Language Arts ＊ Byrdseed.TV

Greekymon

Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.

Paragraphs: Systems of Sentences

Blow up a paragraph into individual sentences. Now reassemble it. The clues hiding in each sentence will surprise you.

Building Creative Analogies

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.

Showing A Character’s Trait

We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 1

‘Add more variety!’ teachers say. But how? This lesson gives students actual techniques instead of vague advice.

What’s In My Brain: Primary Sources

Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?

Parts of Speech Party – Care

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

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

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

Emoji Stories 🐻

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

Idioms About Dessert

Five idioms related to dessert.

Idioms About Bugs

Five idioms related to bugs.

Word Pyramid: H to CRASH

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

12 Phrases: The Zoo

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

Writing in Pilish

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

Plexidemokinesis (Greek and Latin)

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

Word Ladder – Cold to Cool (5-Steps)

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

Punctuation Power

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!

Improving Shakespeare’s Repetition

Let’s help William Shakespeare with his use of repetition.

Word Ladder – Tea to Hot (5-steps)

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

Words Within Words: PARKING

How many words can you find within PARKING?

Idioms About Water

Five idioms related to water.

Idioms About Bites

Five idioms related to bites.

Analyze Character Change

A character can act one way at the beginning of a story and surprise you by the end. Students gather the clues and name the change.

Do Narrators Have Too Much Power?

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!?

Coral Reef – Mixed Up Paragraph

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

Creating A Classroom Motto

Starting with specific examples of fantastic classroom behavior, your class will end up with one sentence summing up their expectations. It’s a classroom motto!

Ways to Start a Sentence – Level 2

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

Emoji Stories 🚗

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

Emoji Stories 🤖

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

That Quote’s Not Quite Right: Albert Einstein

When I see a quote, I often think, “That’s not quite right!”

Word Pyramid: I to LIONS

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

Studying and Remixing “The Raven”

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

Words Within Words: Chocolate

How many words can you find within Chocolate?

Emoji Stories 🕰️

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

Think Like An Author: Hemingway vs Dickens

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

Too Much or Too Little of a Character Trait

The trait that makes a hero heroic is the same trait that makes a villain villainous. There’s just too much of it, or too little.

Words Within Words: SCARECROW

How many words can you find within “scarecrow”?

Words Within Words: RAINBOW

How many words can you find within rainbow?

Identifying A Story’s Theme

Teach your young students to identify the moral or the theme of a story.

Run On or Not? – What’s In My Brain

Can your students spot the run-on sentences?

Words Within Words: GENERAL

How many words can you find within “general”?

Advanced Alliteration and Consonance

When students learn about alliteration, it’s hard to steer them away from goofy tongue-twisters. Certainly, there must be more powerful and practical ways of using alliteration. In this lesson, I draw on delicious examples from Shakespeare to show how a very advanced writer used alliteration. Then, I break those ideas down so students can try them out.