As a former admissions officer and now an independent education consultant, I’ve read thousands of college essays. The ones that earn students admission to their dream schools aren’t necessarily the most polished. They’re the ones that sound like the student and express that student’s personality and experience. Within a few minutes of reading a file, I could distinguish between an applicant who had checked all the boxes and a real person I could imagine. As I tell my students, “Colleges are admitting you, not your essay.”
Writing that kind of essay starts with what I call the 3 P’s: following a process, showing your personality, and letting go of perfection.
How process removes pressure
The number one challenge my students face with their essays is deciding where to start. They worry that they won’t engage the reader right away or won’t be creative enough. There’s a myth that the opening needs to be shocking, that it needs to be something that’s never been heard before. To help students overcome this hurdle, I encourage them to find their voice through a low-pressure process that begins with exercises such as free writing or simply telling me their story, which I record.
In the past few years, I’ve worked with many students who have solved their “blank page” panic by using AI to draft their essays. Students are often hesitant to admit they’ve used these tools, which creates a barrier between us. While I coach them to use AI responsibly for brainstorming or outlining, many still fall back on it for the actual writing.
I researched tools that could support a student’s voice without replacing it, yet many still worked behind the scenes. I wanted a platform that offered inspiration, feedback, and insights without taking over the creative process. I chose Esslo, which allows me to collaborate with students on their actual writing, along with tools like College Planner Pro and Grammarly.
I was working with a student who was spending too many words of her essay writing about what was happening to her mom, so I asked her to self-assess her “contribution” score and then check it against the AI-powered score from Esslo. Revising an essay is like teaching someone to golf–you can’t fix everything at once. Working on one area at a time creates a process that is more manageable and effective for students and counselors.
Personality over polish
Even an essential process can go too far. If students revise endlessly to chase near-perfect scores on a rubric, they often scrub away the pieces and quirks that make it uniquely theirs. At the end of what we believe is the final draft, I have my students read their essays aloud. Then I ask them, “Is this something you would say? On a scale of zero to 10, would this actually come out of your mouth?” If it’s not seven or above, then we’re not going to submit that essay.
I also ask students, “What part of this essay is written because you think it’s what the reader wants to hear?” And sometimes, if an essay isn’t working, I’ll ask, “What’s the real story behind this? What part of this story are you hiding?” We’ll talk about it, and more often than not, that conversation will uncover the authentic essay. An essay that sounds like the student–even if it’s imperfect–will always do better than a flawless essay that could have been written by anyone.
The problem with perfection
Every student needs a different path to get a finished essay. Some do well with tech tools, but others use them to chase perfection, over-revising their essays until they become overly complicated. Think about the best books you’ve read. They flow naturally and show personality. It’s important to remember that a personal statement isn’t an AP English assignment–it doesn’t need to be academically rigid, but it needs to be honest.
If getting started is the hardest part for many of my students, knowing when to stop can be almost as challenging. When do they stop revising? When do they need to start over? Sometimes I tell students to scrap everything and grab an actual pen and paper. Set a timer for 15 minutes and answer the prompt with a specific scenario, whatever comes to mind, with as much detail as possible. Even if the experience they write about doesn’t end up getting submitted as their answer to that specific prompt, it is usually so vulnerable and unique that they’ll be able to use it for another essay.
Whether it’s a student writing too much about her mom or someone stuck focusing on what they think admissions officers want to hear, my advice is the same: Write about yourself and don’t be afraid to be who you are. Tech tools can be an enormous help in this process–not by pushing students toward perfect rubric scores, but by helping them present the real person behind the application.
Christa Olson, Independent Education Consultant
Christa Olson is an independent education consultant in the Bay Area. She can be reached at christamarieolson@gmail.com.
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Narrative writing can be incredibly personal, which makes it easy for some students and difficult for others. Our narrative writing graphic organizer bundle can help students of all ages plan out and write strong narrative essays and creative stories. The organizers are simple to use and free to download.
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How To Use Our Narrative Writing Graphic Organizers
Here’s what you’ll get in the narrative writing bundle:
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One-Page Narrative Writing Worksheet
This worksheet is an all-in-one guide to narrative writing! Students can map out their composition, making notes about the topic, theme, setting, characters, and plot. It also includes a handy checklist to remind them to add details, ensure they have a beginning, middle, and end, and more.
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What’s Your Story? Topic and Theme
For students who are writing longer essays or need more guidance, try our set of detailed organizers. This one helps kids brainstorm ideas, choose a story they want to tell, and identify the theme that will tie it all together.
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Who, Where, and When? Setting and Characters
When it comes to narrative writing, the more details, the better! This organizer page will help students flesh out the characters in their narrative and find the right words to set the scene of time and place.
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Beginning, Middle, and End
Narrative writing tells a story—one with a beginning, middle, and end. Use this page to guide students in crafting the plot that makes up the bulk of their narrative composition. They can make notes of the words they want to use, as well as illustrations to help capture the mood.
What is narrative writing?
Narrative writing tells a story—whether true or fiction. This category includes creative writing like novels, short stories, and epic poems or ballads. It also encompasses memoirs, biographies and autobiographies, and personal narrative essays.
Describe a time when you did something you didn’t want to and ended up liking it.
What is your happiest memory?
Write about a time when you or someone you know displayed courage.
Explore a time when you felt you were treated unfairly.
When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
Describe a performance or sporting event you took part in.
Tell about a time when you made a mistake and had to apologize and/or fix it.
Write about meeting your best friend for the first time and how your relationship developed.
Tell the story of your first day of kindergarten.
Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
More Writing Prompts for Kids
We’ve got so many ideas and prompts to spark young writers! Take a look at these:
Don’t forget to grab your free printable narrative writing graphic organizer!
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Just click the button and enter your email info in the form on this page to download and print your copy today. It’s an easy way to help kids get a jump-start on their compositions!
Opinion writing can be a lot of fun—everyone loves a chance to share their point of view! But there’s more to this type of writing than simply stating what you believe. You need reasons and evidence to support your view. Our free opinion writing graphic organizer guides students through the process.
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Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer Sheets
Use this free graphic organizer to help students find and use reliable facts to support their point of view. Just enter your email address in the form on this page for immediate access.
Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer Printables
Here’s what’s included in our worksheet set:
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Opinion Writing Overview
This page helps students refine their opinion statement, then come up with reasons and evidence to support it. For opinion writing, evidence can include facts and statistics, but writers can also use anecdotes, personal experiences, or quotes from those who agree with their point of view.
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Facts Research Page
Need more room for facts research? This page has space for the facts themselves, plus boxes for sketches or other helpful notes kids can refer to as they write.
What’s the best meal of the day: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Should homework be required, optional, or not given at all?
What animal makes the best pet?
Would you rather live at the bottom of the ocean or on the moon?
Should kids be allowed to watch TV or play video games on school nights?
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Are clowns scary or funny?
Where should your class go on their next field trip?
Is it ever OK to eat dessert first?
Should kids get to decide their own bedtime?
Opinion Writing FAQs
What is opinion writing?
In opinion writing, the author states their personal opinion clearly. They back it with several reasons and give supporting facts or evidence to give strength to their claim. This type of writing usually starts with a topic sentence stating the opinion, followed by several paragraphs each devoted to one of the supporting reasons. It finishes with a conclusion that restates the opinions and reasons. Examples of opinion writing include letters to the editor, reviews of books or movies, editorials, or opinion pieces.
What’s the difference between opinion writing and persuasive writing?
Put simply, in opinion writing, you share what you think. In persuasive writing, you try to convince the reader to agree with you or take action of some kind.
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Does opinion writing require evidence?
Yes, good opinion writing should include some evidence to support the author’s point of view. However, in this type of writing, the author doesn’t necessarily need to provide detailed facts and statistics. They may rely more on personal experiences, anecdotes, and quotes from others who agree with them. To make an opinion piece stronger, encourage students to include at least some research-based evidence from reliable sources—try for one simple statistic or reliable fact per supporting reason.
Should opinion writing address opposing viewpoints?
When choosing topics for students, select issues or questions they’ll be likely to have a strong opinion on. This makes it easier for them to state their point of view and come up with supporting reasons and evidence. Try these topics and prompts to get started:
Be sure to grab your free opinion writing graphic organizer!
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Just fill in the form on this page to download your free printables. They’re the perfect way to help students craft their own opinion letters or essays!
Learning to write a friendly letter might feel like a bit of a lost art these days, when most folks rely on email, text, or messaging apps to communicate. But handwritten notes still have value, and it’s worth taking the time to teach kids how to write one. This free letter-writing paper makes the process a simple one!
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Letter-Writing Paper for Kids
This simple template makes it quick and easy for students to handwrite a note to friends or family using the correct format for a friendly letter. Enter your email info in the form on this page to get yours now!
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How To Use Letter-Writing Paper With Your Students
Adrienne Hathaway for We Are Teachers
Looking for creative ways to give your students practice writing letters? Try these ideas:
Partner students up and ask them to write letters to each other. After they exchange and read them, have them write responses too.
