ela Archives

Pizza Pie ELA! Adjective Sorting Activity

December 1, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Does anyone else think learning about parts of speech is fun?

If not, it’s possible that it’s just me.

When I learned about them years (and years) ago in school, I thought it was so neat that the words I read and used everyday had different functions.

If your students aren’t quite as thrilled about the parts of speech as I was, this pizza-themed adjective sorting activity is fun way to practice recognizing describing words!

If you’re reading a pizza-themed book with your class, this is a wonderful way to weave in some basic ELA practice.

Plus, it has a hands-on component that younger students will love!

Read on to see how to get your copy of this ELA activity – free!

And, for more ways to practice language arts in early grades, take a look at my Construction Contractions ELA unit!

This fun pizza themed adjective sorting activity is a perfect hands-on lesson for ELA!

Pizza Pie ELA! Adjective Sorting Activity

To use this pizza-themed adjective sorting activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Easy Adjective Sorting Activity for Kids

This ELA lesson lets students practice spotting and using descriptive words to describe everyone’s favorite food – pizza!

It’s designed as a one-time cut and paste activity, but you can easily adapt it for repeated use at centers.

Instructions are included on the activity, so you can just print and then hand them out to students.

They can look for the adjectives, cut them out, and then paste them onto the pizza as mushroom and pepperoni “toppings”.

Turn this into a reusable activity by laminating the pages. Then cut them out and let students use them again and again.

Adjective Sorting Activity for Early Elementary

This would also make a great take-home activity for practicing parts of speech.

Adjective Pizza Adjective Sorting Activity

Students can assemble their pizzas at home and then bring them in the next day!

Scroll down to get your copy of this free Pizza Adjective Sorting Activity!

Try some of these other ELA learning ideas for early elementary!

Pick up these printable contraction flashcards to help early elementary students review English contractions!

To get your copy of this Adjective Pizza activity, click the image or the link below to grab it as a free download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Pizza Pie ELA! Adjective Sorting Lesson <<<

Deep Blue Sea! Printable Ocean ELA Activities for Kids

May 19, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

The town I grew up in was about half an hour inland from the coast. So the ocean has always had a special place in my heart.

As a kid, I was always excited to go to the beach and play on the sand, wade in the waves, and just generally be happy.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the most fascinating part of the coast is the part I never saw – the animals that live below its surface.

As summer approaches, the ocean is a common learning theme for early elementary students. This Deep Blue Sea! ocean ELA activities set is a fun way to keeps kids engaged over break!

This set of printable activities helps kids practice basic ELA concepts while learning more about the marine animals that call the ocean home.

Read on to see how to get your copy. And, for more fun with ELA activities, don’t miss our Delicious Donuts! ELA Activity Set too!

Use this printable Deep Blue Sea ocean activity pack to keep early elementary students practicing ELA concepts at home or over break!

Deep Blue Sea! Printable Ocean ELA Activities for Kids

To use this set of printable ocean ELA activities, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printable Ocean Themed Activity Set for Early Elementary

This set of ocean-themed activities includes:

Two ocean animal word unscramble worksheets
One coded beach jokes worksheet
One ocean-themed make-a-word activity
One design a marine animal creative writing activity
And one ocean-themed adjectives prompt

Early Elementary Ocean Themed ELA Activity Set

Early elementary students will love completing these activities without worrying about getting the answers “right”.

It’s simply a fun way to stay in practice while using adjectives, word building skills, and creative writing.

Early Elementary Deep Blue Sea Ocean ELA Activity Pack

All of the printable activities are line art only, so you can print them on regular paper and let students color in the pages if you like.

Or you can print them on blue and green AstroBright paper for a nautical vibe!

Scroll down to get your copy of these printable ocean ELA activities!

Take a look at these other fun ways to teach ELA skills!

To get your copy of this Deep Blue Sea! Ocean ELA Activities Set, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Fun Ocean Themed Activity Set for Early Elementary Students

>>> Deep Blue Sea! Ocean ELA Activities Set <<<

Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity

May 7, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Community helpers are always a popular theme in early education. They have been for years.

I remember learning about mail workers, firefighters, and police officers when I was in nursery school myself.

These neighborhood workers are essential to our daily lives, so it’s only right that we teach kids about them as early as possible.

And, with this community helpers writing activity, you can add in a little ELA too!

Simple Community Helpers Writing Activity for Kids

This community helpers sentence writing activity is a fun way to use early writing and sentencing building skills to teach students about our local helpers!

