# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Literacy terms , strategies, assessment  fiction, nonfiction 25(2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Differentiated Instruction in Oral, Written, Visual language 25(1)

# data[].attributes.headline
History & Social Science Content Standards

# data[].attributes.subject
History & Social Science Content Standards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Looking for literacy activities for kids? This is a list of fun, engaging and effective literacy activities and printables for kids ages 3-8.

So if you are looking for lots of fun and easy to prep literacy activities to do with the kids, then this list is perfect for you.

Literacy Activities for Kids

Literacy is so important, but finding activities and printables that will engage students in fun and learning can be difficult. That's why I took the time to gather all of the literacy activities on my site and others from some of my favorite websites.

This list consists of alphabet activities, name activities, phonics and phonological awareness activities, sight word activities, pre-writing activities, writing activities, handwriting activities and spelling activities.

This is going to be such a great resource for you when it comes to teaching literacy!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Looking for literacy activities for kids? This is a list of fun, engaging and effective literacy activities and printables for kids ages 3-8. So if you are looking for lots of fun and easy to prep literacy activities to do with the kids, then this list is perfect for you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free Letter Tracing Printables for Alphabet Letter Formation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These free printable letter tracing worksheets and activities will give kids lots of hands-on practice with letter formation and handwriting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
100+ Free Printable Phonics Activities for Kids Learning to Read

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are your students working hard on phonics skills? These printable phonics activities will make your literacy lessons a blast!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Editable Sight Word Games - Word Work Practice with Auto-fill - High F

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These editable word work games are a fun way to learn phonics, decodable words, sight words, spelling, high frequency words and even letters and numbers! These word work centers are so much fun and super simple to prep! Just type in any words you want and all 20 word work activities will be auto-filled! You can also ty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
RTI - SLD-Cognitive Abilities (Assoc Concep Exp) Definition  Accommodations(1)(1)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Theories supporting all lesson models used in MS Credential Program 22(1)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
#1 Direct Instruction Format 2024 (Pocahontas)

# data[].attributes.headline
Social Studies for Kids Recycling, Civil Rights, The Right to Vote

# data[].attributes.subject
Social Studies for Kids Recycling, Civil Rights, The Right to Vote

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Social Studies for Kids Recycling, Civil Rights, The Right to Vote | Kids Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
US History for Kids | Social Studies for Grade 3 | Kids Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Real Story of Pocahontas | Indigeneity Learning Media | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this segment of Indigeneity, Ariel and Julian set the record straight by unraveling the stereotypes and falsehoods in the story of Pocahontas, bringing to light a much more interesting and truthful history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Symbols | Social Studies Shorts | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most nations have symbols that stand for the ideas and values most important to them. The eagle, the official bird of the United States, stands for strength. Learn more about other American symbols, including our flag, the Great Seal, Uncle Sam, and the Statue of Liberty, in this episode of Social Studies Shorts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Story of Pocahontas | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills, students learn that there are multiple versions of the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore a social studies focus on the two different versions of this story that Smith wrote, and what historians believe really happened when Smith met Pocahontas. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I Can Statements are family-friendly guides that can be used to help your family and ensure your students are on track for their grade level. All learning objectives for English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies are provided, written in family-friendly language. I Can Statements help make grade-level learning targets clear for families and they address the standards students of the same grade level learn in all public schools.

Multi-Grade Level Lists

The skills noted in the multi-grade level lists for science and social studies can be learned and applied to the content areas for their respective grade level groupings. These lists should be used in conjunction with the content standards. These skills can be assigned to the lessons in your personalized curriculum to demonstrate the following intellectual, reasoning, reflection, and research skills.

K-8th Grade: Science & Engineering Practices-Crosscutting Concepts

K-8th Grade: Historical & Social Studies Analysis Skills

I Can Checklists

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I Can Statements - Cabrillo Point Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I Can Statements are family-friendly guides that can be used to help your family and ensure your students are on track for their grade level. All learning objectives for English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies are provided, written in family-friendly language. I Can Statements help make grade-level learning targets clear for families and they address the standards students of the same grade level learn in all public schools.

