Check out these 5 ESL Speaking Activities that can be adapted for different grade and proficiency levels to get your English learners talking

Looking for unique post-reading activities to inspire students and provide a sample of their analytical skills? Find high-interest strategies for secondary.

It's time for a fun end of year writing activity for students to reflect on their year of experiences while you start packing up your classroom.

Fables are an important part of English Language Arts instruction. The genre, which often includes animals that act like humans and moral lessons, is perfect for targeted lessons in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and analyzing. Classic and modern fables are both entertaining and approachable. Fables also shed light on other cultures, characterization, and moral lessons. Most importantly, they're just plain fun to teach! Here are 6 easy ways to teach fables in your classroom... I LOVE giving students a chance to write their very own fable. I recommend starting with mentor texts so that students can become experts on the genre. Then, through targeted writing instruction, students can write their own story that includes a moral, animal characters, story elements, and illustrations. As students develop their stories, you can even have them "pitch" their stories to their peers acting as storybook editors. Once students have written a strong fable, take these lessons to the next level and let students create a children's book filled with illustrations. You could even have them share their fables with younger students. Check out this ready-to-teach Fable Writing Unit! Don't you just love lessons that meet a ton of instructional standards at once? Well, this fable unit does just that! It’s a 7-day unit designed around Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” and in it students read three different versions of the fable. After building background on each form, they have the opportunity to critically read and respond to the fable in prose, verse, and drama form. Through small group work, independent studies, and class discussions students will not only understand and appreciate the elements of a fable and each form of literature, but they’ll also develop a deep understanding of each text. Learn more about this unit here. Of course, fables are wonderful to read in the classroom. But, why just read a fable when you can also connect, investigate, write, and draw? I created this Foldable Fables resource with Art with Jenny K. to combine reading, writing, and illustrating. This resource is super engaging because students create an accordion-style booklet filled with their learning and creativity. It's fun and educational! The seven learning activities help students connect deeply to their reading. Check out the super engaging Foldable Fable here! I've found that fables are wonderful to add to learning stations focused on reading comprehension skills. For instance, in this sequencing centers resource, students investigate "Fox and the Goat" at one of the learning stations. At the station, they're tasked to read the fable and then put the fable in the correct sequence with an interactive shape. Since fables are often short and focused they're the perfect addition to reading comprehension learning stations! Fables lend themselves perfectly to plays. I've found that students respond really well to opportunities to perform short skits and plays in the classroom. In this theme mini-unit, students get to act out "The Four Oxen and a Lion." As a small group, they practice reading out loud, acting, and investigating theme. It's fun for students to get into different characters as they act out a fable! I'm a big fan of reading out loud to students. Often, I would read stories to students as they completed their daily warm-ups. My read alouds included novels, poems, short stories, and of course, fables. You might mix-up your own read alouds with fables from around the world or modern fables. Here are a few collections of fables that you might want to add to your classroom library... --- Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition --- Buddhist Stories for Kids --- Filipino Children's Favorite Stories ------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found some simple ways to teach fables in your classroom! Fables really are wonderful literature treasures for teaching reading, writing, investigating, performing, and more! Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. My friend, Art with Jenny K., has another idea for adding fables to the classroom. Check out her post here. *This post contains affiliate links.

Teaching the four types of sentences is a key component in developing young writers. Sharing some fun, engaging activities to teach sentences.

The February Writing Prompts are here. What do President's do? If I had a Pet Dragon? The Best Breakfast Cereal is... and many more.

This construction classroom transformation is a fun and engaging way to review writing concepts before state testing!

Do you have parents that ask you for 'extra work' ? Are you tired of scouring for reading passages to send home and reluctant to send them because you may use it later in the year? I was in the same boat. I have parents that WANT to help their children and would like to work with their child over skills that their kids are learning but they just don't know what to do. I provided an thorough PDF that explain the types of ways to summarize: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then Problem, Rising Action, Climax, & Solution Explanations of each type of summary Graphic organizers to support each summary. Ideas to implement the learning from home. Non-ficiton summary (How-To) Graphic Organizers for non-fiction Non-fiction ideas to implement at home Definitions of text features Question stems for non-fiction to ask child as they are reading Send the PDF to struggling students, or attach in an e-mail with your newsletter to help parents! No more scouring to find ideas for parents, they have the answers in this one PDF! I hope this helps you ease the communication with parents! Amber

Read about ten activities to use in your classroom for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas for your upper elementary students. From STEM challenges to printables these activities cover curriculum and bring engagement to your students.