Exchange letters with students from another class or grade. Set up a “mailbox” where kids can drop letters, and create a “mail carrier” classroom job to deliver the letters each day.
Arrange a pen pal program with students from another school. Tip: Join the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook to find partner teachers from other cities, states, or even countries!
Have students write letters home to their parents or guardians about an upcoming school event instead of just sending a flyer home.
Write thank-you notes to school support staff like custodians, administrative assistants, bus drivers, and others.
Let students choose their favorite author or illustrator and write a note to share how much they love that person’s work.
Choose a favorite athlete, musician, or actor and write fan mail letters.
Have students write a letter to a character from a book they’re currently reading in class.
At the end of the school year, ask students to write a letter introducing themselves to the teacher they’ll have next year.
Have students compose letters to themselves—five years in the future!
Letter Writing Paper FAQs
What’s the correct format for a friendly letter?
Friendly letters include the date, a greeting (often using the person’s first name), the body (the main message), a closing, and a signature. In handwritten letters, the greeting is aligned with the left margin, while the signature is usually aligned with the right margin. The body of the letter is written in indented paragraph form, using casual language that reflects the writer’s personality. In the past, friendly letters were often handwritten in cursive, though not all students learn that form of handwriting today!
What’s the difference between a friendly letter and a business letter?
A business letter contains some of the same elements as a friendly letter but is more structured and formal. Include the sender’s address, the date, and the recipient’s address. These are usually justified along the left margin, with a blank line between each. The greeting may use the person’s title or full name and is also aligned with the left margin.
Do not indent the body paragraphs in a business letter. Instead, leave two blank lines between each paragraph. Left-justify the closing, then leave four spaces for the signature. Finish with your full name, and sign the letter in the space between the closing and your name.
Why should kids learn how to handwrite a friendly letter?
When students handwrite a letter, they’re required to slow down and think more carefully about their choice of words first. This helps them craft clearer communications that reflect their own personality and style. Even in today’s world, a handwritten message feels more personal and meaningful, making them a valuable way to strengthen relationships at school, at home, and in the workplace.
For which grades is the letter-writing paper best suited?
This letter-writing paper is best for elementary-age students who need a little extra support using the proper format for a letter. It helps them remember to include the date, as well as a greeting and a closing. (The latter two will be important as they get older and need to send professional communications like emails.) This letter-writing template also encourages students to practice their handwriting skills, so they can communicate clearly with others.
What other types of letters should students learn to write?
In addition to friendly letters and business letters, today’s middle and high school students benefit from learning to write professional emails. They should practice using complete sentences that clearly state their thoughts, and spelling out words completely rather than abbreviating with “text speak.” Teach them acceptable greetings and closings and how to craft a professional signature file.
Get your free letter-writing paper for kids today!
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Lined writing paper has so many uses in the classroom! We’ve got a variety of options to choose from in our free bundle, plus ideas for using these pages in almost any subject.
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Lined Writing Paper Bundle
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Lined Writing Paper Bundle Pages
Here’s what you’ll get in our free bundle:
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Dotted-Line Kindergarten Writing Paper
For kids just learning to write letters and numbers properly, this writing paper with dotted center lines is the perfect way to practice. It provides scaffolded guidance for those in kindergarten and 1st grade, and even older students who need some extra reinforcement.
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Colored Dotted-Line Writing Paper
Colors help new writers differentiate between the lines, making it easier to identify the top, bottom, and midline. These visual cues provide differentiated support as young learners practice their writing skills.
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Highlighted Dotted-Line Writing Paper
When colored lines aren’t quite enough, try this version of kindergarten writing paper. The main writing area is highlighted, making it very obvious where letters should start and end. This kindergarten writing paper also includes a dotted midline.
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Simple Lined Writing Paper
Use these pages for students who no longer need the scaffolded guidance offered by the center dotted lines. The lines will help keep their handwriting straight across the page and also give them an idea of how much they might be expected to write for an assignment.
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Lined Writing Paper With Drawing Boxes
Pages like these give kids some room to add their own illustrations while also keeping their handwriting neat and straight. You get three different options with small, medium, and large boxes and varied amounts of lines.
How To Use Printable Writing Paper With Lines
Try these ideas to make the most of your free lined pages!
Dotted-Line Kindergarten Writing Paper Ideas
Staple together 26 pages to make an alphabet book, one page per letter. Write a sample letter at the top of each page for kids to copy, in both uppercase and lowercase, then let them practice on their own.
Have students write a row of one specific letter (uppercase or lowercase). Then, ask them to look over the row and circle the best example. They can also look for patterns (e.g., “I always forget to dot the i,” or “My lowercase bs are backwards sometimes”).
Have each student write their name at the top of the page. Then, everyone passes their paper to the person on their left. Kids write their own name on the second line of that paper, then pass it again. Repeat until all the lines are full, and kids have a page filled with their classmates’ names in their own handwriting!
Ask students to pick the eight letters they have the most difficulty writing (or choose for them). Write each letter at the beginning of a set of lines, then let kids practice by filling in the rest of each line on their own.
Young students need practice writing numerals too! Use lined kindergarten writing paper for number-writing exercises. They can repeat one numeral per line, or try writing from 1 to 20, or 50, or even 100!
Simple Lined Writing Paper Ideas
Use each page for a daily journal entry. Punch holes along the edge so students can keep all of their journal entries together in a binder.
Help students write arithmetic problems neatly using the lines as guides.
Ask students to number the lines, then use the writing paper for spelling tests.
Write acrostic poems by starting each line with the letter of a word, written vertically down the page. Learn more about acrostics here.
Here’s a creative way to reuse paper that’s already been used for practice: Give kids scissors and have them turn the paper sideways and practice cutting along the straight lines!
Ideas for Lined Writing Paper With Drawing Boxes
Write a short poem on the board for students to copy in their own handwriting. Then ask them to illustrate the poem.
Staple together a series of pages so students can create their own illustrated storybooks!
Use the lines for students to take notes on any topic, and then draw diagrams or other helpful illustrations that deepen their understanding.
Create a nature journal with multiple pages. Kids sketch what they observe (birds, animal tracks, tree leaves, flowers, etc.), then write about their experiences.
Have kids write and solve an arithmetic equation on the lines. Then, ask them to illustrate the problem in the box. For instance, if the equation is 8 x 3 = 24, they might draw 8 red dots, 3 blue dots, and 24 purple dots.
Writing Prompts and Ideas for the Classroom
Looking for more writing resources? Check these out:
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Students spend a lot of time on informative, or informational, writing (also called expository writing), especially as they get older. Research papers, biographies, informational essays, and how-to guides all fit into this category. This type of writing requires relevant details supported by reliable facts, presented in language that’s clear and unemotional. Introduce elementary students to this important composition style with our free printable informational writing graphic organizers!
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Informational Writing Graphic Organizers
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Informational Writing Graphic Organizer Pages
Here’s what’s included in our informational writing bundle:
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My Informative Writing Graphic Organizer
Use this one-pager to help students organize their thoughts before they write their first draft. It includes room for a topic sentence, three main supporting facts, and a conclusion. This is perfect for a simple expository topic or writing prompt, especially for beginners.
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Main Facts Organizer
Finding reliable facts that support your topic is a major part of informative writing. This page gives kids room to write their three main facts, including space for diagrams or other helpful pictures or images they may want to refer to. Remind them to make notes about the source and ensure that source is reliable.
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How to … Planner
Informative and expository compositions also include writing clear instructions about how to do specific tasks, like changing a tire or planning and cooking a meal. This page will help kids break a simple task into smaller steps, then write out sentences that flow naturally from one to the next with transition words.
Explain how a new law is passed in the United States.
Describe how to live a healthy lifestyle for someone your age.
Describe the life of a famous artist, musician, actor, or athlete.
Explain the difference between an alligator and a crocodile.
Write about the history of the internet.
Explain how to make a campfire.
Tell about how the average person lived during a specific historic time and place.
Describe the life cycle of any animal.
Write about the history of the Olympics.
Informational Writing FAQs
What is informative writing?
Informative writing (also called expository or informational writing) is intended to explain, describe, or teach readers about a topic. It uses facts and evidence to present the information in clear, detailed language. Examples of informational writing include research papers, lab reports, biographies, informative essays, and how-to guides.
How is informative writing different from opinion or narrative writing?
Informational writing sticks strictly to facts presented in a neutral tone by an unbiased author, without offering an opinion or trying to persuade the reader. Opinion writing uses facts, but the tone is different—it includes personal anecdotes and language meant to play on a reader’s emotions. Narrative writing tells a story (true or fictional), with a clear plot that includes a beginning, middle, and end.
For example, an encyclopedia entry on Kamala Harris is informational writing. A letter to the editor asking people to vote for Kamala Harris in the next election is opinion or persuasive writing. A personal account of what it was like to work for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is narrative writing.
What are the key components of strong informative writing?
