The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.

Promotes collaboration in the classroom with a historical fiction instructional activity. Fourth graders partner up and read the other's narrative, in order to give feedback on vocabulary choice and accuracy of historical information....

Here is everything you need to teach fourth graders to write informative/explanatory articles in one unit plan. This carefully crafted resource packet includes lessons, exercises, and activities based on the writing process, that enable...

Julia Alvarez's How Tia Lola Came to Stay is the mentor text used in an expository writing unit that teaches fourth graders how to write critically and thoughtfully about text.

Launch a year-long writing program with a narrative writing unit that introduces young writers to the systems, routines, and procedures of the writing workshop.

Young scientists develop their observation and writing skills as they craft and then post a detailed description of a plant or animal they have spotted and photographed.

Preparation is key when it comes to dealing with disasters. Starting with a lesson series centered around researching the facts about different types of emergencies, children go on to create preparedness plans and learn how to respond in...

This is a fantastic resource for teachers to have in their tool belts upon entering into the world of using Google Docs in the classroom! It is a reference sheet with step-by-step instructions and graphics for everything from basic...

"I love it when a plan comes together." Building on the previous activity in this unit, young writers use their graphic organizers to create a draft of their constitution explanatory paragraphs. The teacher models this process for the...

New ReviewAcademics turn into storytellers in an engaging instructional activity on activism. The instructional activity focuses on promoting social change in local communities with stories. Young historians plan a storybook to target a specific...

Sharpen persuasive writing skills while trying to solve a community problem. Learners choose a burning topic and then write letters to persuade others to come around to their views. The provided procedures walk through how to guide the...

Boost writing skills and reading comprehension with a lesson plan that combines the art of journalistic writing and a favorite children's story. Young journalists compose an article referencing an event from the story, The Polar Express...

Halloween is the topic of a writing lesson that challenges scholars to research the holiday and create an information product such as a brochure or oral report. A presentation activates prior knowledge in preparation for a small group...

Over five days, scholars show their proficiency in cursive while writing a formal letter. Each day starts with an introduction and guided practice in preparation for writing their formal letter. Going through the writing process,...

Over five days, scholars conduct a character study and report on the class story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Scholars first examine a candy bar wrapper, list their observations, and name as many candy bar names they...

On the first day of school, get to know your class members, and encourage friendship with a poetry activity that uses adjectives. Scholars brainstorm personality traits, draft an "I Am" poem composed of words that describe them, then...

Christopher Paul Curtis's award-winning novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham provides the text for a compare and contrast essay in which writers analyze the similarities and differences between two of the novel's characters.

A whole-class discussion about segregation leads scholars' into the topic of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement. Small groups work collaboratively to respond to an informational text. A themed-word search is completed independently. 

A five-paragraph essay is the focus of a lesson designed to boost writing skills. Learners warm-up their writing muscles with several sentences answering a prompt. A group writing activity includes a graphic organizer, paragraph writing,...