Friends Helping Friends

Conduct the letter activity described here at the beginning of the year. First, give a copy of a friendly letter to each of your pupils. This letter should be written by you and about you. Include errors for learners to fix. Class...

Being a bully is one thing, but stopping a bully from bullying is another. At what point does a bystander step in and stick up for the target of a bully? This questions is the focus of a reading passage that explains the importance of...

Just because kids today are well-versed in texting and emails doesn't mean they shouldn't learn how to write a friendly letter! Reinforce their letter-writing skills with a lesson focused on the elements of a friendly letter, as well as...

Editing a letter isn't quite the same thing as fixing an autocorrected word on your phone, but it's an important skill that can help kids with their language arts skills. Young readers take a look at a short letter before identifying the...

Second graders add commas in a friendly letter between the city and country, between the day and year, after the greeting, and after the closing. They write four answers.

A terrific presentation on the teaching of friendly letter writing. Learners engage in a PowerPoint that is part story, part writing exercise. There are lots of great tips on how to construct a letter, and young writers are encouraged to...

Elementary schoolers complete word clusters after listening to the book Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague. They listen as the teacher stops to point out the unusual point of view and various persuasive...

Franklin the turtle makes a new friend as youngsters learn vocabulary in context using Paulette Bourgeois' story (tip: this strategy can be applied to any book). Brief kids on the new words so they can raise their hands when they hear...

Students define elements of stories from around the world that include helpful animals. They explore animal character motivations and use graphic organizers to compare and contrast animal stories from different cultures.

A servant with the ability to communicate with animals wishes to marry a princess. Find out how his animal friends help him make his wish a reality with a 14-minute audio story "The White Snake" by the Brothers Grimm.