Informational writing includes a clear main idea, well-organized and reliably sourced facts and supporting details, and logical transitions and conclusions. It may use technical language specific to the topic. This type of writing often requires a bibliography or list of research sources.
Why should students use graphic organizers for informational writing?
Informational writing requires research and planning. One common mistake student writers make is including too much information—a graphic organizer can help narrow down the important facts and supporting details. Planning ahead with an organizer leads to stronger main ideas and clearer structure overall, with logical transitions and coherent explanations. Using graphic organizers is especially important for those new to informative writing or students who struggle when writing in general.
How can I help students find reliable sources for informative writing?
Start by teaching students to think critically about the sources of their facts and use primary sources whenever possible. (Wikipedia is not a reliable primary source!) Show them how to identify potential bias, and choose sources that are reliable, neutral, and widely trusted whenever possible. Learn more about helping students find reliable sources for informational writing here.
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CHESTER COUNTY, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Over 30 years ago, Megan Lewis was assigned a high school pen pal when she was in the 2nd grade.
Little did she know that she would be writing to the person who would deliver her two babies in the future.
“My mouth dropped. I could not believe that my pen pal was Dr. Pugh, who was my OB/GYN and delivered my kids: Caroline and Jack,” said Megan Lewis.
This recent discovery warranted a reunion between the two pen pals.
In the stories written in the letters, they found out that they met in person during that time.
“I have always just felt like Megan was such a special person and we really connected. And it’s just amazing that for whatever reason, our universes collided again 30 years later,” said Dr. Suzanne Pugh of Axia Women’s Health, Main Line OB/GYN.
eSchool News is counting down the 10 most-read stories of 2025. Story #8 focuses on the debate around teachers vs. AI.
Key points:
A colleague of ours recently attended an AI training where the opening slide featured a list of all the ways AI can revolutionize our classrooms. Grading was listed at the top. Sure, AI can grade papers in mere seconds, but should it?
As one of our students, Jane, stated: “It has a rubric and can quantify it. It has benchmarks. But that is not what actually goes into writing.” Our students recognize that AI cannot replace the empathy and deep understanding that recognizes the growth, effort, and development of their voice. What concerns us most about grading our students’ written work with AI is the transformation of their audience from human to robot.
If we teach our students throughout their writing lives that what the grading robot says matters most, then we are teaching them that their audience doesn’t matter. As Wyatt, another student, put it: “If you can use AI to grade me, I can use AI to write.” NCTE, in its position statements for Generative AI, reminds us that writing is a human act, not a mechanical one. Reducing it to automated scores undermines its value and teaches students, like Wyatt and Jane, that the only time we write is for a grade. That is a future of teaching writing we hope to never see.
We need to pause when tech companies tout AI as the grader of student writing. This isn’t a question of capability. AI can score essays. It can be calibrated to rubrics. It can, as Jane said, provide students with encouragement and feedback specific to their developing skills. And we have no doubt it has the potential to make a teacher’s grading life easier. But just because we can outsource some educational functions to technology doesn’t mean we should.
It is bad enough how many students already see their teacher as their only audience. Or worse, when students are writing for teachers who see their written work strictly through the lens of a rubric, their audience is limited to the rubric. Even those options are better than writing for a bot. Instead, let’s question how often our students write to a broader audience of their peers, parents, community, or a panel of judges for a writing contest. We need to reengage with writing as a process and implement AI as a guide or aide rather than a judge with the last word on an essay score.
Our best foot forward is to put AI in its place. The use of AI in the writing process is better served in the developing stages of writing. AI is excellent as a guide for brainstorming. It can help in a variety of ways when a student is struggling and looking for five alternatives to their current ending or an idea for a metaphor. And if you or your students like AI’s grading feature, they can paste their work into a bot for feedback prior to handing it in as a final draft.
We need to recognize that there are grave consequences if we let a bot do all the grading. As teachers, we should recognize bot grading for what it is: automated education. We can and should leave the promises of hundreds of essays graded in an hour for the standardized test providers. Our classrooms are alive with people who have stories to tell, arguments to make, and research to conduct. We see our students beyond the raw data of their work. We recognize that the poem our student has written for their sick grandparent might be a little flawed, but it matters a whole lot to the person writing it and to the person they are writing it for. We see the excitement or determination in our students’ eyes when they’ve chosen a research topic that is important to them. They want their cause to be known and understood by others, not processed and graded by a bot.
The adoption of AI into education should be conducted with caution. Many educators are experimenting with using AI tools in thoughtful and student-centered ways. In a recent article, David Cutler describes his experience using an AI-assisted platform to provide feedback on his students’ essays. While Cutler found the tool surprisingly accurate and helpful, the true value lies in the feedback being used as part of the revision process. As this article reinforces, the role of a teacher is not just to grade, but to support and guide learning. When used intentionally (and we emphasize, as in-process feedback) AI can enhance that learning, but the final word, and the relationship behind it, must still come from a human being.
When we hand over grading to AI, we risk handing over something much bigger–our students’ belief that their words matter and deserve an audience. Our students don’t write to impress a rubric, they write to be heard. And when we replace the reader with a robot, we risk teaching our students that their voices only matter to the machine. We need to let AI support the writing process, not define the product. Let it offer ideas, not deliver grades. When we use it at the right moments and for the right reasons, it can make us better teachers and help our students grow. But let’s never confuse efficiency with empathy. Or algorithms with understanding.
Dennis Magliozzi & Kristina Peterson, University of New Hampshire’s Writers Academy
Kristina Peterson and Dennis Magliozzi have been teaching English since 2008. Kristina has a master’s degree in teaching and over a decade of experience mentoring teachers. Dennis holds an MFA in poetry and a PhD from the University of New Hampshire. Together, they co-teach in the University of New Hampshire’s Writers Academy and Learning Through Teaching program. Their work on generative AI’s impact in the classroom is highlighted on Heinemann’s blog, and in their forthcoming book, AI in the Writing Workshop: Finding the Write Balance.
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Dennis Magliozzi & Kristina Peterson, University of New Hampshire’s Writers Academy
When students learn to debate, they gain valuable life skills. Debates teach kids to research their topic, make informed choices, and argue effectively using facts instead of emotion. This list of middle school debate topics encompasses both serious and lighthearted ideas for kids ages 10 to 14. Each topic includes a link to an article from a reliable source that provides pros and/or cons to help kids make their arguments.
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Debate Graphic Organizers
These free graphic organizers make it easy for kids to research and plan for debates. You’ll also get a list of handy debate rules to share with students! Just click the button below to get them.
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The Week Junior’s Big Debate section is in every issue!
Here’s a great way to have a new debate topic every week. The Big Debate section in The Week Junior presents two sides of an issue fairly to encourage discussion and allow readers to form their own opinions. To use it effectively, have students research both sides of the argument, consider the presented points, and then form their own opinion about it.
Teacher Tips: How To Use This Middle School Debate Topics List
When you teach students in grades 6 to 8 how to debate, they learn to think critically, speak clearly, and express disagreement without disrespect. Try these tips for classroom activities using our list of middle school debate topics.
1. Pick the right topics
Engage inexperienced or reluctant debaters with simple, fun topics like “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” As students build their skills, move on to topics relevant to the lives of middle school kids, such as “Should students be allowed to wear hats at school?” For a real challenge, use age-appropriate controversial debate topics like “Should schools be allowed to limit a student’s freedom of speech?”
2. Mix up debate formats
Standard head-to-head debates feel a little overwhelming, especially for tweens. Instead, try debate activities like these:
Four Corners: Pose a debate question like “Which school subject is the most valuable later in life?” Assign each corner of your room one possible answer (ELA, Science, Math, Social Studies), and ask students to move to the corner of the room that represents their opinion. Once there, kids work together to formulate an argument for their point of view.
Pair and Share: Instead of arguing out a topic in front of the whole class, partner kids up and have them each take a side and have an informal (but respectful) discussion instead. This is great for those who feel a little uncertain speaking in front of groups.
Imaginary Debate: Kids work in groups or on their own to write out an imaginary debate on a topic, giving both points of view as they spell out the hypothetical conversation.
3. Practice debating both sides
As tweens get started with debate topics, let them choose which point of view they’d like to defend. They’ll be more engaged when they get to argue what they really believe. But it’s also important to encourage students to consider alternate opinions, even those they strongly disagree with personally. From time to time, assign students to argue the opposite point of view. It’s a challenge, but they’ll learn so much from the experience!
4. Encourage research and debate prep
Whether your middle school debate topic is serious or silly, don’t let kids dive right into the debate. Instead, ask them to think critically about the question, plan out their arguments, and look for evidence to support their point of view. To help get kids started, each of the debate topics on our list includes a link to a reputable source that provides pros and/or cons of each topic.
Learning to listen to others and disagree with respect takes practice, especially for tweens. Insist that each debater be given time to share their point of view without interruption. Teach kids to use respectful phrases like “I hear what you’re saying, but …” or “That’s a good point, but have you considered this?” Remind them that they’re debating an idea, not a person—personal attacks have no place in a respectful debate.
