Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" models the power of descriptive language for middle schoolers. They identify the similes and metaphors in the tale and consider what these descriptions add to the story's emotional...

Guess the setting in a series of reading passages that allow learners to make inferences. Five short descriptions prompt kids to match one of four settings, based on context clues.

Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help...

Extra, extra, read all about it! Use a newspaper as the primary resource in a special education classroom to teach reading, writing, and math skills. The activities help class members build their reading skills as well as their...

Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...

Deafening, dusty, debris. Such were the working conditions in the 1800s textile industry as portrayed in Katherine Paterson's novel Lyddie. Scholars watch a short video clip about life and work in the mills. Next, they work...

Pairs of pupils choose a person who they consider to be a hero. They research that person, develop a speech, and deliver it to the class in hopes of persuading them that this person really is a hero. A vote is taken after the...

Sixth graders discuss their likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, and special events in their lives. They write a five paragraph autobiography focusing on style, transitions, and details. This is well-suited for either explanatory or...

Scholars creatively respond to writing prompts. They respond to writing prompts that reveal clues regarding their personalities and then use the prompts written in class to guess the prompts that belong to their classmates.

Young writers choose a person from American history, their community, or their family to use as the subject of a persuasive essay. The process begins with a discussion of the characteristics of a hero, the completion of a prewriting web,...

Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies.  After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...

Students research Internet sites for lighthouses. In this lighthouses lesson, students learn facts about lighthouses in the United States. Students complete a related worksheet and share their information with the class.

Pupils examine and discuss author's purpose and the influence of an author's perspective in his or her writing. In groups, they read scenarios and respond to them from the perspective of a designated character. Materials are attached.

In this creative writing worksheet, students sort through old pictures and discuss the characterization in each. Students create characters, a setting, and their own tall tale or urban legend based on the pictures.

Here is a good four-page worksheet designed to get your young inventors thinking about a simple machine they could design and build. They must answer some basic questions about their machine, draw a sketch of their idea, and write a...

Sixth graders create a descriptive essay and map describing their island paradise. They try to evoke the reader's senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. They revise their paragraphs using their partner's feedback.

Young scholars write a descriptive paragraph. For this writing lesson, students define elaboration and discuss the characteristics of an elaborate paragraph. Young scholars write a paragraph that contains vivid adjectives, strong verbs...

Fifth graders use descriptive words to write a recipe. They use the theme of Spring describing what would make for the perfect spring break, vacation, or day. They write their recipe on a recipe card and display their recipes on the...

Learners examine the media by writing a compare/contrast paragraph. For this mass communications lesson, students identify and discuss the main sources of information for Americans in today's age. Learners analyze pictures of people...

Learners think of a way to change the world and write a descriptive paragraph about it. In this change the world lesson plan, they view a clip from a movie such as Pay It Forward and then choose their own way to change the world.

In this descriptive paragraph worksheet, students write a descriptive story from the poem "The Voice." Students answer ten questions before they start to aid them in their writing and use quotations from the poem.

Eighth graders read and discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then they invent a candy bar, name it and draw a picture of it. Finally, they write a short descriptive paragraph about it.

Students learn about similarities and differences between different types of weather patterns.  In this weather lesson, students read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Weather.  Students create a word search puzzle,...

Fifth graders explore the four quadrants of a coordinate grid.  In this graphing instructional activity, 5th graders trace sea shells in each of the four quadrants of a coordinate grid and then label the ordered pairs on each...