Are your pupils' essays full of long, wordy sentences? Help them to write more concise sentences with this practice worksheet, which provides twenty long sentences for your young editors to proofread. Use the activity as a homework...

A very good 13-slide presentation on similes and metaphors is here for you. It introduces young poets to each term, gives examples, and prompts them to work together to identify similes and metaphors in several different sentences.

Kids add interest to a paragraph about a day at school by replacing flat, over-used words with synonyms.

Combine a study of -op words with a bit of reading comprehension. Learners read a quick a silly poem containing many -op words and then answer three questions.

How did colonial settlement and the establishment of the United States affect Native Americans in the Chesapeake region? Your young historians will analyze contemporary and historical maps, read informational texts, and work in groups to...

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...

Creating a good main character is a must when writing a creative narrative or novel. Elementary aged writers create main characters for the novel they are writing. They first use themselves as a models, then create a character as a...

The best way to be a good writer is to read good writing. Learners read and discuss an excerpt from a book that will help them comprehend the relationship between setting and character. They will use what they've gleaned from discussion...

Introduce your young scholars to personification. The literary device is clearly defined and illustrated with clever examples. Opportunities for guided and independent practice using poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes are also...

Boris is the smartest baby around! Beginning readers can use this short story excerpt to practice reading comprehension and fiction elements. They read the story and then discuss what they think he will do next. Scholars create an...

Who is Zora Neale Hurston? Read the autobiography the best known female writer from the Harlem Renaissance. After reading the novel Dust Tracks on a Road, have your class complete this packet. There are 12 multiple-choice questions...

This is a fun mapping activity that will have your class knowing the ins and outs of the battles in the War of 1812. Your young cartographers will not only plot decisive attacks, but will analyze their purpose, goals, and impact on...

Earth is sick and needs our help! Read the children's book Planet Earth Gets Well to explain the various problems facing the planet, discussing what young conservationists can do to heal the planet along the way. A great Earth...

Getting tired of seeing went over and over again in student writing? Banish boring verbs with a list of 250 different substitutes for that mundane word went. Organized in alphabetical order, words such as bustled, inched, and tottered...

Having trouble evaluating your kids' handwriting? Print an evaluation guide and match their writing to the excellent, good, average, fair, and poor samples.

Represent family history visually by requiring your young artists to create family trees that express balance and symmetry. Pupils examine works of art, research their family histories, and put together large family tree posters.

Blue is sad, and red is angry, but why is that? Young artists explore the expression of emotions through art by observing and creating artwork. Starting with a questioning session about images of art, this plan moves into a sculpture...

What makes an effective fort, and why might a city feel that they need such a structure? Your young historians will explore the purpose and design for Fort McHenry, and build their own models of a fort based on the information they...

Young historians discover the life of an incredible African American woman who, as an anti-slavery lecturer prior to the Civil War, defied stereotypes of what women could accomplish. Pupils explore the concept of stereotyping, read...

What is stereotyping, and how do we handle stereotyping in our daily interactions? Your young historians will not only have the opportunity to learn about the first African American woman to publish a short story–Frances Ellen...

Do your students suffer from metrophobia? Assuage their fears by asking them to craft an acrostic, a form poem that begins with a single word. The first in a series of ten poetry writing exercises.

It's all relative. Young music theorists are asked to count to three and identify the relative major and minor keys of keys that share the same signature.

Get your class started on description and dialogue with a Jolly phonics worksheet! Learners decide what the three illustrated characters are talking about and write a brief description of their conversation.

Who would ever think to go to sea in a sieve? Only Edward Lear's Jumblies! The poem "The Jumblies" is the inspiration for these poetry reading and writing activities that ask learners to think about how strangers are different, consider...