6. Reflect after the debate
While traditional debates declare a “winner,” middle school students will learn more from a thoughtful discussion or written reflection after the debate instead. Ask debate reflection questions like these:
What was your point of view before the debate and after the debate? Did it change? Why or why not?
What arguments did you find most convincing and least convincing?
Did the debaters treat each other with respect? Give examples of their respectful debate behaviors.
With these tips in mind, take a look at our huge list of debate topics for grades 6 to 8. You’ll find something here for every student and classroom!
School and Education Debate Topics for Middle School
Students love to debate topics related to school rules, homework, and teachers. These issues are ideal for engaging middle grade kids in some of their first debates. Remember to click the links for reliably sourced pros and cons on each topic!
Technology and Entertainment Middle School Debate Topics
From smartphones and video games to social media usage and movie ratings, these topics cover some of the subjects that interest tweens most. They’ll enjoy researching and debating both sides of each question (click the links for pros and/or cons from trustworthy sources).
These topics encourage kids to think about moral and ethical implications, using critical thinking to consider multiple points of view. Issues like these work well for persuasive and argumentative essays too.
Students might be surprised to find there’s plenty to debate in their favorite movies, video games, TV shows, books, and more. These are lighthearted issues that can lead to surprisingly heated discussions.
These middle school debate topics are pretty contentious and might not be appropriate for all students or every classroom. But if your middle schoolers are ready to take on more serious debates, try these important questions. Looking for more? See our full list of controversial topics for students here.
What are the best debate topics for middle school students?
The best debate topics for middle schoolers are engaging, age-appropriate, and thought-provoking. Engage their interest with familiar themes like school rules, pop culture, or silly but controversial topics. Examples include “Should schools ban homework in middle school?,” “Is Minecraft better than Roblox?,” or “Is pepperoni the best pizza topping?”
How do you choose age-appropriate debate topics for middle schoolers?
Choose topics that match your students’ interest and abilities. They’ll especially enjoy questions relevant to their daily lives, like “Should middle schoolers be allowed to use social media?” Pop culture topics are fun too—try something related to a current trend like “Is collecting Labubu fun or a waste of money?” Avoid overly controversial topics unless students are experienced, mature debaters.
How can teachers prepare students for their first debate?
Help students learn to craft a clear claim and find well-sourced evidence to support it. Teach them to plan their rebuttals to counterarguments as well. Debate graphic organizers are perfect for this! Develop skills with lighthearted topics in informal discussions before moving on to more complex debates. Encourage respectful language and reflection during and after every debate activity.
What are the benefits of using fun or funny debate topics in middle school?
Lighthearted debate topics encourage participation and engagement in the classroom. Even reluctant debaters will enjoy fun and funny debate topics like “Would you rather be able to fly or turn invisible?” or “Does fruit count as a dessert?” Pop culture provides terrific fun debate topics too, such as “Is Darth Vader a hero or a villain?”
Why is debating important for middle school students?
Debating develops critical thinking and communication skills, teaching kids to speak clearly and listen respectfully. When middle school students debate, they practice supporting their opinions with evidence and learning to disagree with respect. These are skills they’ll find valuable throughout their entire lives.
Don’t forget to grab your free printable debate graphic organizers!
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Use these free printable graphic organizers and debate rules with any of our middle school debate topics!
Plus, check out these debate resources for middle school!
Break through writer’s block and sharpen communication skills with this list of writing prompts for high school students. Use them for daily warm-ups, journal entries, creative writing, narrative essays, and so much more.
Check out our engaging writing prompts for high school students. Just fill out the form on this page to download your free slides.
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Benefits of Writing Prompts
The more writing practice kids get in high school, the better. Here’s how they benefit from using writing prompts in any classroom.
Improve written communication skills
In today’s world, many careers require people to be able to communicate clearly and succinctly through the written word, whether in emails, online messages, reports, or other communications. Writing comes easily for some students, but in general, the best way to get better is to practice, practice, practice!
Overcome writer’s block
Teachers hear it again and again: “I don’t know what to write about!” Specific prompts help overcome those complaints, helping students get started by providing a focus, style, or other instructions.
Build critical thinking skills
Challenging writing prompts and essay topics encourage students to think more deeply about topics, approaching them from different points of view. Writers practice evaluating cause and effect, weighing evidence, and taking a stand on issues.
Invite personal reflection
Journal prompts and personal narratives inspire students to consider their own emotions, reactions, and behaviors. They can spur students to build resilience, mindfulness, and personal strength as they write.
Encourage self-expression
Creative writing and journal prompts are especially good for emboldening students to share more about themselves. This helps build self-confidence, as well as offering ways for them to process experiences and emotions.
How To Use Writing Prompts With High School Students
Wondering how to work writing prompts into your classes? Try these ideas:
Daily warm-ups: Start with a short writing prompt to get kids thinking and ready to participate.
Journal writing: Give kids space to write personal and private thoughts and reflections each day.
Creative writing practice: Help students write stories, plays, poems, and more.
Discussion starters: After students spend some time writing on a topic, put them into pairs or groups to talk about their thoughts.
Test prep: Give prompts that students might find on SAT, ACT, AP, or other standardized exams to practice timed essay writing.
Substitute plans: Writing prompts make easy sub plans! Leave substitute teachers a list for students to choose from, and class will take care of itself!
End-of-class reflection: Use prompts as exit tickets or a way for students to summarize what they learned and make real-life connections.
Journal Writing Prompts for High School
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What do you value most in a friend?
What’s one thing you’d like to improve about yourself, and how could you start?
Write about a quality you admire in yourself.
What are you most afraid of? How could you overcome that fear?
Describe a place where you feel completely comfortable.
Which subject is hardest for you, and how do you handle it?
Write about a teacher who made a positive difference in your life.
Do you prefer working alone or in groups? Why?
What motivates you to keep going when life feels difficult?
How do you feel about homework?
Describe your ideal classroom environment.
Who do you look up to and why?
What makes someone trustworthy?
What role does social media play in your friendships?
How do you cope when you’re feeling anxious or worried?
What’s a lesson you’ve learned from a relationship that didn’t go well?
How do you show appreciation for others?
What matters more, honesty or kindness?
Do you think high school friendships can last a lifetime? Why or why not?
What does happiness mean to you?
Creative Writing Prompts for High School
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The power goes out across the world. Write about what happens during the first 24 hours afterward.
A character writes a letter but never sends it. What does it say, and who was it meant for?
You discover an old photograph taken decades ago—and realize you’re in it.
Write about a day in a world where emotions are sold in bottles.
Describe a UFO landing in your backyard and who or what is inside.
Write about a superhero with a silly superpower and how the “real” superheroes treat them.
Write about a day when every thought you have is visible to everyone around you.
Describe a world where music has magical powers.
Today you realized your whole life is a reality TV show—and everyone else is actors. Now what?
Imagine a day in the life of a pet (yours or someone else’s).
Write about the first people to visit another planet and find life there.
Write an episode of your favorite show with you as a guest star.
Choose a book or story and write a different ending for it.
Write a story set in a world where people age backward.
What would happen if people could no longer see colors, only black, white, or shades of gray?
Write the news article for this headline: Scientists Discover the Secret to Eternal Life.
Write a story set in a world where people communicate through dance instead of spoken language.
You’ve been accused of a terrible crime you didn’t commit. Write about your experiences.
Write a story set on a spaceship that travels the galaxy but never lands anywhere.
Write a conversation between two historical figures from different eras.
Short 5-Minute Writing Prompts for High School
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What’s one skill you’d like to learn that isn’t taught in school?
Describe your mood right now using only weather words.
What sound do you find particularly annoying?
What’s one thing you’re grateful for today and why?
Give today a movie title, and explain why you chose it.
What’s one school rule you would change if you could?
List five things you’d put in a time capsule being buried today and opened in 50 years.
Write a complete story in five sentences or less.
What’s something small that made you feel happy recently?
What’s one small thing you could do today to make the world a better place?
10-Minute Writing Prompts for High School
We Are Teachers
Write a letter to someone you love, telling them why you love them.
Write about a smell you associate with a happy memory.
Set a small goal for yourself, and explain how you’ll accomplish it.
Write a text message exchange between two fictional characters.
What’s going really well in your life right now, and what is most challenging?
Choose a favorite song and describe how it makes you feel.
How do you cheer yourself up on a bad day?
If money were no issue, what career or job would you choose?
List three new things you’ve learned recently, then explain which is the most important.
If someone offered you the thing you want most, what would you be willing to give up for it in exchange?
Fun Writing Prompts for High School
We Are Teachers
What’s the funniest joke you know? Why does it always make you laugh?
Describe the perfect meal from start to finish.
Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
How would you fight a monster 50 times your size?
Write a commercial for shoes that let you walk on the ceiling.
Create a new holiday, and explain how it’s celebrated.
List the five funniest excuses for being late to class.
Make up a sport that could only exist on another planet.
What if every time you sneezed, you switched bodies with the person closest to you?
Write a letter to your personal hero, then imagine their response to you.
