Investigate the life of bugs and how they interact with the environment in this integrated science and language arts lesson. Young scientists construct mini environments in cages in order to make observations. This data forms the basis...

Students participate in an author study about Patricia Polacco focusing on her use of family and friendship as themes in her books. They write a letter to the author and compare her life to that of Beatrix Potter. They examine how their...

How many oceans can you name? First, have learners try to name as many oceans as they can, and then have them locate and identify the oceans on a world map. They create a recognizable ocean animal using poster board and tissue paper....

Have you just visited an art museum? Or can you create a gallery in your classroom to visit? Pupils create an original drawing that reinforces what was learned in a visit to the art museum. They will view original art work and verbally...

What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. In this lesson, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that a...

Young writers craft letters to the government stating their opinion on different topics. They pick an environmental or ocean issue, research it, and craft their formal persuasive letter. Ensure your learners include supporting facts and...

All ages love to engage in cartoon writing –- little do they know that they actually learn quite a bit from it! In an instructional session focused on literacy syntax and vocabulary, your pupils work cooperatively to draw six pictures...

Put your class in the shoes of someone - or something - else with this lesson, which encourages writers to keep a diary from the perspective of a living creature or an abstraction. Use Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm and the Six Trait...

Students write a topic sentence to a paragraph and explain that it introduces the main idea. After a whole-class demonstration, students write a complete paragraph with their topic sentence and supporting sentences. There are some...

After looking at pictures of trees, discussing tree growth, and identifying the parts of a tree, lead your class on a nature walk and have them collect samples and record their observations. They then work in pairs to polish the...

What a terrific exploration of writing! This resource focuses on how to write a great beginning for a narrative piece. It is a thoughtful and helpful look at this topic.

Conduct a classroom conversation about communication using this resource as a jumping-off point. For this The Learning Network activity, learners read an excerpt from The New York Times opinion piece, "The Flight From Conversation," and...

Is being uncomfortable worth it if you look good? Inspire discussion about fashion and culture with a brief New York Times article about painful fashion. Whether used as a persuasive essay prompt or as a discussion starter,...

A great resource for informational texts as well as writing topics, the New York Times website provides writing prompts about various news articles through The Learning Network. This particular worksheet provides a very short...

Using a constructivist approach and a graphic organizer, small groups work together to begin a paper, comparing and contrasting the novella Night and the movie Life is Beautiful. Assuming that your learners have studied both of these...

For each of these eight rectangles, scholars write out the multiplication sentence to find the area given the side measurements. They use an example for reference and must remember to include square feet in their answer. All measurements...

Take young authors through the writing process with a worksheet on editing. Given three sentences with unnecessary words, pupils cross out the extra words and write the rest of the sentence in the space provided. An excellent way to...

Teaching your primary learners how to ask questions? Then look no further. This worksheet introduces the six essential question words: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Children begin by practicing how to write these words, before...

All the tools (and directions) you’ll need  to build an essay are included in a resource designed for learners and educators. The packet can be given to class members or divided into sections and used as part of a series of lesson...

What is your favorite thing to do on a Saturday afternoon? You can look forward to a nice variety of descriptions from your youngsters regarding this classic writing prompt.

Let your voices be heard! Pupils research local and national environmental concerns using the Internet. Class members determine an issue they deem important and draft a letter to a local politician expressing their...

Investigate the choices people make between economic growth and personal growth and development using the ethical/decision making model. Small groups create and present a position paper describing their feeling for or against the...

Exploring the similarities and differences between the Black Death and HIV/AIDS, students write persuasive essays answering which is the "worse plague." This cross-curricular activity between Language Arts and Social Studies addresses...

The focus of this writing worksheet is to have writers revise and edit a three-paragraph passage to eliminate wordiness and repetition. The paragraphs are quite long, and this should take most students quite a while to complete.