Try varying your students' learning format between different activities, alternating whole class activities with small groups, partner or individual work. While different formats will benefit different students best, by alternating you allow all students a chance at their ideal learning environment. In addition, some activities lend themselves best to a certain level of interaction. For creative writing, you'll probably want students to work individually; however, for research and planning stages of a larger project, students may find it fruitful to work in partners and small groups.
The individual students in your class may have sharply differing preferred learning styles, whether visual, kinesthetic or auditory. To engage the greatest number of students, look for ways of incorporating multiple senses into a lesson. Instead of providing hand-outs, having students see notes on a board or an overhead projector serves as a visual presentation; they can compound this by writing out notes, a kinesthetic process, while listening to you explain the material. When relevant, look for hands-on activities to demonstrate conceptual themes in more concrete ways. For example, manipulatives such as blocks or plastic shapes can help young learners grasp arithmetic or basic geometry.
In general, elementary learners will appreciate a relatively fast-paced schedule, with a lively progression from one activity to the next. However, when budgeting time, it's important to weigh which activities receive the lion's share of your school day. For example, before a reading activity, it can be useful to provide a "lead-in" lesson, introducing themes from the reading; after the reading, follow-up questions can reinforce students' reading comprehension. Be sure to factor these activities into your total time allocated for reading; while they can be useful activities, they should not infringe on the class time reserved for reading, itself.
To engage your learners in a new subject, try presenting the material through a problem-based lesson. These types of lessons challenge students to interpret or apply new information to solve some kind of problem. Often, problem-based learning relies on cooperative work within small groups. For example, in a foreign language class, students might work together to design a sales presentation for a fictitious service, fulfilling certain criteria. As the teacher, you can set the parameters for the problem and its possible solutions so that students engage with the target material at the appropriate depth.