Writing Prompts for High School Seniors
We Are Teachers
Which grade year of school has been your favorite?
Which grade year of school was your least favorite?
When you look back over your K-12 years, what do you wish you had done differently?
What class do you wish you had been able to take (real or imaginary)?
Do you think your K-12 years have prepared you to be an adult? Why or why not?
Compare and contrast the friends you had when you were in elementary school and the friends you have now.
List 10 things you hope to have accomplished 10 years from now. Which of these is most important to you?
What teacher has had the greatest impact on your life over the years?
What advice would you offer to kids just starting kindergarten?
Fill in the blanks, then explain your answers: Graduation is the end of ____________ and the beginning of ____________.
Narrative Writing Prompts for High School
We Are Teachers
Describe a time when you did something you later regretted.
Write about your proudest moment.
Describe your favorite field trip of all time.
Write about the best party or celebration you’ve ever attended.
Write about a time when you or someone you know displayed courage.
If you could relive any day in your life, what would it be? Would you want it to be the same or different?
Explore a time when you were treated unfairly.
When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
Choose one of the communities to which you belong and describe that community and your place within it.
Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
Grammarly has long been one of the most useful pieces of software that I use every day. As someone who writes a lot of words, it solves a real problem whether those words are part of an email, an article draft, or really anything else I might be working on.
Then, a few months ago, Grammarly bought Superhuman, the email app that started as a tool for CEOs and founders to quickly triage, manage, and search their email. I paid close attention at the time because I’m a fan of Superhuman, but also because I’ve interviewed the founder, Rahul Vohra, a number of times, and have always been intrigued about the way he thinks about building both software and businesses.
Then, on Wednesday, Grammarly announced that it has changed its name to Superhuman. I was, at first, a bit conflicted. I’ve said a number of times that companies shouldn’t rebrand unless there’s a really good reason. There almost never is, but in this case, I actually think it makes perfect sense.
Changing names is tricky
Yes, Grammarly was a pretty widely known brand, especially for what it does. But where Grammarly’s strength has been writing assistance, the company says that it believes the future of work is about a lot more than that. This isn’t just a name-change. It’s a big bet on AI as a fully-integrated part of how you work.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Superhuman, you may remember, was founded in 2014 and built a reputation for being the incredibly fast, if somewhat expensive, email app. The goal was to help you spend less time in your email. Features like Split Inboxes, powerful search, and Command-K shortcuts make it quick and straightforward to triage and organize your mail.
Superhuman introduced Auto Labels and Auto Archive to classify, triage, and reduce inbox clutter. Recently, it added AI features like “emails that write themselves.” It can scan your emails and create quick drafts that use your own style and voice.
It also added the ability to search using natural language so you could quickly ask “which hotel did my boss say they are staying at?” and Superhuman would find the right email and give you the answer. According to Superhuman’s own metrics, the result was that users save hours every week and process email much faster. 
Beyond just checking for typos
For Grammarly, it wasn’t hard to see why this acquisition makes sense. Email is where business communication still happens. Most work inboxes are full of decisions, follow-ups, and reminders about projects, proposals, and tasks. By folding Superhuman’s deeper workflow and AI-powered email capabilities into its platform, Grammarly expands from “the app that helps you write better,’ to “a platform to help you work better.”
In a blog post announcing the branding change, the company explains that: “The Grammarly product will still exist, but we’re changing our company name to Superhuman.” Grammarly no longer wants to be known just for writing corrections. It wants to be known for helping you with all of your work.
That’s why the name “Superhuman,” makes sense. The promise of AI, at least for work, is that it will make you more productive and efficient so that you can get a lot more done in less time. It’s the idea that AI will augment and enhance your ability to work.
A suite of AI-powered products
The blog describes the company’s new suite of products: the writing partner (Grammarly), AI-native inbox (Superhuman Mail), and a new product called Superhuman Go (a team of agents working invisibly). The goal is that you stop thinking “I’m using AI”—and instead just do your work as it flows.
In other words, the name change helps shift user expectation: you’re not just installing a writing tool—you’re adopting an AI-focused productivity platform. That shift is important when the competition includes tech giants and startups all racing to own the “agent” layer of work.
With Superhuman, you’ll work in your apps, your inbox, your docs—and the company’s AI tools will act behind the scenes. The blog outlines “Superhuman Go,” agents that brainstorm, fetch information, send emails, and schedule meetings. “It works in all the apps you already use, and it helps without you needing to ask.”
By combining Grammarly’s infrastructure with Superhuman’s active workflow engine, the company is placing a big bet. That bet is that the future of work will feel ordinary only when the AI becomes invisible and pervasive. You won’t remember you’re “using AI”—you’ll just get more done.
In other words, Grammarly taught us to write better. Now Superhuman is building an AI-powered suite of tools for the future, all designed to help us work better.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
There are so many facets involved in the science of reading. In the primary grades, students are just learning how to read, and the five pillars of literacy are the main focus: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. When students reach the upper elementary grades, things shift from learning how to read to reading for meaning. This is the start of a new era for English Language Arts (ELA) students, where elements of fiction are now the main focus.
Third grade is the start of high-stakes standardized testing, which continues until high school graduation. A deep understanding of the elements of fiction is crucial for students at this point in their ELA education. The six elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view, setting, theme, and conflict resolution. Each one helps students deepen their understanding of a text as they analyze and synthesize information. Let’s get to know more about each and how to incorporate fun ways to teach them to your students.
6 Elements of Fiction
Character
The characters of a text are the people, animals, or other beings involved in the events of a story. The characters help build the plot of the story.
Ideas for teaching character:
Character role-play: Students act out their favorite character from a story.
Character trait posters: Students draw their favorite character from a story and write different character traits around the drawing to describe them.
Character timelines: Build a timeline of the character from beginning to end describing traits at each point. Students can map character growth, which also helps identify the theme of the story.
Character social media profile: Have students create a profile page for a specific character.
Plot
The plot consists of the main events of a story and is broken down into three main parts: beginning, middle, and end.
Ideas for teaching plot:
Story maps: Have students draw events in sequence, creating a map of events. There are plenty of ways to do this using different types of ready-made graphic organizers.
B-M-E identification: Have students write a few sentences to a paragraph each for the three main parts of the story: beginning, middle, and end.
Sequence activities: Provide sentence strips or cards with different events from the story. Students then put them in the order in which they occurred.
Plot diagram charts: Make a diagram to show the rise and fall of the plot. Label it with the five key stages of a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Use a plot pyramid template to map the story structure, or get artsy with a mountain or roller coaster shape.
Setting
The setting is where and when the story takes place. It is important to identify it from the start since it sets the tone and builds an understanding of the other elements.
Ideas for teaching setting:
Time period research project: Identify the time period of the story and have students research trends, events, and other fun facts about it.
Setting maps: Create maps showing the different locations (real or fictional) of where the main events take place.
Travel brochures: Create a travel brochure for a story’s setting. Include landmarks, best things to do, important places from the story, and other highlights to convince others to visit.
Setting switch rewrite: Students rewrite the story (or a major scene) in a completely different time and/or place. Students then analyze their own writing (or a classmate’s), comparing and contrasting it with the original version.
Theme
The theme is the central idea, message, or lesson of a story.
Ideas for teaching theme:
Analyze fairy tales and folktales: Both genres are great since they are short stories where characters often learn a lesson at the end.
Cross-text theme hunt: Compare two or more texts (stories, poems, or songs) with similar themes and discuss how each conveys the theme differently.
Theme tracker charts: Students go back through a text individually or in groups and record evidence supporting the theme. For example, as characters grow and change, the theme develops. How does it all build up to the end?
Make a theme collage: Students create a digital slide or draw a poster containing different images supporting the theme of a story.
Point of View
The point of view refers to how a character feels and tells the story. This can also refer to the perspective of the narrator of the story.
Ideas for teaching point of view:
Readers theater: Students are assigned different characters to act out from a story. They tell their point of view of events based on how their character sees it.
Point of view rewrite activity: Students rewrite a short story or scene from another character’s perspective or as the narrator.
Create a diary entry: Students pretend to be a character from the story and write a diary entry describing a main event from the story. Students should go into detail about the setting, feelings, relationships with other characters, and more.
Narrator voice comparison: Read two versions of the same event from different points of view. Compare and contrast the point of view of each narrator using a Venn diagram. Fractured fairy tales are great tools for exploring point of view since they take a different angle on the original.
Conflict Resolution
The conflict in a story refers to the problem a character faces in the story. The main types of conflict are as follows: character vs. self (internal conflict), character vs. character, character vs. society, character vs. nature, character vs. technology, and character vs. the supernatural. The resolution is how the problem is solved.
Ideas for teaching conflict resolution:
Conflict type sort: Provide students different scenarios or excerpts from stories. Students identify the type of conflict: character vs. character, self, society, nature, technology, or the supernatural.
Conflict timeline: Students record a conflict’s development over time, from the beginning to the end of a story. Students analyze how the character reacts during each event.