Sink or Float 2 Sorting WorksheetsThere are 2 sorts, with cut and paste tasks to determine whether your students think the objects will sink or float. This activity is suitable for kindergarten through second-grade students.There are 2 sorts to choose from. The images are real-life images and a pre...

Use these 6 fun fall activities, as well as simple apple crafts to make fall in the elementary classroom fun and ...

Kindergarten writing activities can come in handy while introducing children to writing skills. Try these activities for your child to learn to write.

Are you looking for a fun way to reinforce teaching similes to students? Making simile monsters is always a huge hit! Students will create a fictitious monster and use similes to describe the 5 senses about their monsters. To hook students, I love to read the text Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood (affiliate […]

"End the year with a fun art and writing activity that you and your kiddos will LOVE! I hang these in my hallway, and I can't tell you how many compliments I receive. They are SO DARN CUTE! My students loved doing them, and I loved reading them...and seeing them (of course). " Included, you will find: ★Project templates ★Detailed project instructions ★Writing prompts for both primary and intermediate kiddos

Looking to fine tune your writer's workshop? Use these 5 tips for managing your writer's workshop to help guide your students to success.

Teaching the writing process? Try involving students kinesthetically. Play Doh can work for big kids, too! My high school students absolutely love this writing analogy that walks them through each stage of the writing process as if they were sculptors crafting a masterpiece. Differentiate your instr

Your students will have so much fun writing with these Roll-a-Story boards. Their creativity will be flowing after discovering which super fun character, problem and setting their story will be about. This resource is perfect in helping students write creative and interesting stories while taking the ‘stress’ out of thinking of what to write about. To use the boards, students simply choose a board and roll a die three times to discover which character, problem and setting their story will be based on. There are 9 different boards, which means there are almost 2000 different story possibilities! Includes both a USA and AUS/UK version. A version is also included where the problem and setting begins with a lowercase letter. You may also like: Roll an Activity - Literacy Centers ♥♥♥ Follow me to be the first to hear about FREEBIES and updates ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ Earn TPT Credits when you leave feedback ♥♥♥ I welcome and appreciate any feedback, comments or suggestions. You may also contact me on [email protected]

Make the most of your writing block with these funny picture prompts! Go here:

Read about 6 ways to differentiate your writing instruction meaningfully - for any genre #highschoolela #differentiation

How to teach 5th grade science students about the brightness of the sun and other stars in your space / astronomy unit.

Today I'm talking about using the 6+1 Traits of Writing. Why do I teach with the Traits? It works perfectly with the B.C. Curriculum. Students get it. It breaks the writing process down into steps we can layer up all year. That means writing doesn't seem like such a large task. And that means, kids will usually write more because they feel a whole lot less overwhelmed. Sounds pretty good to me! Here is the writing board in my classroom. A large portion of it is taken up by my 6 Traits checklist. As the year goes on, and we introduce new pieces, it fills up and serves as a giant criteria list. The blank space to the left is where I add pieces specific to a current focus (figurative language, punctuation, etc.) You don't need to have a board dedicated to the Traits if you teach with the Traits. I do for two reasons: 1) I have the space. 2) It serves a giant checklist students can self assess their writing on that builds through the year as we learn new elements. You'll often hear me say "just because we are working on -----, don't forget all the other pieces we already know". A quick scan of the board and students know exactly what I'm looking for in their writing. (Download that awesome "What do Writers Write?" pencil here!) VOICES? Why does it say "Use your writing VOICES?". Well, VOICES is an acronym for the Traits. V- Voice O- Organization I - Ideas C- Conventions E- Excellent Word Choice S- Sentence Fluency They are now promoting 6+1 Traits and the +1 is Presentation. That didn't make it to my board.... but we do discuss it often. When I was starting out with the Traits, I wasn't sure where to go for resources. Here are some of my favourites to help you out: "Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits" is an excellent resource. Even though I teach grade 4, I still use it. They give you a scripted lesson plan for every trait as well as several other picture books that fit the trait and how you could use them to inspire writing. I use their examples and then extend on it for my bigger kids. Here are my favourite picture book for for each trait: Voice The story of the 3 Little Pigs told through the Wolf's perspective. Gives students a chance to think about the other side of things, and, it's funny. Organization Or any of the "If you Give a..." books. I love how they are cyclic. You really have to think ahead to write one of these stories. Good cause and effect too. Okay, I picked two for organization. Scaredy books are organized in a different way. I love all the charts and diagrams. Ideas This book is a favourite for many reasons. It is so touching. The boy in this story is searching for the answer to what a memory is. So many beautiful answers are given to him. Conventions This book uses two words. Yo! and Yes? You can talk about how the punctuation helps imply more language than is given. I also like to teach inferring with this book. Excellent Word Choice Max collects words. Although some of his words are basic, he collects some powerful ones as well. The author uses descriptive language throughout this book. Sentence Fluency I like to teach sentence fluency with poetry, because Jack's poems have such a good flow. They just roll off your tongue when you read them. And, they are hilarious. Pin this post. Helping to inspire,

