Having students write book reports or copy letters is educational, but a little variety can make them more engaging. Ask students to work in groups of three to create story maps and then write a story together. Have students sit in a circle, and write a sentence at the top of a blank sheet of paper. Pass the paper around the circle, having each student add a new sentence to continue the story.
Ask students to write poems using rhyming words about a story they recently read or a topic they recently studied.
Before writing a paper or a story, have students create an outline and talk about their plans with the rest of the class.
Show students a picture and ask them to write the story it tells.
Give students sentences to finish, or give students a word written inside a circle and ask them to draw as many circles with descriptive or related words as they can.
In order to improve reading speed and comprehension, try using a variety of activities to engage your class. Ask students to read out loud from poems, news articles or textbooks related to your current subject.
Have students swap papers and proofread for each other.
Send your students on a scavenger hunt for words in magazines or newspapers.
Tell your students to translate a poem into a story.
Give your students a text and ask them to underline all the verbs, adjectives or other parts of speech.
Have children read a short story, then act it out for the rest of the class in charades.
Give students magnetic words and ask them to create sentences or stories.
From preschoolers to seniors, children enjoy learning through games, and interactive games can help solidify important skills. Divide students into pairs, and ask each student to write a mad-lib, or a story template with various words left out. Have each student ask his partner to come up with words from the appropriate part of speech to finish the sentences. For example, a student might write, "Yesterday, I _____ a book," and he would ask his partner to come up with a verb -- without reading the sentence to him. Have the students read the stories to their partners after they fill in all the blanks.
Have students work on individual games like crossword puzzles, word finds or anagrams.
Ask young children to build as many words as they can from certain sets of blocks, or ask them to come up with as many words as they can that start with a certain letter.
Hold a tongue-twister contest, or hold a contest for who can come up with the most synonyms, homonyms or antonyms.
Play bingo with letter sounds.
Break out the dictionary and flip open to a random page, then try to have your class guess the meaning of the word you choose.
Pass the dictionary around and let other students pick a word for the class to guess.
To boost vocabulary retention, have students sit in a circle and have one student stand behind another. Show them a flash card with a definition, and let the first person who says the correct definition move on to the next student. You could also play this game with synonyms or antonyms.
Art exercises both sides of the brain, helping students synthesize the skills they learn in other areas.
Ask your class to illustrate stories they have written or read.
Have them draw maps of their favorite fairy tales.
Let them enact a story with sock puppets that they make, or let them put on a play that they have written together.
Younger students enjoy coloring animals in the shapes of letters, while older students can benefit from more advanced concepts such as painting the word yellow in green.
Ask students to make book report bracelets, with hanging "jewels" that tell a little bit about the book.
Have students write acrostic poems about an object and decorate them, or have your class brainstorm texture words and create them with various materials.
Give students articles to read about pertinent current events, such as global warming, endangered animals, animal cruelty or gun violence, and have them illustrate posters to teach others what they learned to help combat the problem.