Conflict resolution match-up: Write out conflict situations on index cards. Make a matching card for each with a possible resolution. Students match them, providing reasons why they go together. The cards can have more than one answer, providing a fun and creative way to solve the problem!
Make connections: Compare a conflict in a text to another situation. Connections can include text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, or text-to-world connections. Identify how the scenarios are alike and come up with a resolution that works for both examples.
Elements of Fiction Anchor Charts
If you need anchor charts to help teach elements of fiction to your students, look no further! Check out these examples and re-create your favorites for your classroom.
A one-pager is a creative, visually appealing assessment tool that gives students a chance to share their ideas across two modes: imagery and text. They’re my favorite tool, and I’ve been experimenting with them for the last decade. So let me share what I’ve learned.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
Originally pioneered by AVID, one-pagers are a solid toolbox go-to for English teachers, but really, they’re easily adapted to any discipline.
Students create one-pagers to convey their key takeaways from something (a book, an article, a unit, a poem, a documentary, a podcast, an exploration of theme, a science experiment, etc.). One-pagers help express what they’ve learned in a single page. The project lets them work on communicating ideas through a combination of modes. This is a key skill in many workplaces today.
As students think critically about what’s important, they also improve their retention of information. Sketching the details into their one-pagers helps different parts of their brain work together. (Check out this interview with ed-tech consultant and educator Jen Giffen to dig deeper).
Helping Reluctant Artists
You might be thinking, what about my art-haters in fifth period? The ones who moan at the mention of a marker?
Mike Rohde, inventor of sketchnotes, which are like one-pagers created on the fly, famously says they’re “ideas, not art.” This is a good thing to reinforce with your students. The goal here is not to get their one-pagers featured at the Met, but to tap their critical thinking and illustrate their understanding in memorable, insightful ways.
One way to help scaffold the one-pager process for kids feeling wary is to create a template, mapping out areas of the page and connecting them to what you’d like students to include. This template becomes a roadmap that every student can follow, though students who feel ready can go off-template, designing from the blank page.
For example, you might ask students to start an ELA one-pager by putting a key theme for a novel in the center of their paper, then illustrating it with a quotation, and adding a visual and some analysis of their own.
You might guide students to illustrate a range of Spanish verbs related to sports across the top of their one-pager, including the words, their definitions, and illustrations for each, before laying out your requirements for the middle and the bottom of the page.
Maybe you’d have students focus on the traits of a historical figure on one part of the page, while exploring her relationships in another, influences on her in another, and crucial events happening in her world in a visual timeline across the bottom.
Let’s look at a few examples from my discipline, English, to provide inspiration for your next one-pager project. A quick #onepagers search over on Instagram will show you many more.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
These one-pagers, focused on novels, a play, and a short story, showcase the potential role of a template in providing creative constraint, dividing the page and making it easy for students to map their ideas in the spaces provided.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
These character analysis one-pagers provide a little visual twist on a basic template, inviting students to focus in on four key characters from a novel to showcase their growth and development. A one-pager project doesn’t have to be a broad look at an entire text or unit. You can drill down to an important element or concept.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
These one-pagers showcase multimedia takeaways, offering students a focus point as they watch a film or listen to a podcast. This use is very similar to sketchnotes but with a bit more guidance for students.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
If you and your students like hexagonal thinking, then hexagonal one-pagers, an advanced twist that combines the discussion strategy with the one-pager concept, can provide an even deeper level of conversation.
Students first create hexagonal one-pagers to represent complex ideas in your unit. The hexagons showcase themes, characters, connecting texts, and more from Nic Stone’s novel Dear Martin.
Students begin by connecting their hexagons and discussing how the ideas relate. As they rearrange the pieces, new insights emerge. Finally, each group presents its web of connections to the class or writes about the reasoning behind its choices.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
Hexagonal one-pagers are also a fun go-to for building community. For this activity, invite your students to fill out hexagons about themselves before connecting them to those of others in the class, eventually creating a visual display of all the things the group has in common.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
One of my favorite recent twists on the one-pager is an open-mind project. In this version, the template provides a silhouette for a character in a text. Students then fill in key relationships, ideas, quotations, and traits for the character inside their head, while showcasing outside influences and key relationships around the head. For example, you can see open-mind one-pagers for Will Holloman, the main character in Jason Reynolds’ verse novel Long Way Down.
This approach can easily be adapted for other subjects too. In a history class, for instance, you might provide the outline of a country in the center of a one-pager, inviting students to fill it with what’s happening inside during a particular time period. Then, ask them to fill the outside with the influences of neighboring countries, major events, or artistic movements that are shaping the world at that time.
In a language class, you might add a silhouette for a famous leader or creator speaking the language of study. Have students fill the inside with what they know about them. Next, students will create illustrations and information about their actions, influence, and/or creations on the outside.
Courtesy of Spark Creativity
There are so many creative ways to use one-pagers, and it’s impossible to explore them all here! Just start experimenting, and see where it works with your class this year. Remember that a template with a clear set of expectations for what to put where is a great scaffold as students begin. And save time in class for a gallery walk and space on your walls for a bright display of one-pagers!
Journaling has a lot of benefits, like reducing stress and keeping you organized. There are all sorts of ways to journal, including a calendar diary, a blank book, or daily writing prompts. One method that’s become incredibly popular in recent years is bullet journaling. Learn more about this system, and get lots of creative bullet journal ideas to try.
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Habit Tracker Bundle
For a quick and easy start, try pasting one of these habit trackers directly into your bullet journal. With different styles for each month, they also provide great theme ideas! Click the button to see them all and download your free set.
What is a bullet journal?
A bullet journal is a book with pages full of faint dots in a grid pattern. It’s similar to a blank book in that you can turn any page into anything you like. But the grid of dots helps many people feel a little more organized and inspired. You can connect the dots to make calendars, tracking grids, and much more. Or you can ignore them and just doodle or create a work of art on each page.
Most people who use bullet journals enjoy the creativity involved. Many of them use stickers, templates, markers, and other stationery supplies to make their journals colorful works of art. But you don’t necessarily need to use a bullet journal that way. This system is so versatile that it can really work for anyone.
You can find lots of bullet journal inspiration by searching sites like Instagram. Tip: Try using the hashtag #bujo in addition to #bulletjournal when you search. This nickname is very common in the bullet-journaling community.
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
How To Choose a Bullet Journal
There are lots of bullet journals to choose from out there. (You might also see them called dotted grid notebooks, dotted journals, or something similar.) Make sure you choose one that lies flat when it’s open so you can easily write on the entire page. Also look for heavy-duty paper, since a lot of the fun of bullet journaling involves markers and colored pens that can bleed through thinner pages. Pick a size that makes sense for you: Do you want large pages with tons of room or something smaller that you can tuck into your bag or pocket?
Once you’ve chosen the right journal, now it’s up to you to fill it with pages that fit your needs and personality. Take a look at these ideas to get started.
Bullet Journal Habit Tracker Ideas
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
Habit trackers are some of the most popular bullet journal page ideas. In their simplest form, they’re just a grid of squares you can fill in as you accomplish your habit goal each day. But many people use the open-ended nature of the pages to make truly creative trackers, such as the petals of a flower or the rays of a sun. Here are some of the most common tracker pages found in bullet journals.
Habit Tracker
Combine all your habit trackers into one simple page, where you can simply mark whether you met your goals for each day.
Study Tracker
This tracker helps kids keep track of how long they spend in focused study. They can break it down by subject, or combine the time together into one tracker.
Mood Tracker
Here’s another creative type of tracking page, this one for moods. People often use colors to track their moods, but you might also select stickers, emojis, or another design.
Exercise Tracker
Keep track of your daily exercise with a simple tracker page. If you like to mix up your routines, use different colors to indicate the various types of exercise you complete.
Sleep Tracker
Tracking the amount, timing, and quality of your sleep can help you see how it connects to your overall health. If you have a fitness tracker, you can even note the amount of time you spend in deep sleep, REM sleep, etc.
Reading Tracker
If you’re trying to read a little more, create a tracking page in your journal. It’s also a good place to record books you’re planning to read in the future.
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
Self-Care Tracker
In addition to tracking exercise or hydration, keep track of other important self-care activities, like meditation, personal time, creative activities, or affirmations.
Anxiety Tracker
Need to tame the anxiety monster? Try tracking your anxiety level each day so you can identify patterns and make connections.
Expense Tracker
Trying to get a better handle on your finances? Use an expense tracker so you’ll have a clearer picture of where all that cash is really going each month.
Hydration Tracker
Most of us never seem to drink enough water, no matter how hard we try. A hydration tracker might give you the nudge you need to meet hydration goals.
Distance Tracker
Prepping for a 10K or a marathon, or just want to encourage yourself to run or walk more? A distance tracker is a fun way to keep yourself on the right path.
Fitness Tracker
Lay out your favorite exercise routines, then track how often you complete them. This is a good way to see if you need to balance out certain fitness routines, like cardio and strength training.
