Curated OER
Scary Short Story Writing Lesson
There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...
Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character
Charlotte's Web: A Story About Friendship
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...
Curated OER
Spooky Analysis
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
Curated OER
How Do Adjectives Improve Writing?
Using adjectives to create vivid descriptions is the focus of exercises in this resource. A cloze reading activity asks class members to add missing adjectives to passages from Mark Teague's The Lost and Found. They then read...
Curated OER
A Noise in the Night-- Story Starter
In this writing worksheet, students read a scary story starter about hearing a noise in the night. Students write the story on the lines provided.
Curated OER
Writing a Halloween Poem
A delightful lesson on poetry is here for you and your middle schoolers. Learners are instructed to write a Halloween poem. They get to choose the age range for the audience of the poem. So, it may be scary (for older kids), or humorous...
Curated OER
Scary Stuff
Fourth graders interview community members for a newspaper, design a business brochure, write a disappearing ghost story, and try their hands at monoprinting. This series of three lessons combines art, journalism, and creative writing....
Curated OER
Adjectives in Stories
In this adjectives worksheet, students match adjectives with descriptions of different types of stories. Students then read a news report and fill in the spaces with adjectives that begin with the specified letters.
Curated OER
Creatures of the Night Lesson Plan
Students write a list of words that are associated with scary creatures that they imagine now or in their younger days. They read books that share ideas for dealing with scary experiences. Finally, they use a variety of art materials to...
Curated OER
Spooky Story
Second graders write a Halloween story. In this combined technology and writing lesson plan, 2nd graders create a Halloween picture using KidPix, insert it into Microsoft Word, and then write a story to correspond with the picture.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Tales of the Supernatural
Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic...
Curated OER
Scary Stuff!
Fourth graders interview community members for a "newspaper". They design a business brochure, write a disappearing ghost story, and experiment with mono-printing. They experiment with a variety of materials, tools, equipment, and...
Curated OER
Literary Elements: Storytelling Techniques
Students think about what makes a story interesting to read or hear. What kinds of details make a story come to life? How can a storyteller create a feeling of excitement or suspense? What kinds of characters do students like? If anyone...
Curated OER
Personal Narrative
As a review of the characteristics of a personal narrative, or as in introduction to this type of writing, this power point presentation could help writers better understand narrative writing. You might want to alter or add information...
Curated OER
The Malnourished Paragraph
Students revise writing to improve style, word choice, sentence variety and subtlety of meaning after rethinking how questions of purpose, audience and genre have been addressed. They recognize the importance of details in writing.
Curated OER
Writing a Book Review - Fiction
Fifth graders write a fiction book review. In this response to literature lesson, 5th graders read a story and share their understanding and opinion of the book. They write what the book is about, what they like about the book, and what...
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...
Curated OER
You've Got My Money!
Students recall Orff instrument families and specific instruments so that they can put sound effects to certain words in a scary story to make it more interesting.
Curated OER
Literacy Lesson: Guided Reading
Here is a wonderful lesson designed for students with special needs. This well-thought-out lesson uses Big Books, familiar stories, and has a lot of review learning built into it. The book, The Keeping Quilt is used in the main part of...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
Curated OER
Sarah, Plain and Tall - Intro to Literature Circle jobs
Young scholars read a book with each student having a specific job for the class. In this literature lesson, students read Sarah, Plain and Tall over 10 days, dividing up responsibilities for each student to make sure everyone...
Curated OER
What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...
Curated OER
The World of Amelia Bedelia
Get ready to laugh with your class by reading the book Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School. After they read the book and do activities comparing their first day of school with Amelia' they will then have conversations around the story....
Curated OER
Language Conventions: Elements of a Good Log Entry
Students use writing logs to achieve clear and creative thinking about the story they are reading. They then describe changes in mood that happened in the story consider why such changes usually occur.