Language Arts

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.

Ready to push kids beyond the boring, old ABAB rhyme scheme and into something a bit more complex?

When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.

Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

We’ll show students how to add more variety to their writing by starting sentences with a reason, a prepositional phrase, and a simile.

Imagine being a character in a story. Are you worried that your story’s narrator may inaccurately describe you? What if they reveal something you wanted to be kept secret? Do narrators have too much power!?

Can you use the context clues to get these sentences about the coral reef back into the correct order?

Young students can use this big idea organizer to identify the main idea and support it with details.

How many words can you find within rainbow?

How many words can you find within “scarecrow”?

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

What if your students rewrote Dickens in the style of Hemingway and vice versa?

How many different ways can we use the word “care”? Let’s find out in this Parts of Speech Party!

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

What if a capybara and a kangaroo rat switched homes? Would their adaptations be helpful at all?

How many words can you find within PARKING?

COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?

Sure, Dr. Seuss wrote for young students, but can older students analyze his writing and learn to mimic his style? THEN, they can produce Seuss-style poetry about any topic: Ancient China, the electromagnetic spectrum, Pride and Prejudice, and (yes) fraction division!

COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?

What on earth is a Plexidemokinesis? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.

In a sentence, punctuation may seem meek when compared to those mighty words, but punctuation has incredible power over the meaning of a sentence. Students will try re-punctuating sentences to find new meanings – without changing a single word!

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at the zoo.

Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.

COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?

What might a creature named “Ursolunascope” be like?

Add a letter at each step to form a new word. Can you connect the starting point and ending point?

What on earth is a Thermocryptograph? Break apart the Greek and Latin roots, figure out what it should mean, then invent what it describes.

Can your students help The Bard? We’ll fix five Shakespearean run-ons in three different ways.

Five sets of five idioms, all related to body parts!

Upgrade compare and contrast writing with just a couple of key words.

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!