Students, after analyzing interactions between groups/societies, effects of causality/change over time, forms of imaginative writing and utilizing art media to conveying messages/meaning, examine the relationship between clothing and...

Students conduct interviews. For this interviewing lesson, students read an interview of Pam Munoz Ryan to see where she got her ideas from in her story.  They interview someone and create a scrapbook to show details of the...

Students discover what it was like to cross into freedom. In this slavery lesson, students read the "Emancipation Proclamation," and letters written by Abraham Lincoln and John Washington (a former slave). Students identify the key ideas...

Students, who are talented and gifted, create tower structure according to the given specifications that is able to support a tennis ball for 75 seconds but costs the least to build. They each design a tower in their journal but work in...

Fourth graders discover similarities and differences in the lifestyles and geography of Utah and Japan. They use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast daily life and geography in Utah with daily life and geography in Japan. They make...

How can evidence and perspective challenge even the most well-known of stories? Through primary and secondary source analysis, think-alouds, and discussion, young historians evaluate the historical narrative of Rosa Parks across multiple...

Learners explore West Virginia history with regard to Mountain and Appalachian Culture. They compare and contrast life now with life 100-150 years ago. They write and illustrate a short story about the life of children 100-150 years ago....

Students examine the historical, social, cultural and economic context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Students determine the place of the middle class woman and her role in society.

There are many ways to tell a story; Richard Patterson's three-dimensional painting If serves as the inspiration for some creative storytelling for elementary school writers. They watch a clip from Toy Story (you'll need to...

Experiment with multimedia storytelling. After watching a segment of American Family, first, middle and high schoolers tell a story about their families, clarifying the setting, characters, and script. They work on setting...

Kids love to pretend. Use this imaginative energy to develop their understanding of characterization. Class members dress up as a character from their novel-writing project and sit for a filmed interview. In responding to questions about...

Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...

Readers of The Autobiography of Malcolm X continue their analysis of the methods Haley uses to show how Malcolm X is changing due to his exposure to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad.

“What do you think life is like at the South Pole?” After responding to this journal prompt, class members read and discuss the New York Times article, “At South Pole, New Home for a New Era.” Using resources available from the Times’...

Here you will find a set of brilliant story starters which can be used to give children ideas for a story. There are ten story starters all together, and each one of them should tickle the imagination of your young writers. Sometimes, a...

Explore fairy tales using this worksheet. Learners read parts of traditional fairy tales and then write their own versions. They complete five fairy tales in this manner. What a motivating way to cover this concept.

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

Comparing two different artistic mediums can be a welcome challenge. Learners compare Monet's The Water Lily Pond to three nature-inspired poems. They consider how each art form is interrelated, descriptive, and expressive. They then...

This teaching guide for Love That Dog and Hate That Cat includes suggestions for how to integrate Sharon Creech's books into a poetry unit, as well as writing activities, discussion questions, and tips for making poetry...

Using their keen eyes and ears, learners build story observation skills which they will use to create sensory detail in their art. They note all of the things they observed on a walk, categorize them by sense, and then use the same skill...

Build your learners' self-esteem with a series of lessons that focuses on their identity and observation of the world around them. Applicable to many different subjects and lessons, the resources guide kids through the process of...

What is the difference between Hercules and Spiderman? Both are heroes, right? Kids identify the characteristics that make a hero, and analyze the differences between heroes of long ago and today. They write creative stories describing a...

Have your class read this seven paragraph article about Chilean miners who were trapped and freed from a mine. There are five comprehension questions, a verb-to-noun matching exercise, a role-play suggestion, and a creative writing task...

Poetry and art analysis go hand-in-hand. In groups, youngsters analyze a landscape painting, making careful observations. They use details found in the painting to inspire an original poem. The poem must include at least three objects...