Multi-Grade Level Lists

The skills noted in the multi-grade level lists for science and social studies can be learned and applied to the content areas for their respective grade level groupings. These lists should be used in conjunction with the content standards. These skills can be assigned to the lessons in your personalized curriculum to demonstrate the following intellectual, reasoning, reflection, and research skills.

K-8th Grade: Science & Engineering Practices-Crosscutting Concepts K-8th Grade: Historical & Social Studies Analysis Skills

I Can Checklists

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pacific Coast Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school serving transitional kindergarten through 12th grade students in San Diego and Imperial Counties. We take great pride in being able to offer our students flexible personalized learning experiences through our many unique and dynamic programs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American River Charter School - “I CAN” Statements

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heritage and Holidays | Together We Can | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Invite children to watch as our Together We Can friends share their preparations for heritage-rich holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Diwali. Holidays are one way we celebrate our cultures, traditions, and families. They provide time to gather and share our joy. This video offers a peek at several different holiday preparations through a celebratory song.
Watch this video to deepen understanding of the meaning of these celebrations, then invite children to show appreciation for a favorite tradition by writing and drawing about it on the printable activity page titled, “My Family Tradition.”
About the Music Video Genre: Pop
Performers: Alina, Sid, Wren
Special Guest: Savannah Guthrie

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The First People of the U.S. | Together We Can | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This video celebrates those of us who are Indigenous, living on the land we now call the United States of America. Together We Can friend Wren shares how the land keeps us connected to our languages, cultures, and traditions.
After watching, use the printable activity page “My Favorite Local Meal” to invite children and their families to deepen their connection to the land around them by thinking about favorite foods that are local to their region.
About the Music Video Music Style: Songscape
Performers: Wren, Elijah, Lincoln

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find resources related to civics & government, geography, economics, and history. All of the resources are available in English. Some are available in Spanish. No student is too young to learn how to become civically engaged This robust collection will help to spark new conversations in your classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The town of City Island is rich with iconic businesses, government institutions, and a diverse citizenry. The fun challenges presented are town projects for Watt to solve. Watt meets the different members of the community and learns about how they make the city run. The stories emphasize conflict resolution, cooperation, and city planning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The United States is famously a nation of immigrants, which makes learning about immigration stories an engaging and fun activity-after all, if you go back a handful of centuries, we're all descendants of immigrants!

Explain the reasons why different groups of people have immigrated to America throughout history, why they chose to leave their home country and the process of adjusting to a new country.

One of the best ways for young learners to connect with their own heritage and learn more about the heritages of other groups is by reading stories written by or about immigrants or the children of immigrants.

6. Interview a Historical Figure

Start by finding a famous piece of historical art, poetry, music or anything else showing the creative effects of a historical event. Share this artifact and its surrounding context with your class so they'll have a better understanding of what it means now and what it represented at the time.

Next, set the scene: your students are junior reporters in a year contemporary to when the artifact was created or when it gained popularity. Their first assignment is to interview the creator of the artifact! They can ask questions about the person's experience, their inspirations or anything else they think is important enough to print in the newspaper.

7. Current Events

The present is a type of history, just as worth paying attention to as the past and the future. Get your students interested in what's happening in the world right now by asking everyone to choose an article about current events to present to the rest of the class.

Set a topic or a challenge or let your students have free reign to choose whatever they're most interested in talking about. After a bit of close reading, they should have no trouble explaining the who, what, when, where and why of the topic or event they want to share. Encourage other students to ask follow-up questions, identify patterns or connections between articles and make other observations about what's happening.

Classbooks make for a great time capsule for your classroom, and this particular classbook will be an especially effective time capsule, as it will contain your students' thoughts on events that were current at the time!

8. Ruler for a Day

Have all of your students pretend they've just been crowned the sole and sovereign ruler of a small, largely unknown country after it was discovered they were distantly related to the previous ruler. Now that they're in charge and no one can say different, what rules will they establish in their country?

9. Class Constitution

Your students can participate in their own mini democracy by helping to write your class constitution! The existing classroom rules are a good place to start, along with positive mantras and affirmations that will encourage a supportive classroom community. Once the constitution is written, create a display version on a large piece of butcher paper with fancy script writing. Students can all sign their names in their favorite color!

