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.

Three paragraphs about baseball. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.

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

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

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

A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?

What happens when we switch out a “but” with a “so”? An “and” with a “for”? How can such tiny words make such big differences?

How many words can you find within MENORAH?

Can students spot similes vs metaphors?

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

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

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

Read three pieces of writing from three different robots about the same beautiful painting of a volcano. Who wrote it best?

What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?

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

Let’s create a new dinosaur using Greek and Latin stems!

Look closely at Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.

Five sets of idioms related to the color red.

Three paragraphs about cucumbers. They all cover the same topic — so what makes each one different? Now combine them into one super-paragraph.

How many words can you find within Ireland?

A plot puzzle that works with any story you are already teaching: which events could trade places?

Let’s take a classic Christmas poem and remix it to work with another holiday!

Poetry and Prose meet at a party. What would they say to each other? How would they feel about each other’s style?

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

You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.

How many words can you find within February?

Which part of speech is most useful? Interesting? Strange?

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

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

What if we rewrote a piece of writing without using certain letters?

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

How do you mentally (and emotionally) prepare yourself for the big day?

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

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!