Natalie Knows

Poetry Madness: A March-Inspired Poetry Tournament Bring the excitement of March tournament season into your classroom with Poetry Madness, an engaging activity where students evaluate and discuss poems as they determine the ultimate Poetry Madness champion! In this interactive unit, students participate in a bracket-style poetry tournament, analyzing poems across multiple rounds while building important literary analysis skills. Students begin with personal reader responses and progress towa

Make spring writing lessons fun and engaging with this Spring Writing Activities Bundle!This bundle includes four creative writing resources designed to help students practice storytelling, descriptive writing, and imagination through fun seasonal prompts and story generators. These low-prep activities are perfect for writing centers, early finishers, writing warm-ups, or full creative writing lessons. Students will love rolling dice, building story prompts, and transforming basic sentences int

Psst! Experienced Teacher HackHave these quick checks printed out and ready to go for your next walk-through observation. These are a quick and easy way to show your principal your students are engaged and focused.Make formative assessment quick, meaningful, and completely stress-free with this No-Prep Exit Tickets & Quick Response Activities Pack! This versatile resource is designed to help you check for understanding, boost student engagement, and gather instant feedback without adding extr

Spark your students' imaginations this season with the Spring Build-a-Prompt activity! This low-prep, interactive resource is designed to help students master the foundational elements of storytelling— Protagonist, Antagonist, and Conflict—while crafting their own unique seasonal narratives. Perfect for ELA classes, creative writing blocks, or a fun spring-themed classroom activity, this resource gives students the building blocks they need to move past writer's block and into high-interest st

Bring the season to life in your classroom with the Spring Favorites Story Generator! This engaging, low-prep creative writing resource helps students overcome writer's block by using their own personal favorites to build a unique story foundation. Perfect for upper elementary, middle, AND high school ELA classe, morning work, or a fun seasonal Friday activity, this generator turns student preferences into compelling narrative plots. How It Works:Pick Favorites: Students circle their favorite s

Help students strengthen their descriptive writing skills with this engaging Spring Show, Don’t Tell activity! In this lesson, students practice transforming simple “telling” sentences into more vivid and descriptive writing by adding sensory details, imagery, and stronger word choices. This activity helps students learn how authors make writing more engaging for readers. With a fun spring theme, this worksheet is perfect for writing practice during the spring season while reinforcing an esse

Looking for a spooky-good way to get students writing? This pick-a-prompt activity has students select a protagonist, an antagonist, and a conflict so they can build a hauntingly fun short story. Students in my classes have loved this activity, and it's been a great way to get them interested in writing. The activity comes with seven options for each category, and the directions include a sampling of ways you can adapt the activity if you'd like. Included: two possible EQs. I hope you enjoy

This activity has students roll a dice (or use any online dice roller) to generate the setting, protagonist, antagonist, inciting incident, and point of view for their very own spooky story. This activity is easily adaptable, and the directions include suggestions for accommodations/adaptations. Included on the sheet are challenge words if you or you students want them. I tested this with my 2nd grader, 5th grader, 7th grader and 9-12th grade creative writing students. It worked wonderfully

Help students strengthen their storytelling skills with this engaging no-prep Character Development and Revision writing activity!In this resource, students explore how characters grow and change over time by mapping out a character’s journey and revising their writing to reflect deeper development. This activity encourages students to move beyond flat characters and create more meaningful, dynamic narratives. Perfect for narrative writing units, this lesson guides students through both devel

Use these 9 journal prompts as you teach Anglo-Saxon poetry (Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and/or The Wife's Lament). These creative writing prompts touch on literary and historic elements connected to the poems and the time period. Each sheet includes a prompt and a side note with more information on the element featured in the prompt. A cover sheet is also included for use. They can be used as Do Nows, enrichment work, writing brain breaks, and more! Vetted in my own 12th grade Eng

Students will write epistolary short stories through the use of four steps from brainstorming to writing, each with an included rubric. This fun project can be used for creative writing classes or language arts classes. It can also be used alongside epistolary novels such as Dracula and The Color Purple. It can be adapted to fit all age groups, though the included rubrics apply to middle and secondary students. Please see the instructional note at the end for the suggested way to lead up to t

Boost student engagement and check for understanding in seconds with these Nonfiction Reading Quick Check Cards! This low-prep activity is perfect for helping students think critically about nonfiction texts while practicing essential reading skills like identifying main idea, author’s purpose, supporting details, and author credibility. Designed for flexible classroom use, these task cards can be used in small groups, partners, or whole-class discussions—making them a go-to resource for quick

Engage your students in deeper thinking with these Fiction Reading Quick Check Task Cards—a no-prep, discussion-based activity perfect for any story or novel! These task cards are designed to help students analyze fiction texts beyond basic comprehension by focusing on story elements, theme, conflict, and author choices. Students will think critically, justify their ideas, and engage in meaningful conversations about what they read. Perfect for small groups, partners, or whole-class use, this

Bring some St. Patrick’s Day fun to your classroom with this engaging Leprechaun Roll-a-Story writing activity!Students roll a die to generate characters, settings, and problems for a silly or imaginative leprechaun story. This activity helps students practice creative thinking, storytelling, and narrative writing skills while enjoying a festive seasonal lesson. Perfect for March, this low-prep activity works well for independent writing, small groups, literacy centers, or early finisher work.

This creative writing prompt journal features 20 guided prompts and a make-your-own prompt page. Prompts can be used in any order. This is a great way to practice creative thinking and writing to a prompt. This tool can be used as the opening activity in a creative writing or English class, or could be used as a mindfulness activity for any subject area. The front cover features open space to allow you to copy it with your name/school logo or to have students design their own covers.

Make tracking student success easy! This journal is designed to help teachers make quick notes about students' successes, improvements, and positive characteristics. Use this journal when you conference with parents and/or students, or use it to write end-of-year reflections to celebrate student wins. This is also a great resource to provide your principal during end-of-year evaluations. Digital download comes with multiple student sheets (that you can copy for larger classes).

Make tracking student success easy! This journal is designed to help teachers make quick notes about students' successes, improvements, and positive characteristics. Use this journal when you conference with parents and/or students, or use it to write end-of-year reflections to celebrate student wins. This is also a great resource to provide your principal during end-of-year evaluations. Digital download comes with multiple student sheets (that you can copy for larger classes).

These two creative writing story generators have students create Thanksgiving-themed short stories. The first has students roll a dice (or use any online dice roller) to generate the setting, protagonist, antagonist, inciting incident, and point of view for their very own spooky story. This activity is easily adaptable, and the directions include suggestions for accommodations/adaptations. Included on the sheet are challenge words if you or you students want to use them. The second has students

Looking for a way to guide your students through writing an entire short story in one hour? This packet will guide students through brainstorming, character development, and plotting. This is the perfect lesson for a creative writing or English/Language Arts class. (Times are adaptable if teachers have shorter or longer class periods.)

Looking for a formative assessment or easy holiday-themed review? Each worksheet asks your students to generate synonyms for four words and then use some of those synonyms to write a sentence. This can be used as a whole-class review/activity or be given for individual seat work.