Ideas to include in your class constitution:

10. Historical Journal

As you progress through history, ask your students to write journal entries as if they're a contemporary person living in that time period. They can write about daily life activities, the community and larger historical events that would have recently happened. Have some fun by encouraging them to predict future events when you know something big is going to happen in the next lesson.

11. Economics: The Basics

Start out simply with an illustrated cheat sheet of economic terms. On a piece of paper, your students will write the words "Goods," "Services," "Producer," "Consumer," "Supply" and "Demand." Explain each term and have students write a short explanation and draw something to represent that term.

Once you have the cheat sheets all finished up, give students a sentence or two with an economics scenario and have them identify each economic term in the sentence. After your kids get the hang of it, get a little tricky if you want to! Even a short statement like "Chocolate was sold out at the store" involves five of the terms.

12. Then or Now?

While it seems like this would be an easy task, sometimes photos can be deceiving, especially if you're willing to get a little sneaky by showing viral "time traveler" photos!

Every few years, a photo will go viral when the internet gets excited about seeing someone in the 1940s wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt, which they've identified as evidence of time travel. Of course, there are sadly much less fantastical explanations for this that don't include time travel, such as sunglasses having been invented in the 1920s and t-shirts beginning to be mass produced in the 1910s.

13. Just Add Music

There are plenty of ways to add music to social studies lessons, and there are plenty of benefits you'll see from doing so. The novelty of adding music to any lesson will help it stand out in your students' minds, and music played at a low volume during learning has been shown to improve recall and retention of information.

Playing music that matches your lesson-such as historical music from the time period you're learning about or classical music paired with a math lesson-helps students build a better understanding of context, resulting in deeper learning.

Besides background music, also consider teaching your class songs that were popular during historical times and explaining the songs' meanings and contexts. The final form of music is, of course, catchy mnemonics set to simple tunes: there are songs about the bill of rights, the fifty states and anything else your students should be working on memorizing for the rest of their academic careers.

Help Your Students Become Published Authors

The process is easy. All you need to do is sign up online, and we'll ship your publishing kit straight to your school. A classbook anthology of your students' writing and illustrations will be a meaningful keepsake and time capsule for your classroom, and parents can order copies, too!

You can also check out our blog and online Teacher's Lounge for more writing activities, lesson plans and teaching strategies. Have fun teaching social studies!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Fun Social Studies Activities for 5th-Grade Students!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read this blog post if you're having trouble coming up with fun social studies activities for your 5th-grade students!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free fun social studies activities | TPT

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page failed to load. Our development team has been informed of the issue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Browse fun ela activities resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Oftentimes the most time-consuming aspect of lesson planning is coming up with fun ELA activities that will engage your high school and middle school students. This reminds me of the dreaded question presenters often spring on people at trainings: "What do you like to do for fun!?" I can't be the only person who draws a blank and then proceeds to have an existential crisis during the entire PD session thinking what DO I do for fun??? Am I really that boring??? Is my husband going to leave me for someone more exciting??? Does my dog think I'm dull too??? HA.

But just as my inner thoughts are unwarranted, so is your ELA lesson plan critique. Sometimes you just need a helpful list to remind your English teacher self of all the fun ELA activities you can incorporate into your English classroom.

I used one of my favorite brainstorming tools to come up with a list that you can reference time and time again. Feel free to print the ABC graphic organizer and post it near your teacher desk. You might want to bookmark this too so that you can reference that blog post and resources associated with each fun ELA activity.

A: Ambient Media

It's no secret that I love me some ambient media, but it may surprise you to learn just how many ways you can use it to engage students in high school and middle school English class! Learn more here: 5 creative ways to use ambient media in ELA

B: Bookish BINGO

Bookish BINGO is something new I started and I have so many good ones lined up to share on Instagram this year. The gist is students use the boards like a quasi personality quiz to see how relatable the themes or topics in the book might be to them. You can get inspired here: Bookish BINGO Boards

C: Literary Charts

Math and literature might seem like an unlikely pair, but this duo can produce some of the deepest literary analysis that you'll do all year. You can read all about strategies like rhetorical bar graphs, character pies, and sentence variety data in this post: Literary Charts: Interdisciplinary ELA Activities

D: Mini Dramas

One of my favorite ways to make plays more engaging is to have students experience the artform as it was meant to be by acting it out. While doing an entire production often requires way more time than ELA classes allot, putting on a mini play only takes a single class period and is so much fun! You can see an example here or download my mini play supplies here: Act it Out: Bring any play to life!