You could use this as a one-time writing activity or place it at centers for repeated practice so that kids can work on them over and over.

Read on to see how to get your copy.

And, for more ways to learn about neighborhood workers, take a look our list of 20 community helpers books for kids!

Pick up this printable community helpers sentence writing activity to help early writers learn about forming sentences and helpers in the neighborhood!

Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity

To use this community helpers writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Colored pencils
Laminator (optional)
Dry erase crayons or dry erase markers (optional)

Community Helpers Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

This writing activity includes seven community helper sentence practice pages, featuring:

Teacher
Trash collector
EMT
Doctor
Mail carrier
Firefighter
And Police officer

Community Helper Sentence Writing Activity

Each page includes a picture of the community helper, along with an example sentence.

Simple Community Helper Writing Sentences Activity

Students can practice reading the sentence on each page.

Then they can color the sentence, trace the sentence, and write it for themselves on the lines.

This is an excellent activity for teaching sentence formation, because it gives children an example of what a complete sentence should look like.

Point out that each complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.

Make sure that students include both of these elements when rewriting the sentences.

Simple Community Helpers Sentence Writing Printables

If you prefer, you can turn this lesson into a reusable activity by laminating the pages so they can be wiped clean.

Students can use dry erase markers or dry erase crayons to complete them again and again!

Scroll down to get your Community Helpers Writing Activity!

Learn more about these neighborhood workers with these activities!

Teach children how to identify community workers in both Spanish and English with these Spanish community helper worksheets!

Introduce kids to the helpers in your town with these kids' books about community helpers! Great for read-aloud time with early learners!

Use these printable Spanish community words flashcards to help kids identify places in the neighborhood in Spanish!

To get your copy of this Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Community Helpers Writing Activity for Kids

>>> Helping Hands! Writing Activity – Teachers Pay Teachers <<<

Spring Stories! Spring Preschool Story Prompts

February 24, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Piglet and I have been working on her handwriting and phonics skills for months, so I thought she’d have a little fun trying her hand at creative writing.

And spring is a great time to be creative!

Naturally, I thought she’d enjoy some of her own spring worksheets for kids: these new printable spring preschool story prompts!

Helping kids learn to write about their thoughts and guesses at a young age is a good way to help them write without fear later on.

These printable preschool writing prompts can help.

Read on to see how to get your own copy of these spring writing printables!

And, for more spring learning fun for early learners, don’t miss our Birds and Bugs Playdough Mats for Preschoolers!

Spring Stories! Spring Preschool Story Prompts

To use these early creative writing prompts, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Pencils (Side note: I’ve never really used the larger primary pencils for my preschoolers, but they may be helpful if your child is working on pencil grip skills.)

The prompts include four different scenarios for preschoolers to write about.

They can write and draw about their favorite thing about spring.

They can write and draw about their favorite spring animal.

They can express what they like to do in spring.

And, to get more specific, they can write or draw about what they want to do this spring.

Plus, they can draw a picture of what they think could happen afterwards. Let’s see these in action!

How to Use Early Creative Writing Prompts with Kids

As an English major, creative writing is one of my passions.

There’s just something about putting pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboards, these days) and starting off down a road of creative thought.

You kind of have an idea of where you’d like to go, but you’re always surprised at the things you come up with along the way.

The same is true with little writers!

Open-ended questions give them a chance to put their imaginations to work. And, after all, writing without imagination is like…like…not writing at all.

Each of these spring creative writing prompts has a line for kids to finish the sentence. At the bottom, there’s a box for them to draw a picture of what they wrote.

This spring, Piglet wants to play basketball. That’s her shooting the ball into the hoop in the picture.

I will say that I had to read the sentence out to her and help her spell the words. The rest she did herself.

After each initial prompt is a second page asking kids to write what they think will happen next.

This is a simple way to introduce creative writing to preschoolers: ask them to come up with an image and then predict what might happen afterward.

Piglet’s answer to what will happen after she plays basketball was: “Bounces”.

Naturally, she drew a picture of the ball bouncing after falling through the net.

Hmmm….what to do next? Color the pictures!

And that’s what she did. She was so proud of her work that she gave her masterpieces to her older siblings.

This was a fun (and quick) language arts lesson for her.

We spent about 15 minutes on one of the prompts and she got to practice handwriting, creative writing, art, phonics, and spelling – all in one activity!