Goal Tracker
Tracking your progress toward goals can keep you motivated and engaged. Set up your tracker by day, week, or month, or simply track the progress you’ve made toward achieving each goal.
Creative Bullet Journal Page Ideas
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
One of the most fun parts of bullet journaling is the creativity! Whether you draw and illustrate your own pages or add stickers and use stencils instead, the goal is to create a fun, colorful journal that truly reflects your personality.
Monthly Theme
Lots of bullet journalers like to create a title page for each new month, often with a theme they’ll use all month long. These colorful pages can help set the mood for the weeks to come.
Art Page
Love to draw, sketch, or paint? Fill your journal with your own beautiful works of art!
About Me
It can be really fun to create an About Me page every so often (maybe once a year or so), so you can track your own personal growth and achievements.
Quote Page
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
You can use this page to document and illustrate one favorite quote, or create a whole collection you can reflect back on as needed.
Book Review
Whether you belong to a book club and want to organize your thoughts or simply love to write reviews for your own enjoyment, these bullet journal pages are always fun and relaxing.
Bullet Journal Planning and Organization Ideas
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
Calendar
Calendar pages are one of the most basic and common bullet journal pages. Use a ruler or straight-edge to connect the dots into a grid, making the blocks any size you like. Then you can decorate the calendar pages with drawings, stickers, and more.
Task List
There are lots of creative ways to set up a task list. Some people connect the dots to make tiny checkboxes. You can also make a single slash mark for each item, then add a second to create an X when you’ve finished the task.
Budget
A budget layout is a very personal thing, so choose the style that works best for you. All that matters is that you stick to that budget!
Schedule
Schedule pages can be very simple, or they can be more artsy and colorful. Experiment with both styles, and see which you prefer.
Goal Setting
Goal pages are another very common bullet journal feature. Some people prefer to keep them simple so they’re not overwhelming. Others use their goal page for inspiration, making them creative and full of color and life.
Notes
Jill Staake for We Are Teachers
This is a no-rules kind of bullet journal page, where you can jot down anything you need in any way you like. Small sticky notes and highlighters can help you keep thoughts clear and organized.
Year-at-a-Glance
Get a look at the big picture with a year-at-a-glance layout. Sketch out each month with an overview of the highlights. Try color-coding different activities and events to make it easier to read and follow.
Project Planner
Planning a project in advance is good, and keeping your plan in your bullet journal means you’re less likely to lose it before you implement it!
Meal Planner
Create a list of your family’s favorite standard meals. Then, draw from those ideas and set up a meal plan for the week or month.
Chore Chart
These aren’t just for kids! Create a detailed cleaning schedule to help yourself remember all those pesky household chores.
Yearly Bookshelf
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
How cool is this idea for tracking the books you read each year? And it’s really not that hard to draw if you use the dots and a straight-edge as a guide.
Gift Planner
Get ready for the holidays or plan out your gift-giving needs for the year ahead with this bullet journal idea.
Trip Planner
As you prepare to travel, create lists of places to go, things to do, and other details that will help make your trip a success.
Packing List
Speaking of travel, a packing list page is another bullet journal winner. Keep a standard packing list you can alter as needed for each trip—it’s a real time-saver.
Lesson Planner
Teachers, have you tried using a bullet journal as a lesson planner? You might be surprised at how well the flexibility works for you!
Mindfulness Bullet Journal Ideas
Jill Staake for We Are Teachers
Bullet journaling is all about mindfulness, with its combination of structures and unstructured pages and activities. Consider these ideas to bring a dose of calm meditation to your journal experience.
Daily Gratitude
Bullet journaling is meant to be a mindfulness activity, so be sure to include a page each month for documenting all the things you’re currently thankful for.
Mind Map
Mind mapping lets you get ideas out of your head and down onto paper, in a somewhat organized fashion. You can refer back to these pages as you set goals and create task lists.
Personal Reflection
Take a few minutes to think about your recent life activities and events, and to consider your current state of mind. This kind of mindfulness is very helpful at reducing stress.
Daily Journal
If you like to keep track of what you’ve been up to on a daily basis, a bullet journal is a terrific option for that. Many people like to add drawings, stickers, and other creative elements to these pages too.
Playlist
Capture the music of the moment with a playlist page! These are fun to look back on when the year draws to a close, helping you see the soundtrack that’s been scoring your life.
Daily Overview
Many people like to create a separate page in their journal each day to document what they need to do and what they actually accomplish. Spending a few minutes on this exercise each day is a form of mindful meditation and can be very soothing.
One Line a Day
If a full journal entry seems like too much, try this easy page. All you need to do is write one sentence each day, capturing the mood and most important moments of the day.
Bucket List
Dream big on your bucket list! Some people like to make them for a season, a year, or even a month. Or create an ongoing bucket list with goals for your entire life.
Affirmations
When you need daily inspiration, turn to your affirmation page and remind yourself just how great you really are.
Daily Delights
Each day has a highlight, so take a moment to jot it down before you go to sleep.
Monthly Challenge
Meghan Mathis for We Are Teachers
Choose an activity that brings you joy, and devote a little time to it each day, documenting your progress in your journal. This is less about establishing habits and more about choosing something new and enjoyable each month. Try an art challenge, a writing challenge, a photo challenge, or something else that sparks your creativity.
Travel Wish List
Use your journal pages to document all your travel dreams! You’ll appreciate having these pages when it’s time to plan your next vacation.
Travel Diary
Bullet journals are wonderful travel diaries. You can add photos, sketches, and travel mementos alongside your written reflections on your adventures.
Month in Review
When the month draws to a close, create a spread where you reflect on the highlights and accomplishments before you move on to the next one.
Recipe Page
Turn a bullet journal into a cookbook, or just capture a favorite recipe every so often. Be sure to include your own notes on making the recipe a success.
Recipe Collection
A collection of favorite recipes will make it much easier to plan meals or prepare special foods for celebrations (or just for Mondays).
Remember all those VIBs (Very Important Birthdays) with a bullet journal page. (If you’re artistic, try adding a sketch of each person next to their birth date!)
Brain Dump
Sometimes it’s nice to just have a place to jot down notes, worries, and anything else that’s taking up space in your brain. Later on, you can look back over this “dump” and use it to make more organized lists or charts.
Writing a strong argumentative essay teaches students to make a case for their own point of view without relying on emotion or passion. These argumentative essay topics provide options for students of all ages, including controversial subjects and some that are just for fun.
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10 Best Argumentative Essay Topics for Elementary School Kids
These essay topics keep things a little lighter, helping kids make a personal connection to their topic. This makes it easier for them to form an opinion, then practice gathering evidence to support their claim.
Should homework be required in elementary school?
Is it better to have school all year with shorter breaks, or a long summer vacation?
Should kids get paid for doing chores at home?
Which is better for learning, reading a book or watching a video?
Should kids be allowed to bring their pets to school for a day?
Is it better to have assigned seats in class or to choose your own seat?
Should kids be allowed to eat candy and junk food whenever they want?
Should kids have to go to bed early or choose their own bedtime?
Is recess time important for learning?
Should kids get paid for getting good grades?
10 Best Argumentative Essay Topics for Middle School Students
These topics still provide a personal connection but also add a little age-appropriate complexity for pre-teens to tackle.
Should kids have to wait until they’re 13 to use social media?
Should school start later in the morning so students can get more sleep?
Which is better, team sports or individual activities?
Should students be required to volunteer in their communities?
Are video games helpful or harmful for kids and teens?
Should kids be allowed to choose all their own classes or should schools decide?
Is it better to read the book or watch the movie version of a story?
Do students learn better from technology (like computers and tablets) or from teachers?
Should schools be able to check what students do on their computers and phones?
Is it fair to separate boys’ and girls’ sports teams or should everyone play together?
10 Best Argumentative Essay Topics for High School Students
These topics are current and relevant to today’s high school teens, making them ideal for argumentative essays.
Do standardized tests (like the SAT or ACT) truly measure a student’s ability?
Should schools allow students to use artificial intelligence tools (like ChatGPT) for assignments?
Is it better to offer free college education for all or should only some students qualify?
Should student athletes be paid if their sports generate money for the school?
Do school dress codes unfairly target certain groups of students?
Should high schools offer more career training instead of focusing mainly on college preparation?
Is social media a danger to teens’ mental health or does it provide more benefits than harm?
Do beauty standards in media and advertising cause real harm to teens?
Is censorship on social media ever justified or does it violate free speech?
Should schools ban cell phones entirely or emphasize and teach responsible use?
School and Education Argumentative Essay Topics
Should physical education be part of the standard high school curriculum?
Schools should require recommended vaccines for all students, with very limited exceptions.
Should all students have the ability to attend college for free?
What one class should all high schools students be required to take and pass in order to graduate?
Do you think homework should be required, optional, or not given at all?
Students should/should not be able to use their phones during the school day.
Should schools have dress codes?
What is the most important school subject?
Are letter grades helpful or should we replace them with something else?
If I could change one school rule, it would be …
Is year-round school a good idea?
Which is better, private schools or public schools?