These non-fiction, differentiated readers will go right along with the other activities, crafts, and ideas you have planned for your class this spring. They are perfect for Easter too! Help your Kindergarten or First Grade students develop confidence in their reading abilities while learning about rabbits at the same time. In addition, the last page of each reader incorporates writing practice as students recall facts that they learned in the reader. Try one out for FREE!

Learning about explorers? Here’s a list of activities that would be perfect to add to your explorer curriculum. EXPLORER JOURNAL Every good explorer has a journal, right? Fleece Fun has a great free printable explorer journal, and there are several ways you could use it. Go on your own exploration adventure and write your thoughts […]

The Ghost's Dinner Writing Activity (Halloween Craft) This easy peasy Halloween craftivity will make for a ghoulishly amazing bulletin board! After reading the story "The Ghost's Dinner" by Jacques Dequennoy, have your students create and write about what their ghost ate for dinner and turned into! Just print out the templates and watch your students create hilarious foodie ghosts! These writing prompts can be used for an October or Halloween Unit, in a writing center, or for morning work/end of day activity! These are a hit in my classroom! Included in this resource: UPDATED 10/24/19 -2 sets of 10 different ghost face templates (Print and Go!) 10 ghosts have the sentence stem: "The ghost is a...." and 10 ghosts have the sentence stem: "The ghost ate..." -One page, print & go, no cut writing prompt templates. Students will complete the sentence stem "At dinner, the ghost ate..." using descriptive words. There is a trace and complete the sentence option as well. NEW: MATH CRAFT! Counting, Addition & Subtraction math word problem craft have now been included. -Link to a short cartoon adaptation of "The Ghost's Dinner" on YouTube. (Updated 10/16/19) Click here for my other best selling monthly writing prompt printable activities! Monthly Writing Prompts Questions before you purchase? Ask away in the Q&A! If you notice any errors, please email me before leaving negative feedback. My email address is located on the credits page. Thank you so much! ***************************************************************************** Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. ☺ Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. Voila! You will now receive email updates about my store. ☺ *****************************************************************************

Use writing centers to support essential writing skills in first grade. Check out these tips & ideas to plan a successful first grade writing center.

One of the BEST things about being a teacher is ALL. THE. SEASONAL. ACTIVITIES! I used to spend hours researching and putting together seasonal activities that would get my students excited and engaged, while enriching and differentiating for all ability levels. When I came across this fall read aloud, I could NOT pass it up!The Leaf Thief is an ADORABLE book to use for all ability levels. From talking about changes that happen in fall, to dissecting the text with rich reading comprehension skil

I've been a special education teacher for 6 years now. Actually, we're all special education teachers, as my first principal liked to say (and she was right). The thing I always struggled with the most

A fun read aloud with an adorable main character, a sweet and smart cookie, shares an important message about acceptance and self-confidence.

