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Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.
Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.
We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.
We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.
‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.
Ever read a student’s story that was just event after event after event and then a very sudden ending? They lack an understanding of a plot’s structure. With the help of Finding Nemo, I break down how to set up a well-structured plot.
An old photograph. A holiday scene. Pick one object in the picture and write from its point of view.
Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in at a magical school.
Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?
How many words can you find within WESTERN?
COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?
A passage from “Peter Pan” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”
Is your students’ use of repetition limited to, “The girl was very, very, very fast.”? Let’s borrow some ideas from Shakespeare!
Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?
How many different ways can we use the word “well”? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?
Look closely at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.
A specific technique to help students add some spice to their writing. We’ll be contrasting two ideas using synonyms.
Five idioms related to noses.
What useful or ridiculous inventions are hiding inside Greek and Latin roots?
Five idioms related to hands.
Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.
Will your students notice progressive tense vs simple tense?
Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.
How many words are hiding inside STUFFING? More than you think.
How many different ways can we use the word “change”? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
How many ways can we use “check” in a paragraph? And can your students spot when it’s a verb, or a noun, or an adjective?
Start with a one letter word, add another letter, then add another. How tall can you make the pyramid?
How many words can you find within Saturn?
Look closely at Twilight in the Wilderness. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.
Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.
Five idioms related to the Greeks and Romans.
How can we go from Biology to Immobile?
An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Does the antonym of an antonym bring us back to the same meaning?
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
What on earth is a Pyrostasis? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.
These sentences about Washington, DC got scrambled. Can you put them back in order using nothing but context clues?
A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