E: English Outdoors

In our book Keeping the Wonder: An Educator's Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning, we have an entire chapter dedicated to research on learning outdoors and accompany that research with a brainstorming list of ideas for making nature your classroom. You can also find a ton of great ideas in this post: English Outdoors: How to take your ELA class outside

F: Finger Puppet Plays

Finger puppets might seem like an odd choice for a secondary ELA activity list, but I can assure you that even high school students are just big kids at heart and putting on a Shakespeare finger puppet play will be one of the most engaging (and rigorous!) activities you'll do all year! You can find my library of Shakespearian finger puppets here: Finger Puppet Plays

G: Gallery Walks

H: Hands-on Projects

I: Introduction Stations

New unit? New book? New semester!? Introduction stations can be the answer to all of these questions! If you are looking for a way to engage your students, and pique their interests in a variety of ways, using these stations is an interactive strategy to get things started with some energy. This resource can be adapted for any book or unit to help you get your students hooked right away: Intro Stations For Any Book

J: Jamboard Templates

As I was desperately searching for something to engage my remote learners during the year that must not be named, I discovered Jamboard, and I've been a huge fan ever since! This application can be used to enhance group discussions, collaborations, or formative assessments for in class or virtual learning strategies. To find out more about how to use Jamboards in your class, explore my blogpost here for ideas: Creative Jamboards Templates for the ELA Classroom

K: Kinesthetic Learning

L: Literary Lenses

Literary lenses are a great way to help students look at text in different ways with different perspectives. In a sense, it helps train them to be more open-minded to different opinions, empathic toward various viewpoints, and critical of linear thinking. One thing I always like to have on hand is this set of literary lenses. This is one of those fun ELA activities that comes in so handy with so many different texts.

M: Mural Responses

If there's one thing I know to be true, high school and middle school students never miss a good selfie opportunity. Instagramable murals are all the rage right now, so why not harness their power by adding wall mural responses to your own classroom? Drawing inspiration from this famous wing mural in Nashville, I created a raven wing activity to go with Poe's "The Raven." All I did was change the shape of a traditional worksheet to raven wings. Rather than putting their responses in a to-grade pile, students display them in a mural. In another example, I had students create symbolic windmills to go with Animal Farm and displayed them in a "wind tossed" pattern around my room. To create your own wall mural responses, think about what shapes or unique displays students could give their responses on that aren't a traditional worksheet.

N: Sticky Notes

It's a narrow competition between color-coded highlighters and sticky notes as my most used school supply for fun ELA activities, but since I needed an "N," we'll let notes claim the winning spot. 😉 I don't know what it is, but when you give students a smaller piece of paper that doesn't look like a worksheet, they are suddenly much more engaged. There are all kinds of different ways you can use sticky notes for ELA lesson plans, but here are a few of my favorites: Sticky note bar graphs, Sticky note activity ideas

O: Onscreen connections

Whether it's movie pairings, animation shorts, YouTube videos, or even Instagram reels, students love onscreen entertainment! When brainstorming fun ELA activities, think of ways you can incorporate video. You can find lots of examples in this post: Best Movies for High School and Middle School ELA

P: Podcast Pairings

Podcasts are a great engagement tool in general, but when you pair them with ELA texts, buy-in soars! One of my favorite and most popular ways to pair podcasts is with poetry. Due to the short format of poetry, it's easy to play a podcast and do a poetry pairing in one class setting. Plus, the unlikely pairing really challenges students to think critically and dig deeper into themes. You can find my poetry and podcast pairings here and more ELA podcast pairing ideas here: ELA Podcast Pairings for Middle School and High School

Q: Question Starters

R: Revision Stations

If you are tired of spending your weekend poring over student essays, and want a more efficient way to give your students immediate feedback, utilizing revision stations will deliver! These stations will help students make all of those little time consuming corrections before it ever reaches your desk, which will give you more YOU time. The best part about revision stations is that it gives you more one-on-one time with your students so that you can give them meaningful feedback and the help they need. If you want to learn more about how revision stations can help you reclaim your weekends, read my blog post here: Essay Revision Stations

