Students research different awards given by the ALA and do an activity based on one of the awards.
Today, the American Library Association announces its annual book award winners.
Snowflake Bentley illustrator Mary Azarian was born in 1940.
Students catch snowflakes outdoors and sketch some of the structures, or grow their own snow crystals and examine them using magnifying glasses or microscopes.
November is National American Indian Heritage Month.
Students explore Native American heritage through the study of pourquoi tales, write their own original pourquoi tales, and use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press to publish them.
Today is Election Day.
Election Day is held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
William Carlos Williams was born in 1883.
Students write imitation poems, review grammatical structures, and use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press or Stapleless Book to publish their finished work.
Celebrate International Literacy Day!
Celebrate International Literacy Day by starting a literacy movement in your community.
In 1952, Paul Fleischman was born on this day.
Some of Fleishman's memories in his essay "My House of Voices" are shared with the class. Students then write a descriptive essay that gives a tour of the voices in their homes, school, etc.
Confection Connection: Using Sensory Details in Writing
Get children excited about writing and descriptive language by creating yummy descriptions of their favorite candy.
Think Hink Pinks!
Kids will love Hink Pinks—word puzzles that use two-word clues to lead to a rhyming solution. Try one and get hooked yourself: Obese feline? Fat cat!
Can You Convince Me?
Children learn how to make a convincing argument—an important skill in school and in life.
Writing Fanfiction
Writing stories that imitate a certain genre or type of fiction allows children to explore a book they love by imagining new twists for their favorite characters and plot lines.
Explore and Write About Nature
In this activity, children look closely at living things in their natural environments and then make books about what they see.
Telling My Story: Make a Bio-Cube
Let children explore an interesting subject—themselves. An online tool will teach them to summarize and organize information as they write.
Write Theme Poems
Use shape and theme poems, or poems that look like the things they describe, as a fun way to introduce children to poetry.
Write a Recipe
Use recipes to help children practice reading and writing step-by-step instructions. Have them sample the results to see how they did.
Create Trading Cards for Favorite Characters
Use the online Trading Card Creator tool to have children make cards describing their favorite characters from the books on their reading list.
Celebrate Heroes
Encourage children to spend a little time thinking and writing about just what makes a hero and who their personal heroes might be.
Make a Magnetic Poetry Set
Let children practice using different types of words in a fill-in-the-blank-story game before making their own word list for a magnetic poetry set.
Explore Point of View in Fairy Tales
Explore fairy tales told in both old and new ways and use an online tool to help children create their own "fractured" version of a fairy tale.