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Vivid Verbs
Students explore parts of speech by collaborating in groups. For this verbs lesson, students examine several boring sentences with their class and define verbs which can spice the sentence up. Students collaborate in pairs to enhance...
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Rikki-Tikki Colorful Verbs
Study and practice the vocabulary in Rudyard Kipling's famous story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." Pupils underline verbs in a passage from the story, taking special note of vivid or precise verbs. They then write original sentences for five...
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Vivid Verbs
Fifth graders review action verbs by brainstorming a list of them as a class. Using magazines, they pick one picture and use a dictionary or thesaurus to identify verbs that describe the action taking place. Using the new verbs, they...
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Creating Characters in Storytelling
In this six-slide presentation, pupils are coached to used strong verbs and adverbs to help them create impact and interest in their original story writing. Other tips include: using paragraphs for each part of the story, using similes...
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Dialogue Tags
Use a presentation on dialogue tags in a narrative writing unit or a literature lesson. The first two pages of the resource detail the information and examples in the following slide show, making it a good reference page for your...
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How Do Adjectives Improve Writing?
Using adjectives to create vivid descriptions is the focus of exercises in this resource. A cloze reading activity asks class members to add missing adjectives to passages from Mark Teague's The Lost and Found. They then read Teague's...
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Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
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Add Awesome Alliteration to your Writing
Young scholars practice writing with alliteration, repeating the same letter sound at the beginning of two or more words in a sentence; students also review of adjectives, verbs, and adverbs while creating an alphabet book.
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Student Resource Sheet-- Using Verbs in Writing
In this language arts worksheet, students explore the use of strong specific verbs in their writing. Students first read the information and look at the examples given. Students then brainstorm strong verbs to replace common words and...
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Show, Don't Tell: Details to Make Writing Come Alive
After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...
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Eliminate "To Be" Verbs
Students remove to beverbs from their writing. In this verb usage lesson, students write strategies from eliminating to be verbs, then locate the verbs in their writing and eliminate as many as possible.
Poetry4kids
Personification Poetry Lesson Plan
Scholars take part in two exercises to boost their knowledge of personification. After reading a detailed description and excerpts from famous poems, writers list action verbs and objects then combine words to create a humorous...
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Scene Writing: Literacy and Playwriting
Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The activities...
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Worksheet 4/7 on Verb Openers
In this recognizing verb openers instructional activity, students match the beginning verb phrases with their sentence endings and write the complete sentences. Students write 12 answers.
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Descriptive Verbs
Young scholars read a piece of literature and locate the descriptive verbs in the piece. In this descriptive verbs lesson, students understand the value of using descriptive verbs. Young scholars rewrite a story they've written with more...
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Descriptive Writing
Young scholars discuss the importance of using adjectives in writing. They separate into five groups, each group is given a bag with an object inside to describe using just one sense. They write a description of a Hershey's Kiss using...
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Dead Word Wall Lesson
Help your writers eliminate "dead words" (words that are overused) from their writing. This activity includes a SMART board presentation that will guide them through identifying, eliminating, and substituting "dead words" from sample...
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Recipe for Sensational Sentences
'Cook-up' sensational sentences with your class. They expand sentences by adding more descriptive words. Then discuss the importance of using appropriate grade level language in daily speaking and writing.
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The Pearl: Found Poem
It's hard to beat the beauty of John Steinbeck's prose, so borrow a little of it to form your own found poetry. After kids finish Chapter One of The Pearl, they select the most evocative and vivid words to create found poems.
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Mix and Match Poetry
Third graders compare boring and vivid words: adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. They list them and come up with 10 vivid words on cards. They shuffle all the cards and use 10 to write "vivid" poetry.
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Writing with Alliteration
Students read Thank You for the Thistle and understand what alliteration is. In this alliteration lesson, students write sentences using alliteration. Students choose a letter of the alphabet and the class writes an alphabet book of...
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Accentuate the Expositive: Unit 2 Expository Writing
Pupils analyze narrative passages in order to improve their writing skills. In this narrative writing lesson students use the same style of writing that they have analyzed in their own narrative passage.
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Awesome Animals
Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing lesson plan, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an animal they...
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Add Awesome Alliteration to Your Writing
Students explore alliteration. In this writing lesson, students read the book Thank You for the Thistle and create sentences with alliteration. Students create an alphabet booklet with alliteration.