The National Women's History Museum provides a plan designed to accompany their online CyberExhibit, Chinese American Women; a History of Resilience and Resistance. After examining a series of primary and secondary source documents,...

Create a picture dictionary for one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. After readers finish The Tempest, they assign each letter of the alphabet to a concept or character, and add a description and evidence from...

A series of reading activities is sure to engage your young readers! Based on comparing and contrasting ideas, the packet provides opportunities to compare characters, themes, texts, and other elements of fiction.

When is it okay to go against authority and what can happen if you do? This is the leading question in this activity to accompany your classroom reading of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. After reading...

Young scholars create a photo-biography of someone they consider a real life hero.  In this character sketch lesson, students define a hero and identify heroic characteristics in short stories.  Young scholars use descriptive...

Students read a chapter in a book.  In this character comparison lesson, students predict what will happen in chapter 5 of Sarah Plain and Tall, learn new vocabulary words, read and discuss chapter 5 and draw the first words of...

Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing lesson plan, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an animal they...

Students explore American tall tales. In this tall tale lesson, students discover the six characteristics that are included in tall tales. Students survey their class to find each student's favorite tall tale character and organize the...

Students explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this lesson.

Middle schoolers read sections of Mackenzie King's diary. King was the Prime Minister of Canada during WWII. They relate the importance of keeping a diary.

Fourth and fifth graders use their knowledge of developing character, dialogue, and setting to produce an original story. An excerpt from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is used as inspiration to get everyone's...

If your language arts learners have a hard time determining the universal theme of a written work, use a straightforward activity to help them find it. After reviewing a list of common themes, kids note the title, character, plot, point...

Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing instructional activity! This cross-curricular Ornithology instructional activity incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry,...

Students use the text "The Great Chase" to explore characters, views, and using words and phrases from the text. They write character profiles that describe the characters in the story. Students use key words and phrases from the story.

Students examine the battle of Gettysburg as they write news articles. In this Battle of Gettysburg lesson, students become familiar with the job of the news reporter as they report on the events of the Battle of Gettysburg as they...

It's no myth: this packet on Greek mythology is an excellent addition to your social studies curriculum. With writing activities, such as short answer responses and biopoems, and reading activities, which include creation stories and...

High schoolers discuss racial stereotypes.  In this racial stereotypes lesson, students develop a character from information given to them on an index card.  High schoolers give their character a race different from their own...

Young scholars draw pictures to generate ideas about a character. They use prewriting skills to plan written work. They then dictate or write detailed descriptions of familiar person, places, objects, or experiences.

Grrrrr, gargoyles are on the loose! Young artists are familiarized with the history of gargoyles, examine pictures of them, and hear a story about them. Then, they draw a gargoyle and write down exactly how they did it (procedural...

Students explore the concept of honesty. In this character activity, students work in groups to brainstorm and discuss what it means to be honest. Each group shares their ideas with the class and they keep a list of keywords and...

As part of their study of Out of the Dust, readers create a biopoem for one of the characters in Karen Hesse's 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel.

In this story elements worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer about characterization. Students describe the character's words, personality, appearance and reputation. There are four bubbles within the graphic organizer to...

In this language arts worksheet, students correlate events of a story with an emotion and then write a description of the story details.

Students revise Spanish mystery stories. They sequence the events from a group's mystery story and suggest revisions for the setting. They revise their stories using the suggestions from classmates and describe characters in folktales....