Improve writing skills using methods from Robert Gay's Writing Through Reading; Gay espouses reproducing the work of successful writers to build the ability to convey original ideas effectively. Young writers transcribe, paraphrase,...

Students read and review common fairy tales and come up with a list of characteristics from them. The Teacher models filling out either a compare & contrast graphic organizer comparing two fairy tales.

Students access the Internet. They explore various areas of the culture of Japan. They answers questions in their Travel Journals. They read a Japanese fairy tale and rewrite the ending.

Students demonstrate question and answer/interviewing skills. They brainstorm questions they would like to ask each other and then interview their partner who will be a fairy tale character. Interviews will be filmed with a video camera.

Students recreate characters from the story, "The Fairytale Cake." In this fairy tale characterization lesson, students first listen to fairy tales read aloud. They then use play dough and plastic bowls as pretend "cakes and icing", and...

Students verbally tell partners a personal version of a fairy tale to each other. They listen, analyze, and describe the tales' differences and similarities in a Venn diagram.

There is nothing more exciting than allowing learners to express themselves through a creative medium. In groups, they write narrative stories, focusing on building a strong storyline and dialogue. Next, they transform their stories into...

Fourth graders compare the story of Cinderella as it is told in various countries and cultures. After reading the fairy tale in three different forms, they use a website Venn diagram in order to compare and contrast each telling of the...

Ease your pupils into some practice with printing using these resources related to the classic tale The Little Red Hen. Learners trace and write a set of vocabulary words from the story. 

Fourth graders act out a mock fairy tale trial. They use a fairy tale like "The Three Little Pigs", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Hansel and Grete"l, and/or "Little Red Riding Hood".

Students watch the original 1957 television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA starring Julie Andrews. They write their "own" version of the beloved fairy tale. However, theirs have a twist.

How would Jean-Etiénne Liotard paint the characters from "The Little Mermaid?" What would the main character from "The Little Match Girl" look like from Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes' point of view? After examining various paintings...

Explore film adaptation of literature with this lesson, which focuses on the world of film advertisements. Middle schoolers discuss various films (including The Lord of the Rings) and create advertisements for a pretend film based on a...

First graders see that some written text is for pleasure and enjoyment while some is for relaying information. They get to experience both types during the instructional activity. They brainstorm ideas for a story about a new kid in...

Second graders write as essay describing the cooperative group drawing they made or describing the process to draw a group picture.

Students create movements to music that reflect focused listening, write story using complete, coherent sentences, design and perform class play speaking clearly and at an appropriate pace, and retell Peter and the Wolf story, including...

Young scholars identify and create flashcards of important key terms as related to theatre. Students observe and write a 1-page summary of events seen at the High School Musical production using at least 8 vocabulary words in your...

First and second graders explore the importance of having a beginning, middle, and end when writing stories. In this story writing lesson, pupils write short stories using the story diamond as a guide. They invite their parents to an...

An informative installment of the Writing for Specific Fields series helps readers learn how to interpret and write about fiction. The website details nine easy steps for writing a literary analysis—a useful method for all readers!

Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...

Young learners explore the antagonist. They retell Hansel and Gretel and identify the witch and the stepmother as antagonists. They then brainstorm common character traits of an antagonist, and then write a paragraph describing...

Students explore their creative writing skills. In this Cinderella writing lesson, students compare perspective as they read and discuss 2 versions of the "Three Little Pigs." Students then watch "Cinderella" and use their creative...

Students explore expressive reading. For this literature lesson, students read the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and interpret key themes. Students perform a different version of the text.