In groups of four, give students a short story to read. At the end of the story, ask one student to draw a picture of an event in the story, another to write five discussion questions about the story, a third student to write connections to the story and the fourth student write a summary of the story. After students complete the activities, they share them in their group. This activity helps reinforce the traits of good readers.
Place students in groups of three or four. Each student writes the first line of a story, then passes it to the student on the right who adds another line. The stories continue around the group until they have approximately twenty lines. Students can then work together to edit their stories and create a clean copy. This activity allows students to practice their writing and grammatical skills and teaches them to build off the ideas of others. The same activity can be used to create a 15 to 20 line poem.
Place students into groups and provide them with a fable or other short story. Have students dramatically read the story to the class, using props and staging the story as if it were a play. Students will have to work together to determine how to present the play and who is responsible for which parts.
Before beginning a unit or reading a book, assign students to groups to become an expert on one topic related to the unit or book. For example, as part of a unit on weather, students can be split into groups to research tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. For a book that takes place during the 1950s, students could research the music, clothes and news of the 1950s. As a group, students can create a presentation to share their new knowledge with the class.
Place students into small groups and give each group a book of poetry. Challenge students to find as many examples of the elements of poetry and figurative language as possible and place them onto a chart. Give a prize to groups who find the most elements in each category. Elements students should look for are: metaphors, similes, rhyming couplets, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, repetition, imagery and personification. Students can also be challenged to find examples of specific types of poems such as haiku and limericks.