How the Thanksgiving Season Enriches ELA Classrooms

 

As the air turns crisp and the scent of cinnamon and pumpkin pie invites thoughts of home, gratitude, and harvest, secondary ELA classrooms can seize the Thanksgiving season as a meaningful opportunity to blend creative writing with emotional literacy. Thanksgiving gives students space to pause, reflect, and express themselves and gives teachers the chance to grow their writers through authentic, heartfelt tasks that resonate beyond the classroom.

 

A lesson plan idea!

Thankfulness as a Writing Mindset

Gratitude writing is more than a feel-good exercise. It develops emotional awareness and refines students’ voices. 

 

1) As a preliminary exercise, ask student to prepare a short list of people to whom they are grateful and list the reasons why their influence has touched them. Then choose one of those people and list as many reasons as they can think of for their gratitude toward this person.

 

2) Consider having your high school writers choose someone who has made an impact on them (teachers, mentors, coaches, or family members) and write a letter of gratitude they can present to them.

 

Writing the letter will not only fulfill academic goals like structure and clarity but also gives a student a purposeful reason to write beyond assignment points. Imagine your classroom filled with the quiet scratch of pens composing genuine thanks.

 

For students who are hesitant to write such a personal expression of their feelings, explain that they do not have to give their letter to anyone but you, if they so choose.

I have two no-prep resources that I always used before the Thanksgiving break. My students enjoyed them. Perhaps your students will also.

 

Good writers vary their sentence patterns by sometimes placing phrases or clauses at the beginning of their sentences. The twenty Thanksgiving-themed sentences in this exercise all begin with the subject and the verb.

 

Teach your students to rewrite sentences without changing their meaning to achieve sentence variety. At the same time, they will be reminded of things that are associated with Thanksgiving.

Click here for this resource.

 

This is a fun exercise that helps students practice Higher Order Thinking Skills as they work in small groups to classify items into general and specific categories.

Students will examine ten groups of four items and determine into which general category they fit. Then, they will determine which item is different in some way from the other three and remove it. What remains will be a specific category that they will identify.

I used this exercise on one of the days before Thanksgiving to give my students' minds a workout and to celebrate the holiday.

Click here for this resource.

Thanks for reading my blog post. Here’s a FREE and fun activity your students will enjoy while exercising their Higher Order Thinking Skills.

 A fun and challenging exercise to enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills. Students will find the word that matches each definition by replacing only one letter in the previous word. 

Only one letter is replaced in each step. All other letters will remain in their original position.

My students enjoyed working in pairs to complete this exercise.

 

Download your FREE resource here.

May your holiday bring warmth, rest, and renewal along with countless reasons to be thankful for the transformative power of words.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! May your students' engagement in these activities remind you why teaching writing is a gift that keeps giving.

 

All the best,

Charlene

 

Here are some interesting blog posts from The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you are interested in becoming a member to promote your teaching materials click here. 

 

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How to Write Spooktacular Sentences

Halloween is such a great time to bring a little fun and creativity into the classroom, and it’s even better when learning gets a seasonal twist! 

One really effective way to enhance students’ writing skills is by focusing on sentence variety which is an essential tool for good writing. Mastering this skill can be tricky for students to master in a meaningful way. 

Creating Halloween-themed activities will make the process engaging and memorable for students, all while sneaking in a little autumn spirit.

Why Sentence Variety Matters

Writing is more than just stringing words together. It’s about rhythm, flow, and keeping readers interested. Encouraging students to rewrite sentences and shake up their usual subject-verb construction helps them recognize the impact of phrasing and structure. 

If you teach your students to place phrases or clauses at the front of a sentence, rather than always leading with the subject and verb,  it will opens door to more dynamic storytelling and communication.

Creating holiday-themed lessons and activities for your students will help impove their interest and engagement. If you have time to create them yourself, it will be rewarding. If you prefer, I have a holiday themed exercise that requires no preparation.

If you would like to try a FREE resource to see if this type of writing activity would work for your students click here.

LEARN MORE HERE

Use Halloween Themes for Engagement

This exercise includes twenty sentences steeped in Halloween imagery, including pumpkins, costumes, and spooky fun.

Instead of simply memorizing grammar skills, students get to interact with content that feels fresh and timely. This approach isn’t just about having seasonal fun; it’s about associating learning with things that matter and resonate at the moment.

Practical Use in the Classroom

Whether you prefer to print activities for your students or assign them digitally, the versatility here makes all the difference. This resource is easy to use with Google Drive, so students can submit their work electronically making it great for remote or hybrid learning setups. 