Chart detailing monthly themes including holidays, seasons, and social skills. Helpful to plan activities for the entire school year. Appropriate for multiple age levels.

Here's a fun way for your students to practice editing for missing punctuation. Students edit sentences for missing periods, question marks, commas, apostrophes, exclamation marks, and quotation marks. Then, they use these sentences in their punctuation pockets craftivity! Choose between the print version and the TpT Digital Easel version. The print version can be made into a creative bulletin board or school hallway display. WORKSHEETS- Students begin this activity by completing two worksheets that contain 32 sentences. Answer keys are included. Students must determine which punctuation is missing from each sentence. Missing punctuation includes: periods question marks exclamation marks commas apostrophes quotation marks CRAFTIVITY- After the worksheets have been completed, students color the pockets and glue them onto a sheet of construction paper. Then, they cut apart the sentence strips from the worksheet and insert each strip into the appropriate pocket. Student-friendly directions are included so that you can place the directions under your document camera, and students can refer to them as they complete the project. TPT DIGITAL EASEL VERSION- This is a paperless version that can be completed on a device. Each slide contains two sentences written on two unique slips of paper. Each sentence is missing one type of punctuation, and students must read the sentence and determine what is missing. Students then drag the slip of paper to the appropriate punctuation pocket. The digital version contains the same 32 sentences that are included in the printable version. It contains 17 slides in all. Check out the PREVIEW! Here's what teachers like you had to say about using this activity with their students: ⭐️ Alisha W. said, "My students really enjoyed this activity! They appreciated the process of making the punctuation pockets instead of just working on a worksheet." ⭐️ Kristi M. said, "My principal walked in right after I used this activity with my students, and she was impressed! I love how simple yet engaging it is." ⭐️ Jama M. said, "Incredibly useful because it covers several curriculum standards with one activity." ⭐️ Nat M. said, "Such great value for money! I've used this craftivity across many different year levels and all students have loved it. Well organised, includes step-by-step directions, answers, photos - LOVE it, thankyou!" Note for my Australian teacher-friends: The final page of this PDF includes a pocket labeled "full stop"! Copyright by Deb Hanson This item is a paid digital download from my TpT store www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Deb-Hanson The resources in this bundle are to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher is prohibited. This item is also bound by copyright laws. Redistributing, editing, selling, or posting these items (or any part thereof) on an Internet site that is not password protected are all strictly prohibited without first gaining permission from the author. Violations are subject to the penalties of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me if you wish to be granted special permissions!

