercises that focus on listening and reading comprehension, speaking, vocabulary acquisition,...

Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part; but that is not the case with this poetry worksheet that asks scholars to read through a list of rhyming pars, choose three, and use them to write a couplet poem. 

Follow this lesson, which is written more like a script, to practice reading a poem with your class. Pupils read "The Road Not Taken" and respond to five multiple choice questions on a provided worksheet. The plan leads you through a...

A series of well-written activities, these lessons prompt middle schoolers reading below grade level (at a second, third, or fourth grade level) to use poetry to practice basic reading skills. They rhyme, build words, make inferences,...

What do the theme song from Gilligan's Island, the nursery rhyme "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," and the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" all have in common? Why, they're ballads of course! Challenge your young balladeers to compose their...

Whether using the alphabet, songs, poems, or rhymes, give your learners an opportunity to get their minds and bodies moving with this fun activity. This can be adapted to a range of movements or topics that you might like to incorporate,...

Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...

Students are asked what they think is happening in the picture of "If Wishes Were Horses." They are told that sometimes people who have no money ask other people they do not know for money. Students are told that a beggar would not...

Learners use KidPix to draw pictures, they are shown how to select and use different tools. They become aware of to use the keyboard to enter text. Students comprehend that their work can be saved and retrieved. They are introduced to...

Fourth graders view a poster of One, Two, Three, Four," they are told that the woman is named Mary. They are asked if they have ever seen a door like the one in the picture, where the top opens and the bottom stays closed? Students are...

Learners are introduced to "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son, they are told that the boy in the picture is named Tom. They are asked what Tom is doing. Students are asked if the pig Tom took belonged to him. They are then asked to speculate...