+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short Story Elements

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students engage in a lesson that investigates the elements that are necessary in a short story. Each element is covered separately while they take notes for each part. Then the teacher points out each element while reading a short story...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: Bringing Back the Sun: The Story of Jaguar Inspiring Student Stories

For Teachers K - 5th
What on earth is that jar for? It was an ancient incense burner used by the Maya, that was inspired by the myth of the sun god. Young analysts hear the story of the Mayan sun god, analyze the story through the artistry in the jar, and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: All in the Family

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Who was the Radcliffe family? Young learners find out about the life and times of a family from long ago. They analyze the family portrait, write a story about the family, and then use their story to create thought or word bubbles which...
+
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

What Happened Next? (Grades K-4)

For Teachers K - 4th Standards
Explore the structure of narrative writing with this fun, collaborative instructional activity. Start by reading aloud a short story, asking small groups of learners to fill in key events on a large story board prepared on the class...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: While You Were Sleeping....

For Teachers K - 5th
Imagine you are a bug living on a leaf in the painting, Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Maria van Oosterwyck. This is what you'll tell your class as they analyze the lovely image. They list details in the painting, find two insects in...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: Possible Perspectives

For Teachers K - 5th
Visual art is the inspiration for a creative writing activity focused on having learners write from different perspectives. They analyze the image Yellow Rain Jacket, picking out details to help their storytelling. They use the details...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Short, Short Story

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders write a short story using 100 words or less.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Writing Lesson Plan: Combination Creature

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students navigate through an online interactive virtual zoo to create imaginary animals by combining different parts of real animals. They write a short story about their combination creature.
+
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 
+
Lesson Plan
Art Institute of Chicago

African Myths and Stories

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Young historians discover African stories associated with a royal altar tusk from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, read myths illustrated on the tusk, and write a story about the life of an oba using figures depicted on the tusk.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Adventures in Toyland

For Teachers K - 5th
There are many ways to tell a story; Richard Patterson's three-dimensional painting If serves as the inspiration for some creative storytelling for elementary school writers. They watch a clip from Toy Story (you'll need to bring this),...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Collaborative Writing

For Teachers 4th
Collaborative writing projects can be a lot of fun for students. They use a Scholastic Story Starter and the class blog to write a creative story containing basic story elements. The web link to Scholastic is included but non of the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Combining with Participial Phrases

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Greek Story Vases

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
There are so many ways to tell a story! Develop visual storytelling skills while facilitating an understanding of Greek art and culture. Learners design Greek style images to tell a story through art. They add their designs to Styrofoam...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Strip-Teasers: A Collaborative Writing activity

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Young writers engage in a fun writing activity. They write three different sentences on three strips of paper. Then they get into groups of three, and take a look at all nine sentences that have been written. Their task is to write a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: A Spider's Perspective

For Teachers K - 5th
A fun way to grow a class of creative thinkers, is to add creative projects to your weekly line up. Kids pretend they are small insects or spiders crawling up the side of a huge building. They use vivid imagery, rich detail, and their...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

St. Patrick’s Day

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Combine math, creative writing, and leprechauns in a fun St. Patrick's Day activity! Using a bag of gold coins and marshmallows, kids write a math story about a leprechaun that includes a multi-step equation to solve.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Writing Lesson Plan

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Students practice recognizing the elements needed to produce a piece of creative writing and become aware of those elements in their own original pieces of writings. In groups, they creatively write a new story utilizing all the major...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make Up Your Story

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Putting together an interesting story can be hard, but this set of worksheets will guide your writers into the depths of their own creativity as they characterize both their main character and villain. Using humor to keep learners...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing Mythological Narratives

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Learners compose a creative writing piece based on a painting of a mythological scene. In this creative writing lesson,  students write about the scene in the painting and tie in  their original stories into tales from the life of the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Leaf People

For Teachers K - 4th
Kids create leaf people out of sticks, glue, and leaves. They use their imagination to construct leaf people and then glue them onto construction paper. Tip: Extend this craft by incorporating writing. Have learners write a short story...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fill a Jar

For Teachers K - 6th
Sometimes short lesson outlines are enough to give you a great idea. Young writers draw any object inside an image of a jar, that doesn't belong in a jar. They can draw a tree, truck, or dinosaur. Tip: Have kids write a short story...
+
Lesson Plan
Music Publishers Association of the United States

I Made It. I Own It. Please Don't Steal It.

For Teachers 3rd - 4th Standards
Explore the world of copyright law with a variety of activities to instill the importance of respecting creative property. Scholars watch an animated tale then take part in a grand conversation detailing the video's main idea, details,...
+
Lesson Plan
Roald Dahl

The Twits - Muggle-Wump Has an Idea

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
If a bar of chocolate was on the floor, would you try to pick it up? What if it was covered with glue? The eighth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has scholars imagine crazy scenarios. The lesson...