This Doodle and Do resource is designed to help students understand 8 types of figurative language. First, students will complete highly engaging Doodle Notes about each type of figurative language. They'll doodle and sketch their notes on 5 different engaging doodle note pages. Students will learn about each type, review examples, and create examples of their own. Next, they’ll complete a fun writing activity for each type of figurative language. They’ll create silly similes with spinners, make metaphor matches, assemble personification cubes, participate in an alliteration tongue twister challenge, give sentences a hyperbole makeover, fill in onomatopoeia Wacky Libs, match and doodle idioms, and play oxymoron bingo. This mini-unit is not only effective in helping students understand different types of figurative language, it’s also super engaging and fun! This resource is completely customizable, too! First, the two types of doodle notes included (filled-in and guided notes versions) make it easy to differentiate instruction. Then, the six learning activities can be easily transformed into learning stations if you’d like. This way, you can create the very best learning experience for your students! This 8-day unit is not only effective in helping students understand figurative language, it’s also incredibly engaging and fun! Skills Developed: Students will… Develop an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meaning Explain the meaning and note effectiveness of similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom and oxymoron Interpret figures of speech Write creatively using figurative language in response to writing prompts Work collaboratively and imaginatively About the “Doodle” Notes: First, students will learn all about figurative language and similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, alliteration, idiom and oxymoron by completing a set of doodle notes. Doodle notes are color-it-in, fill-it-in, and doodle-encouraging note sheets. They’re not only visually engaging, they’re also effective in helping students increase their focus and ability to recall information. Plus…they’re really fun! In this resource, there are 2 options of Doodle Notes: Option 1: All the notes are filled in. With this option students will color, embellish, and add doodles to the notes as you review the information with the class. Option 2: Some of the notes are filled in and students need to fill in the remainder of the notes (like guided notes). Students will work to fill in the notes as you teach the content. About the “Do” Activities After students complete their Doodle Notes it’s time for them to “Do” some fun activities. The activities are designed around lessons to help students practice recognizing, creating, analyzing, and writing figurative language. There are six activities in all: Simile: Students will be creating fun similes during this activity. First, they’ll create similes with “simile spinners.” Then, they’ll respond to a writing prompt and include a simile in their response. Metaphor: Students will be creating metaphors during this activity. First, they’ll brainstorm ideas based on teacher clues. Then, they’ll match the ideas to create and write creative and unique metaphors. Personification: Students will be writing 6 personification sentences during this activity. First, they’ll brainstorm verbs. Then, they’ll combine the verbs with nouns that they brainstorm to create examples of personification. Onomatopoeia: Students will be practicing onomatopoeia as they complete a Mad-Libs-inspired activity. Alliteration: Students will be writing sentences filled with alliteration. Then, they’ll challenge a partner to read their alliteration sentences without making any mistakes (tongue-twister-style). Hyperbole: Students will be giving simple sentences a makeover with hyperbole. They’ll create an interactive shape and then write six examples. Then, they’ll select two examples of hyperbole to integrate into writing prompts. Idiom: First students will complete an idiom matching activity. Then, they'll get creative as the doodle the literal meaning of 4 different idioms. Oxymoron: Students will create 6 original oxymorons. Then, they'll put their knowledge to the test during a super fun game of Oxymoron Bingo! Implementation Ideas: Easily turn the fun activities into learning stations! Teach as a figurative language unit – covering one type of figurative language a day! Break up and teach at different times throughout the year Combine with a poetry unit This detailed “Doodle and Do” resource includes: A detailed teacher overview of the resource 7 detailed lesson plans: Figurative Language, Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Hyperbole Doodle and Do cover page for students Set of Doodle Notes – all filled in (4 pages) Set of Doodle Notes – guided notes format (4 pages) Simile Spinners (2) Simile Writing Activity (2 pages) Metaphor Match-Up Activity (2 pages) Metaphor Match-Up Teacher Clues Personification noun and verb brainstorm Personification Cube template Onomatopoeia Wacky Libs – word clues Onomatopoeia Wacky Libs – “My Pet” passage Alliteration Challenge Hyperbole Makeover Interactive Shape Hyperbole Makeover Worksheet Hyperbole Writing Other Doodle and Do Resources… Langston Hughes – Poet and Poem Study --- Doodle Article and Interactive Poetry Analysis Flip Book Maya Angelou – Poet and Poem Study --- Doodle Article and Interactive Poetry Analysis Flip Boo 5 Reading Skills Mini-Units 5 Nonfiction Text Structure Mini-Units How to Study for a Test Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations Writing Responses with Text-Based Evidence Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations Doodle Book Review Any book! Or, you may also like… Figurative Language Unit 12 Writing Units Bundle - Writing instruction for an entire year! 101 Writing Prompts! Have you seen these Creative Writing Videos? Creative Writing Activity Alliteration Writing Activity Personification Writing Activity Following is Fun! Get the inside scoop on all store discounts, free products, and product launches. Just click the green “Follow Me” star under my store name on this page or click the green “Follow Me” star on my store homepage. Let’s Stay in Touch! Blog Pinterest Facebook Instagram *** Click HERE to receive the Brain Waves Instruction Newsletter filled with exclusive FREEBIES and Teaching Tips! Thanks! Brain Waves Instruction Doodle notes is a trademarked term used with permission. Please visit doodlenotes.org for more information.

Color by Listening is an activity where students listen to oral directions and must color the picture to match. Would make a great first week activity to practice active listening skills and following directions or a refresher for students throughout the year! If you like this product, you will LOVE the bundle ★ Color by Listening Bundle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would love to hear from you, please leave me a rating & comment! Let's Connect! Follow Me on: ★Pinterest ★Facebook Click the "Follow Me" button by my picture to be the first to know about my newest products and freebies.