Creative writing encourages imaginations to take flight, and when adults use the right approach, building literacy skills becomes a form of play that gets kids excited to create their own stories. Packed with ready-to-use lesson plans designed for kindergarten- and early elementary-aged children, this book will help librarians add creative writing…

The concept of a ready-made block of knowledge does not exist in the Montessori classroom. Instead, the teacher's knowledge and the learning abilities of the child interact. The teacher brings what she or he knows about the world, and the child brings his or her desire to learn more about the world. In this article, a Montessori teacher uses her…

The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and corresponding assessments brought about many changes for educators, their literacy instruction, and the literacy learning of their students. This study examined the day-to-day literacy instruction of two primary grade teachers during their first year of full CCSS implementation. Engestr?m's…

A kindergarten teacher of children with advanced language discusses her use of poetry activities to promote reading readiness, auditory discrimination, oral language, creative thinking, independent working, and a love for poetry. Creative activities begin with drawing picture interpretations and proceed to the students writing their own poems. (CL)

A teacher describes how a classroom diary, part of a daily classroom routine, was created through class members sharing their experiences with each other. The diary also served as a teaching tool in such areas as language arts and handwriting. (CB)

Small groups of first graders (N=11 and 16), identified as having poor listening and attention skills, or as reluctant contributors to oral expression, were stimulated to listen and discuss stories using "listening books" as resource materials. (Author/CL)

This book uses art to stimulate content-area language development and writing skills. From A to Z, the 81 animal patterns in the book combine with 35 different activities to enhance the primary curriculum--each student gets a photocopy of the pattern, paper, scissors, and some materials to decorate the "critter." The book's activities…

The activities outlined in this booklet for reading and the language arts at the primary level are intended to enable teachers to vary the rate of individual student progress through a common instructional sequence, provide materials that allow for a high degree of enrichment, and make available many materials and activities for practice on basic…

The writing activities in this book are designed to help children build writing skills through the communication of their own ideas, discoveries, and feelings. Developed and field tested as part of a basic skill development project, the book presents a rationale for primary children's writing, outlines the fundamentals of teaching writing, and…

This language arts curriculum guide, principally designed for teaching culturally advantaged pupil of above-average intelligence, aims (1) to specify a relatedness between the subjects comprising the English language arts, (2) to specify behavioral objectives, (3) to suggest learning processes that allow pupils to order their inner feelings by…

Before children can make sense of phonics study, they first must learn that print conveys meaning. Children who do not have this foundation concept may do phonics workbook pages, but without understanding or processing the concepts. That is why--unlike books on traditional phonics teaching--this book emphasizes the making of sound instructional…

This article considers ways in which computers can be used to encourage primary grade children to use language purposefully, with emphasis on the need to integrate computer activities into the overall curriculum. Described, with examples, are microworlds, programing activities, word processing, databases, drill and practice activities, adventure…

Defining listening as the active and conscious process of hearing, recognizing, and interpreting or comprehending language, this guide provides numerous activities to promote the listening skills of primary and intermediate grade students. Specifically, the activities described seek to develop (1) the ability of young students to listen…

One of a series of activity guides, this publication offers a variety of learning activities and resource materials for primary grade students. The activities and resources include: a calendar which lists important days and birthdays in March, April, and May; poems; word puzzles and other puzzles; language arts activities; a flannelboard story;…

Materials for use in the second grade language arts curriculum of Milwaukee's Multi-Language School German immersion program were compiled. The materials include worksheets and exercises that develop German vocabulary and grammar through such activities as coloring, drawing illustrations, categorizing words, filling in blanks, spelling, forming…