A woven rug depicting birds and cornstalks becomes the inspiration for a lesson on critical thinking and creative writing. Learners analyze the symbolism found in the rug and then compose a descriptive paragraph or poem that embodies the...

A fabulous Samurai suit of armor is the inspiratoin for a creative reseach project and presentation. Kids research the symbols found on the Samurai armor, describing the symbols meaning or significance in Japanses culture. 

Who doesn't need a sidekick or protective spell? Kids examine a clay vessel from ancient Colombia as they discuss the idea of sidekicks or protective magic. They then illustrate a comic strip that represents the concept of protection in...

Imagine life from a horse's perspective. That's what the class will be doing after they analyze images of the Crow installation piece, Horse Outfit. They analyze the cultural significance of the work, the tribe who created it, and then...

Give your emerging poets a topic (or have them choose one themselves), and have them play with different poetic devices. They work on alliteration, rhyme, metaphor, personification, simile and onomatopoeia. Consider having them choose...

Colorful contemporary images contained in a PowerPoint presentation will capture the attention of class members and model for them the how to distinguish between the subject and the theme of a work. A great want to introduce this...

Participate in writing poetry as a group. Focused on a given theme, young writers compose a popcorn poem using sensing verbs and adverbs. They write popcorn poems, onomatopoeias, collective poems, and diamond poems. You could introduce...

Inspire your learners to experience poetry in an entirely different way with this resource. A writing prompt that goes along with "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, learners craft a reflective piece in the voice...

Hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and personification are spotlighted on an online/interactive quiz. Test takers read short passages and then identify the figures of speech used.

Enrich a unit on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros with a selection of related activities. The packet contains nine activities that go from pre-reading through wrapping up the novel. Young readers work on studying...

How does a conversation flow? Have your learners practice with conversation and dialogue by asking them to rearrange sentence strips in order to make a coherent conversation between two people. After ordering the strips, pairs...

"The Road Not Taken," is the focus of an exercise that asks readers to identify the figurative meaning of Robert Frost's poem.

Support your instruction of The Cay by Theodore Taylor with this extensive unit of materials. Provided here are prereading activities, worksheets and discussion questions for the entire book, and reading quizzes that you can use to check...

Prior to reading chapter 15 of the book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, examine the painting, Shipwrecked by Edward Moran, and respond to the feelings that arise within and how it relates to the characters of...

Bring art into your classroom with this resource for teaching the concept of identity through Lucas Samaras' identity boxes. Use this list of information to help plan out a unit on identity as demonstrated through art. While not...

Seventh graders explore language arts by analyzing sentences written by their classmates. In this prepositions lesson, 7th graders read an assigned text and identify the prepositions used throughout the writing. Students listen to their...

Students identify the basic symbols of the English language and identify written languages as sets of symbols. In this symbols lesson, students study a hieroglyphic message and pictures of other languages. Students try to interpret the...

In this English grammar worksheet, students complete sentences in the present simple, present continuous, and past simple tenses. Students conjugate verbs in the correct form. Thirty eight fill in the blank questions are asked.

In this English grammar worksheet, students practice using the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. Students also practice when to use each form. Twenty seven fill in the blank questions are asked.

In this language of crime reporting worksheet, students read, write and discuss newspaper reports about crime, using fill ins, matching, and a crossword puzzle with notes for the teacher and an answer sheet.

In this grammar worksheet, students learn about homonyms and homophones. They then use what they learned to answer 14 questions. The answers are on the last page of the packet.

In this Pope Benedict XVI worksheet, students read the article, answer true and false questions, complete synonym matching, complete phrase matching, complete a gap fill, answer short answer questions, answer discussion questions, write,...

Students visualize and manipulate sentences as building blocks, and, given a key, use Legos™ to demonstrate how to construct sentences of variety (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex).

Students tell a story, describe a picture, share about a favorite toy from home and are recorded using an iPod with a voice recorder. They create a playlist of their voice and reading samples to illustrate progression over time.