S: Socratic Seminars

One of the best ways to make your class completely student-centered is mastering the Socratic seminar. I love watching as a class becomes completely absorbed into deep and meaningful conversations and wants to stay even after the bell has sounded! Learn more here: How to host a Socratic Seminar in Secondary ELA

T: Classroom Transformations

Whether you put up some caution tape around your door before starting Serial, turn your classroom into a jungle to introduce Lord of the Flies, or simply hit play on some mead hall ambience for Beowulf, classroom transformations can set the stage to engage in ELA! While decorating is more of an activity for teachers, you can use your transformations to inspire fun ELA activities. In the Lord of the Flies example, students used elements of my jungle to construct microcosms we used throughout the entire novel. In another example, every time the mead hall ambience comes on during Beowulf, students form "mead hall groups" where they have discussions or play review games.

U: Unique Understanding Checks

V: Vocational Connections

Student buy-in is always higher when ELA teachers can directly tie their curriculum to real-world scenarios. One of my favorite PD books for this is Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts (affiliate link). While this book offers lots of real world writing inspiration, you can also make vocational connections with ELA activities. For instance, when teaching Beowulf (or another call to adventure text), have students participate in a mock interview from Beowulf's perspective. In another example, students work on budgeting their own "rich life" with The Great Gatsby. As you are planning fun ELA activities, ask yourself how the content might relate to a real-life vocational task.

Design a ____ for _______.

Plan a _____ as if ________.

Pitch a _______ for ________.

Create a _______ as if you were ______.

Try your hand at _____ by _________.

W: Word Art Summaries

Summarizing is an important ELA skill and bringing art into your arsenal of summarizing strategies can really up the engagement. I began using word art summaries at the start of each time period introduction, and never looked back! This fun ELA activity is exactly what the name suggests. Students summarize something by using art to make letters. For instance, if they want to summarize the context of the Medieval time period, they would draw images that represent main ideas of that historical period. See an example in the image above! You can use this ELA activity for all kinds of summary tasks. Here are some more ideas:

Character summaries- spell out a character's name using art that represents them

Book summaries - spell out one word of the title using art that represents topics and themes in the book

Theme summaries - spell out the main theme of the book using elements that built upon that theme

X: Classroom Experiments

Classroom experiments are some of the most fun ELA activities because they make ELA content relevant and relatable. I find most of my experiment ideas via informational text. For example, when I was searching for an informational text to pair with Macbeth, I stumbled upon this handwashing psychology article. The article outlines an experiment that I simply recreated in class (you can find this in my Macbeth unit). Doing the experiment sparked so much curiosity that students were eager to keep reading the scene to see where I was going with it all. Plus, students were able to have a much deeper understanding of the infamous bloody hand scene in the play. In another example, I incorporated STEM in ELA by doing a science experiment related to The Great Gatsby. So, the next time you are searching for informational text pairings, pay close attention to the experiments mentioned in the articles to see if you can replicate something similar in your ELA classroom!

Y: Literary Yoga

Z: Zen Doodle Listening

There's no age limit on coloring, and I've found that letting high school or middle school students color while they listen truly helps them to stay focused while listening to podcasts or even audiobooks! You can download my podcast coloring pages here or find lists of podcast recommendations for the ELA classroom to get you started here:
Podcasts for Kids: An epic list of activities and podcasts for school Spooky Podcast Episodes for the ELA classroom Valentine Podcast Episodes for ELA
So there you have it- ELA engagement from A-Z! I hope this list of fun ELA activities for middle school and high school make your next planning session a little easier! If you would like a handy ABC poster, you can grab that here: ABCs of ELA Planning Poster

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fun ELA Activities the ABCs of ELA Engagement - Building Book Love

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are you looking for some fun ELA activities to make planning engaging ELA lesson plans a little easier? This list has you covered!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ancient Athens Historical Parody Song of Beverly Hills by Weezer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
poetry lesson plans for social studies class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Poetry Lesson Plans for Social Studies Class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Poetry Lesson Plans for Social Studies Class - Browse poetry lesson plans to incorporate into social studies, government, civics, and other...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For National Poetry Month or any time of the year, read a poem a day to your kids. It doesn’t have to be poetry specifically written for kids either. It can be poems about nature, people, or animals. Anything goes!