The world is an ever changing place, and through this instructional activity students will have a chance to send a call out for change. Using Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" as an inspiration and a model, students will...

After listening to Van Morrison's "Days Like This" and Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance " and reading Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! students will consider their choices in life. After asking students, "Who decides your lives are...

Using music, video and readings, students will explore their views of the American Dream, and use this information to create "Animoto" videos that express a personal opinion or take on the dream. Students will develop and support their...

Students will study the rhythm of the old campfire song, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," and they will study how Karen Beaumont borrows the rhythm for her book I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! Students will create their own lyrics that can be...

After listening and analyzing song lyrics and, subsequently, doing the same analysis with poems, students will discover how similar song writing and poetry writing can be. Students will get their own chance to write a small version of...

After celebrating (and singing) some of the delightful songs from Alan Katz's "Take Me out of the Bathtub" and listening to songs by Weird Al Yankovic, like "Eat It," students will discuss the concept of parody. To practice writing a...

The 1930's Dust Bowl era was about the grueling times of people suffering in the drought-stricken region of the Oklahoma pan handle. This lesson will help students to gain an understanding of the plights of the people. Using Woody...

After giving young scholars the writing topic "A Special Day that I Remember, give students ten to fifteen minutes to write on the topic. Then tell them they will be revising their "Special Day" prompt writing, but first they will listen...

After students are given time to think about the topic -"Alone Time with an Adult I Care about," they are given ten to fifteen minutes to write between five and ten sentences on the topic. They ten are told they will revise their...

Inspired by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi & Ron Barrett, students will brainstorm adjectives that center around food that might fall from the sky. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods will be brainstormed. They will then...

This exercise assists fourth grade Nevada students in preparing for their fifth grade Writing Exam. This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of our three designated fourth grade practice prompts. The prompt...

This exercise assists fourth grade Nevada students in preparing for their fifth grade Writing Exam. This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fourth grade practice prompts. The...

This exercise assists fourth grade Nevada learners in preparing for their fifth grade Writing Exam. This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fourth grade practice prompts. The prompt...

This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fifth grade practice prompts for the state writing exam. The prompt is: Think about a time when something special or unusual happened at...

This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fifth grade practice prompts. The prompt is: Remember a time when you did something that made you feel proud of yourself. Think about what...

This lesson is based on two narrative picture books that can be compared and contrasted: When I was Five by Arthur Howard and Jamie Lee Curtis' When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of her Youth. Students will need to think about...

How can we use questioning to create lead sentences and details in order to create a purposeful paragraph? This PDF lesson offers an organization technique that asks learners to pre-plan paragraphs by brainstorming interesting questions...

This instructional activity, inspired by the novel Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes is a fabulous classroom mentor text that helps teach a very powerful revision strategy: rewriting an idea in a completely different genre. Grimes' book...

After reading several clothing descriptions and stories from the J. Peterman Clothing Catalogue, students imitate the voice of the catalogue to write descriptions and stories of their own clothes. Teacher instructions, printable graphic...

After reading several animal poems by Ogden Nash, students imitate Nash's writing style to write animal poems of their own. Teacher instructions, printable graphic organizers, student instructions, student writing samples, and an idea...

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem discover that their seemingly "feeble" father has an astonishing ability with a rifle. For this assignment, writers will compose a letter to a parent or loved one, asking for a return letter that...

After reading Tim's Ice Cream Store by Rachel Griffiths and Margaret Clyne or Curious George Goes to the Ice Cream Shop by H. A. Rey, students create an ice cream chart and learn to tally their favorite flavors.

After reading Anne Whitford Paul's book Everything to Spend the Night from A-Z, young scholars write about a real or imaginary sleepover and what things they should take to make it a wonderful night.

In this lesson, the first chapter of the novel Girl with a Pearl Earring is used as a mentor text. Young scholars will identify metaphors and then create their own unique metaphorical descriptions that they will begin to collect in their...