App State
Brainstorming
Get your young writers outside of the traditional essay writing mode with Free Write Friday. Free Write Friday encourages your class to use personal experiences or knowledge to write more creative pieces. Young writers could experiment...
Curated OER
Writing About Time: My Favorite Times
Start by clicking on the icon that says, "Download the Activity." The format is much easier to read and understand here! Then, encourage your class to write about some of their favorite things through a three-paragraph essay. Examples...
Curated OER
Making Magical Creatures Talk
Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.
Curated OER
Fabulous, Fractured Fables
Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...
Curated OER
Biopoem: Ender's Game
Here's an activity designed to encourage character analysis. Readers craft a biopoem for a character in Orson Scott Cards' popular science fiction novel Ender's Game.
Curated OER
Onomatopoeia
This mini-lesson on onomatopoeia introduces the device through a poem and definition. It culminates in drawing an element of nature with the sound associated with it written across the picture.
Curated OER
Discovering Japan Through Cooperative Research
Search a variety of sources to create a multimedia or book project about Japan. Learners use the independent investigation method to plan and conduct research about Japan. They use the information they discover to create a computer book...
Curated OER
Be Specific, Go West To The Pacific
Fifth and sixth graders follow Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the Pacific and back again. They read online journal entries made by Lewis and Clark to gather information. The official Lewis and Clark website is used by learners to...
Playbooks
Reader's Theater Exercise: The Night Before Christmas
Yes, Virginia, there really is a reader's theater script for "The Night Before Christmas." The exercise is a great way to productively channel pre-holiday energy.
Scholastic
Narrative Writing
If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
As your authors prepare to write a hypothetical novel, they need all the inspiration they can find! Using a book they have already read (and enjoyed), learners complete a literary analysis by filling in eight short-answer...
Montgomery County Public Schools
Summer Journal Ideas
Twenty prompts, fifteen starters, and ten situations. What more could you ask for from a list of journal ideas?
Curated OER
Preposition Pizazz
Students examine examples of poems and identify the prepositions in them. They write original poems using prepositional phrases and create illustrations to go with them.
Curated OER
Poetry for Home: Homelessness
Learners read a poem to learn about homelessness. In this poetry lesson, students make a list of words about their home and then feelings about their home. Learners read the poem 'When I Think Home' and then write their own version of...
Curated OER
Montana Acrostic Poem
In this Montana worksheet, students write an acrostic poem about the state of Montana. Students use the letters MONTANA to begin each new line of poetry.
Curated OER
Identifying Sounds of Poetry
In this poetry instructional activity, students read different poetry and identify the type of poetry that is being used based on the sound. Students complete 10 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Pennsylvania Acrostic
In this Pennsylvania worksheet, students create an acrostic poem where they write verbs or phrases describing Pennsylvania starting with each letter of Pennsylvania. Students complete 12 verbs or phrases.
Curated OER
Poetry Unit Test
In this poetry activity, students complete multiple choice questions on different aspects of poetry. Students complete 40 questions total.
Curated OER
Maryland Acrostic
In this Maryland acrostic worksheet, learners create an acrostic that contains verbs or phrases for each letter in the state Maryland. Students create 8 verbs or phrases.
Curated OER
Creating a Cinquain
In this Language Arts learning exercise, students read about how to create a cinquain poem. Students read an example and complete a graphic organizer to help guide them in writing their own.
Curated OER
Write Your Own Poem
In this rhyming worksheet, students examine 4 words with the initial str and identify as many words as possible the rhyme with them. Students use some of the rhyming words to write a line of poetry.
Curated OER
Language Arts, Music, Poetry: Blues Style
This lesson focuses on how the blues both operates as poetry and informs the poetry of many prominent African American poets. Students consider the poetic devices and recurring themes in blues lyrics and the significance of the poetry of...
Curated OER
Bio-Poems and U.S. History
Students explore U.S. History by writing poems. In this United States leader biography lesson, students identify elements needed to create a good poem, and write a Bio-Poem about themselves. Students utilize the same form to write a...
Curated OER
Puffins
In this writing worksheet, students write an original acrostic poem about Puffins. Students write a descriptive word or adjective for each letter on the lines provided.