Scroll down to get your printable Spring Preschool Story Prompts!

Don’t miss these other spring learning printables!

To get your copy of our Spring Preschool Story Prompts, click the image or the link below to grab the product from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Spring Early Creative Writing Prompts – Teachers Pay Teachers <<<

This post is part of the Homeschool Writing Prompts linkup at iHomeschool Network! Stop by to get more fun writing prompts for your students from my fellow bloggers!

Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set

October 31, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Donuts are life.

Okay, maybe not life-sustaining. But definitely life-enriching.

Nothing gets my kids up and out of the bed faster than me shouting “Alright, let’s go to Krispy Kreme!”

So when I wanted to share a fun ELA activity set to keep them practicing creative writing, parts of speech, and more, I knew this Delicious Donuts Activity would be a winner!

This is a fantastic activity pack for National Donut Day, which is usually in early June. But it’s a good fit for winter time, since most of us (myself included) start baking as soon as the weather turns cold.

Since these activities are low-prep, you can just print them once, laminate them, and use them at centers if you like!

Read on to see how to get your copy! And for more ELA fun with donuts, take a look at our Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set

To use this donut themed ELA activity set, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper (I like Astrobright paper)
Pencils

This product includes five different donut-themed writing activities, plus an answer key.

On the Donut Adjectives page, students can brainstorm adjectives they’d use to describe donuts.

On the Delicious Donuts page, kids can try to find as many individual words in the phrase as possible.

The Design A Donut page allows students to create their own confectionery masterpiece!

Then they can practice unscrambling donut-related terms too!

Finally, there’s a donut code breaker activity students can complete to decode donut flavors!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set!

Take a look at these other ELA activities for early grades!

See more ways to teach ELA on my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Delicious Donuts! ELA Activity Set <<<

Vowel Houses! Short Vowel Sounds Activity for Kids

October 28, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Learning about short vowel sounds is part of a great foundation in early literacy.

After all, when we teach early readers to decode CVC words, the short vowel sound in the center is what separates the two consonants.

But early learners tend to remember concepts best when they get to incorporate movement in each lesson.

So these interactive vowel houses make a wonderful short vowel sounds activity for increasing phonics skills!

This is a fantastic activity for literacy centers or morning tubs! You can reuse the vowel houses and let students practice matching up the correct sounds again and again.

Read on to see how to get your copy! And for more fun with short vowels, don’t miss our printable short vowel flashcards!

Vowel Houses! Short Vowel Sounds Activity

To use this Vowel Houses! short vowel sounds activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This product includes five different vowel “houses” – one for each letter.

Each house contains four CVC words with short vowel sounds, as well as matching pictures for each word.

Students can color the houses and pictures and then practice placing each picture above the correct CVC word.

You can use these with scissors and glue if you’ll only be using this activity once.

Or you can laminate the houses and pictures and attach hook and loop sticky dots for a reusable phonics activity!

Scroll down to get your copy of this Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity!

Stop by to see these other fun activities for ELA!

See more ways to teach language arts on my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity <<<

Back to School! Creative Writing Prompts for Kids

July 29, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

A new school year usually brings a new set of worries for parents…and for kids.

I’ve noticed that, as my kids grow older, they start to struggle with feelings of self-consciousness and uncertainty. And the first place I start to notice it is in their writing.

Even my bookworms who used to be able to write with abandon start to feel unsure about how to express their feelings as they move through the upper elementary grades and closer to middle school.

So I thought this set of back to school writing prompts would be a great way to start the conversation about the new school year, even if students feel less than enthusiastic.

These would be great for individual students or take-home writing assignments. Or you could use them for a collaborative writing activity as a group!

Keep reading to see how to get your copy! And, for more practice with writing in elementary grades, take a look at my Back to School All About Me Writing Prompt!

Back to School Writing Prompts for Kids

To use these back to school writing prompts, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This product includes a list of back to school writing prompts and a word bank that features nouns, verbs, adjectives, and questions for students to use in their compositions.

Plus, there are 10 different lined pages for students to use as they work!

All of the questions are very open-ended and personal, so even the most reluctant writer will feel comfortable with a least one of the prompts.

Need to save on ink? A line art version is also included!

If you use that one, let students color in the pictures for themselves to add a little art to this activity.

As the teacher, you can complete a prompt too! Be sure to share your response with the class!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Back to School Writing Prompts!

Stop by to see these other ELA learning ideas!

Follow my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids board on Pinterest for more ELA teaching tips!

