Spark Creativity

Hexagonal thinking is a creative way to get students making connections with one pagers. BUT, it's a lot of work for you, as the teacher, to create and cut out dozens of hexagons for your students to connect, arrange, and discuss. Why not get the students brainstorming and designing their own hexagons with hexagonal one-pagers? In this activity, groups of students use critical thinking, close reading, and design skills to create hexagonal one-pagers for characters, style elements, connections t

Short stories are a great way to bring many voices and themes into your English class. They're nice and snackable - easy to fit in between other units or right before holidays, and easily combined into a quality unit with something for everyone. But what do you do to keep the discussion of each new story engaging for your students? These short story stations give you five ways to approach any short story or short story unit. The stations get students examining characterization, setting, and st

When it comes to careers, it's easy for students to get stuck thinking of just the most famous options. For this career flip book, guide them in thinking outside the box, exploring ten different careers they might be interested in and creating colorful pages for a career flip book. After students research their career ideas and create their pages, bring everyone together into a gallery walk. Each student will end up learning about hundreds of careers as they examine the final books. Finally, g

Want students to avoid plagiarism when using research in class assignments? The struggle is real, for you and them. But I've made you something to help. Go one up on the traditional notecard by giving students copies of this graphic organizer to keep track of their research and attribute sources easily. A notecard just isn't much of a guide, but this handout is! On the page, students have room to write down... Quotations (with page numbers!)Big Ideas (with page numbers!)Takeaways in their ow

Use these fun Halloween writing worksheets to teach or review the concepts of simile and metaphor with your students this October. Photocopy the handouts, go over the examples at the top, and let students work. You may wish to remind your students to try to use comparisons they have never heard before, rather than relying on clichés. You could share a few examples of clichéd comparisons (my love is like a rose, life is like a box of chocolates, it was as dark as night, I’m putty in your hands,

Looking for a fun and effective way to teach sensory details during October? This Halloween writing activity is designed to help students in grades 4–8 practice descriptive writing using seasonal images and prompts that spark creativity and build writing skills. Students will explore all five senses as they describe Halloween scenes and respond to writing prompts. The activities move from simple identification of sensory details to more advanced paragraph writing, making this a great scaffolde

Give your students meaningful writing practice this November with these Thanksgiving writing worksheets focused on metaphors and similes. Designed for grades 4–8, this flexible resource helps students understand and apply figurative language in a festive and creative way. Each worksheet includes a short mini-lesson with examples and space for students to brainstorm and write their own similes and metaphors. These Thanksgiving-themed activities are ideal for warm-ups, independent work, liter

This writing project is perfect for any unit on Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. Since the book strikes a chord for many high school students, it's a great chance to give them an opportunity for personal reflection. The assignment asks students to write five reflective journal entries about their reaction to the book, providing a variety of questions to help inspire their thoughts. A teacher's guide is included along with the assignment. You might also be interested in: 15 Discussion Warm-Ups (