For those who love interactive options, the exercise also works well with Easel by TpT, making it adaptable for all kinds of classrooms and teaching styles.

Supported Learning

Best of all, every step is supported with clear instructions and answers, keeping the focus on guided growth rather than guesswork. Students work independently, but with just enough structure to feel confident as they experiment with sentence variety. It’s a gentle nudge toward strong writing, all wrapped up in a theme that’s sure to spark a little extra enthusiasm.

Bringing a holiday theme into the learning process can be the trick that leads to a treat, which is students who are truly engaged and making real progress in their writing skills.

Click here to learn more about this resource.

 I hope your school year is Spooktacular! Thanks for reading,

Charlene

Here are some interesting blog posts from The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you are interested in becoming a member to promote your teaching materials click here.

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The Secret to Teaching Grammar (Without the Stress!)

Does the word grammar send a shiver through your classroom? 

If your students groan the moment you mention verbs, clauses, or subject-verb agreement, you’re not alone. Many teachers—whether they’re new to the classroom or seasoned educators—have faced the same challenge: how do you make grammar understandable, approachable, and maybe even enjoyable?

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard.

Why Grammar Feels So Complicated

Traditional English textbooks can be overwhelming. Endless lists of rules, confusing terminology, and too few practical applications often leave both teachers and students frustrated.

• ESL students may see grammar as a complete mystery.
• Special needs learners often need clearer, more concrete methods of instruction.
• Even strong students can get lost in the rules and exceptions.

If you’ve ever felt like your textbook simply wasn’t enough to help your students “get it,” you’re not alone—and there’s a simpler way.

Follow my simple steps plan and watch your students thrive.

Begin with a review of the parts of speech, but do not dwell on it. The important thing for students to learn is how a preposition, noun, or verb, etc. functions in a sentence. 

My method of teaching grammar focuses on how a word, phrase, or clause functions in a sentence. Then, I teach each sentence element in a specific sequence and concentrate on repetition and practice. Learning grammar becomes easy and enjoyable. 

I am going to share the sequence with you, so you can start making teaching grammar less stressful.

The sequence is as follows:

1. Find the prepositional phrases.

2. Find the verb and decide if it is action or linking.

3. Find the subject.

4. Find the complements. (Direct Object, Indirect Object, Objective Complement, Predicate Nominative, Predicate Adjective)

5. Find the modifiers. (Adjective and Adverb)

6. Find the phrases and identify them. (Participial, Gerund, Infinitive, Appositive)

7. Find the clauses and identify them by type. (Independent, Adjective, Adverb, Noun)

8.  Classify the sentences as simple, compound, complex, or compound/complex.

If you follow the eight steps in the sequence I listed, your students will be successful

Of course, you can do this on your own and prepare the lessons and the practice exercises and tests, or you can let me help you. I wrote my own grammar program when I started teaching, and I used it for my entire teaching career. Since then, thousands of other teachers have used it too.

Try the Simple Steps to Sentence Sense Step-by-Step Approach That Works.

The Simple Steps to Sentence Sense grammar workbooks were designed to take the stress out of teaching grammar—for teachers and students alike. You don’t need an advanced degree in linguistics, or even prior grammar-teaching experience, to use it successfully. Everything is laid out for you. A High School, Middle School, and Elementary Edition are available in my TPT store and on Amazon.com.

What makes this program different? It’s built around the Sentence Analysis Map (S.A.M.), a unique tool that helps students break down sentences into manageable steps. With just eight simple steps, students learn to identify subjects, verbs, and everything else that makes a sentence work.

Even better, every step connects directly to writing. The workbook includes Writing Connection Pages, so students can immediately apply what they’ve learned in their own sentences and essays. This isn’t just grammar for grammar’s sake—it’s grammar that improves writing skills.

What’s Inside the Workbook?

When you open the workbook, you’ll find everything you need to run stress-free lessons:

• Sentence Analysis Map (S.A.M.)
• Teacher notes and lessons
• Projection masters for class instruction
• Group and individual practice exercises
• Writing connection pages
• Tests and quizzes
• All the answers included

Why Teachers Love It

Here’s what other teachers have shared:

      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This resource has been a huge help for me and my students! The formulaic approach to tackling English grammar has increased learner confidence for all of my students. Thank you!”

       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Wonderful product. My students were actually excited about doing grammar.”

    Imagine hearing that about grammar lessons in your classroom!

If You Would like to try a free lesson, click here.

Thanks for reading. I hope your new school year is your best one yet!
Charlene 

Below are some interesting blog posts your can read from The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you are interested in becoming a member to promote your teaching materials click here.

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