To get your copy of our Back to School Writing Prompts, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

>>> Back to School Creative Writing Prompts <<<

Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids

July 22, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

It’s already back to school season. Can you believe it?

Personally, I’ve had a wonderful summer break and I am not in any way ready to get back to class. I have a pretty strong hunch my kids feel the same way.

But, like it or not, summer is coming to an end. So, I thought it would be a little easier to get back to ELA with this easy creative writing activity about summer vacation!

We usually take a vacation each summer. This year, we went camping for the first time. And we didn’t die!

My kids had a lot to say about that trip, but I also wanted to encourage them all to write about it, including my younger learners.

This simple vacation-themed creative writing prompt is great, because it’s a bite-sized lesson. So if you have reluctant writers, they won’t be intimidated by it at all.

Read on to see how to get your copy for free! And, for more fun with ELA, don’t miss my Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids

To use this vacation creative writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Cardstock
Pencils
Child-safe scissors (optional)
Colored pencils (optional)

This activity includes five pages of prompts: four with different colors and a line art version.

I found it best to print it on cardstock, because I wanted kids to be able to cut out their finished writing and hang it up on the wall.

If you use the line art version, kids can color in the suitcase themselves!

Students can use this activity to describe their actual vacations or to write about places they’d like to go. And, since it’s evergreen, you can use it any time there’s a school break, including, fall, winter, and spring.

Scroll down to get your copy of our Vacation Creative Writing Activity!

Take a look at these other ways to learn with ELA!

Follow my Language Arts for Kids board on Pinterest for more ideas!

To get your free copy of Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids, click the image or the text below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

>>> Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity <<<

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

June 3, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve never actually sat down and written a list of my favorite things.

If I did, though, I think donuts would be near the top.

Down here in the South, Krispy Kreme reigns supreme as the best place to get doughnuts. While I’m a stickler for the unadulterated goodness of glazed, my kids love frosted donuts.

So I thought this fun Donut Colors sentence writing activity would be a neat way to get some basic sentence writing practice in!

These are fantastic for early writers who are just learning about simple sentence structure!

Read on to see how to get your copy. And, for more fun with sugary sweets, don’t miss our Big and Small Cupcake Worksheets for preschoolers!

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

To use this donut themed sentence writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This writing activity includes eight worksheets. Each features a different colored donut with a different sentence.

Students can practice reading each sentence, coloring each sentence, and tracing each sentence.

Then can write them on the lines provided – all by themselves!

Since each sentence uses two words that describe each donut, this is also a fantastic introduction to adjectives!

If you use literacy centers or morning tubs with your students, you could also use a laminator to laminate each worksheet.

Then hand them out or place them at centers, along with dry erase markers, for writing practice students can use again and again!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Take a look at these other sweet treat posts!

And see more ways to teach ELA on my Language Arts for Homeschoolers Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Donut Colors! Sentence Writing Activity, click the image or the link below to get it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity <<<

Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity

December 13, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I am a huge grammar nerd. I’ve always loved learning about language and how we use it.

My oldest is a fellow ELA junkie, but my middle kids are…less enthusiastic about learning the rules of lexicon. Plus, I just wanted to make a basic ELA lesson more fun, especially for our rising second grader.

So we came up with this hands-on parts of speech sorting activity: Snow Globe Grammar! This is a perfect way to introduce different parts of speech to young learners – with a fun winter theme.

If you use literacy centers, this would be an excellent prep and reuse activity. Or if you wanted to make it into a one-time lesson, you could use it as a cut-and-paste activity for early grades.

Read on to see how to get your copy of this parts of speech sorting lesson! And, if you’d like more practice with ELA and foreign language, don’t miss our printable Spanish verb flashcards!

Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity

To use this parts of speech sorting activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This activity includes sorting mats for three of the basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and adjectives – two sets for each.

Two parts of speech cards are included, which feature winter-themed words (24 in all).

If you’d like to use this activity once, you can have students cut out the parts of speech cards and glue them on the correct mat.

If you’d like to use it over and over, just laminate the mats and the parts of speech cards. Then add hook-and-loop dots to the mats and the backs of the parts of speech cards.

Kids can place the cards on the correct sorting mat and then remove them for use with the next student!

If you introduce one part of speech per lesson, just cut out the cards and introduce the nouns in one lesson, the verbs in another, and the adjectives in another.

Let students sort them for themselves to review at the end of the week!