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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

Let’s go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?

One painting of ruins. Three robots. Three pieces of writing. Who wrote it best?

One letter. Add another. And another. How tall can you build the pyramid before you run out of words?

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

What might a creature named “Hypermnemonicus” be like?

Bored with typical spelling studies? Let’s dig into the origins of common English words from other languages!

Let’s make this simile about a quick baby even more specific.

After watching some great presenters, let’s outline your presentation!

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

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

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

It’s time to turn that outline into a storyboard and then some actual slides.

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

These clauses are sorted into two groups. What’s the rule? No definitions given — just examples.

Let’s spice up a typically dull lesson about the difference between “its” and “it’s” by asking students to write a children’s story about the adventures of a critter named It.

Four Charlotte’s Web characters. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.

How many words can you find within TEACHER?

Want something to do during the holiday season that is both fun and involves thinking? Get students writing about what a snowman would think about Halloween or what a ghost would think about Thanksgiving.

What if we rewrote a story’s climax into a totally different genre?

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

How does a drink’s packaging affect us emotionally and logically?

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.

What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!