Should every student have to participate in athletics?
Do you think schools should ban junk food from their cafeterias?
Should students be required to volunteer in their communities?
Should schools be allowed to ban some books from their libraries?
Which is better, book smarts or street smarts?
Are single-gender schools better or worse for students?
Are computers making teachers obsolete?
Students who fail a test should be given a chance to take it again.
Science and History Argumentative Essay Topics
Is it acceptable to use animals for experiments and research?
Vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco.
Do we really learn anything from history or does it just repeat itself over and over?
Is it OK to keep animals in zoos?
Should we ban plastic bags and bottles?
Should we still consider Pluto a planet?
It’s important to spend tax dollars exploring space instead of on other things.
Is there life on other planets?
Who was the best/worst American president?
Should vaccines be mandatory?
Are GMOs more helpful than harmful?
Is animal cloning ethical?
Should human cloning be legal?
Should we use stem cells from human embryos for scientific research?
Is it better to provide drug addicts with treatment instead of punishment?
Should we ban the use of fossil fuels?
Can we truly do anything about human-caused global warming?
Are electric vehicles better than gas-powered ones?
Was life really better “back in the day”?
Choose a foreign conflict (e.g., Vietnam or Afghanistan) and argue whether or not the United States was justified in getting involved.
Life and Ethics Argumentative Essay Topics
The most important challenge our country is currently facing is … (e.g., immigration, gun control, economy)
Does social media do more harm than good?
The best country in the world is …
Are men and women treated equally?
Is it better to be vegetarian/vegan or to eat meat?
Should little kids be allowed to play competitive sports?
Who faces more peer pressure, girls or boys?
Should kids have set bedtimes or just go to bed whenever they’re sleepy?
Which is better, artificial Christmas trees or real ones?
Playing violent video games is bad for kids and teens.
Parents should track their kids’ cell phone use.
Are paper books better than e-books?
All kids should play on the same sports teams, regardless of gender.
All paper documents should be replaced with electronic versions.
Is conflict necessary for change?
Is war ever justified?
A strong middle class is vital to the economy.
Is the local minimum wage truly a living wage?
Should we do away with gender-specific public bathrooms?
Is a progressive income tax better than a flat tax?
Social Justice and Civics Argumentative Essay Topics
Capital punishment does/does not deter crime.
Would it be better to legalize, tax, and regulate all drugs (including alcohol and cigarettes) instead of banning them?
Parents should be punished for their minor children’s crimes.
The government should provide free internet access for every citizen.
Is democracy the best form of government?
Is capitalism the best form of economy?
Should all Americans be required to vote?
Should we change the minimum driving age in the United States?
Do you think the government should find a way to provide free healthcare for everyone?
School-age children should be allowed to vote.
We should/should not abolish the Electoral College.
Are “stand your ground” laws effective?
Supreme Court judges should be appointed for fixed terms.
Does segregation still exist in the United States?
We should/should not continue building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
Will stricter gun control laws help control mass shootings?
Should we make the path to American citizenship easier?
Is the American justice system inherently racist?
Should we redirect some or all police force funding to social services?
Should the United States implement a universal basic income?
More Argumentative Essay Topics for Students
Choose a fictional character and explain why they should be the next president.
What animal makes the best pet?
Who is the world’s best athlete, present or past?
Which is better, reading books or watching TV?
Is a taco a sandwich?
Should kids be allowed to stay up as late as they want?
What’s the best video game system?
Kids shouldn’t have to go to school on their birthdays.
Is video gaming a sport?
Are beauty pageants sexist?
Should kids get participation trophies for sports?
Are stereotypes ever right?
Is there any benefit to teaching proper grammar and spelling, or should we allow language to be descriptive instead of prescriptive?
All teenagers should have part-time jobs.
Should kids have limits on screen time?
Is it better to read fiction or nonfiction?
Should kids have to eat everything on their plate, even if they really don’t like something?
Is it better to spend an hour a day reading or exercising?
Is graffiti an act of vandalism or an art form?
Should society hold celebrities to a high moral standard?
What is an argumentative essay?
In an argumentative essay, the author considers multiple points of view and argues in favor of one claim. It’s a lot like building a court case. Start with an opening statement that explains your claim and the reasons that support it. Then, use strong evidence to support each of those reasons and to refute any counterarguments (opposing points of view). Finish with a compelling conclusion that sums up and reinforces your claim.
What’s the difference between argumentative and persuasive essays?
These two types of essays are similar, but there are some subtle and important differences.
Author’s purpose: In an argumentative essay, your job is to simply convince the reader that the point of view you’re presenting is valid, even if it doesn’t change their mind. Persuasive essays seek to sway the reader to adopt your point of view over any others.
Method: Argumentative essays rely heavily on well-researched facts and logical assertions. In a persuasive essay, the writer may use a blend of emotion and facts to win over the reader.
Audience: Persuasive essays require a specific audience, since the writer must acknowledge and attempt to overcome their potential objections. The writer of an argumentative essay is simply making a statement, so knowing their audience is less important.
Viewpoint: A persuasive essay writer should believe their point of view is the only correct one, and try to persuade the reader to agree. Argumentative essays acknowledge other points of view but use reason and logic to argue that the writer’s point of view is best.
Persuasive and argumentative essay topics often overlap. The difference is in how the writer approaches the topic. When you assign one of the topics above as an argumentative essay, remind students to use research, reason, and logic to make a strong but dispassionate argument.
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At least once a year, one of my freshmen would ask me why everything we read in 9th grade English was so depressing. A quick look at our curriculum revealed they did have a point. Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, and short stories like Lamb to the Slaughter and The Most Dangerous Game all tell tales of death and despair. While all are excellent, I began to wonder if I could find some different texts to add to the mix. It turns out, while scary short stories and dramatic short stories are easy to find, good funny short stories and witty short stories for middle and high school students are a bit trickier to track down.
With that in mind, here’s a list of funny short stories to use in your classroom when you want to bring a bit of humor to your lesson. Plus, fill out the form on this page to receive your own copy of a selection of the funny short stories below!
OK, this one might be a bit of a controversial addition to a list of funny short stories, but I’m including it anyway. There’s something darkly humorous in this little tale about a man who goes too far in a plot for revenge only to have it backfire on him in the worst possible way. Some of your students will feel bad for the protagonist while others will feel he deserves his fate. Regardless, your class will have a great discussion about it at the end.
In class: There are so many writing prompts you could use from this witty short story, I don’t know where to begin. It could be used as the springboard for an argumentative writing unit, with students discussing whether or not the main character was justified in his actions. It could also be perfect for a discussion on characterization by asking students what can we learn about the main character and his wife through their actions and statements.
I love introducing students to science fiction, especially in the form of funny short stories. We really don’t use sci-fi enough in our English classes. In this story, two aliens discuss the bizarre new life-form they’ve discovered and try to figure out how it thinks and lives. Your students will laugh out loud when they discover that the aliens are talking about humans, and they’ll love figuring out the everyday activities and items the aliens just can’t seem to make sense of.
In class: This is perfect for introducing a new genre to students. After reading, ask students to craft their own science-fiction short story. As a class, brainstorm a list of activities and events that take place all the time that we think are totally normal. Then, ask students to write their version of an alien race trying to figure out a birthday party, after-school detention, or lunch in the school cafeteria.
Written by the same woman who wrote the eerie short story The Lottery, this story is guaranteed to make students of all ages chuckle. The tale of the worst kindergarten student ever, as told by a classmate to his mother at the end of every school day, your students will love hearing all about Charles’ antics. The twist at the end of the tale will make students gasp and giggle.
In class: Perfect for lessons on irony, your students can debate whether Jackson’s funny short story demonstrates verbal, situational, or dramatic irony. I’ve also used this story to show students how an author can utilize dialogue as a method for developing characterization.
Like Charles, this is another classic, well-known story. An older woman takes a young man under her wing after he attempts to steal her purse. As they spend time together, she teaches him a valuable lesson about life. It’s perfect for upper-elementary and middle school students.
In class: This is one of those funny short stories that lends itself to lessons about dialogue, diction, theme, and characterization. It’s also a great text to use for practice discussions or Socratic seminars. Students could easily develop questions about the actions of the characters. They could consider how they would have responded in the same situation. And they could even reimagine the story as if it were written today.
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While many students will have read The Gift of the Magi, this short story by the same author is much less well known. Lord Oakhurst is dying, his wife is grieving (or is she?), and a doctor arrives to try to help. Your students will be shocked and amused by this quick read.
In class: Indirect characterization leaps to the foreground in this funny short story as students can debate whether Lord Oakhurst’s wife is truly as sad as she says she is throughout the story. The story also makes use of flashbacks, making it great for introducing or reviewing that concept.
Satire is a tough genre for so many students. The popular satirical online news magazine The Onion comes to the rescue here with a hysterical piece that, while not a short story exactly, certainly tells a tale students will guffaw over. In the article, students learn the plight of a young man who almost received severe consequences for driving while under the influence. Some satirical pieces are almost too serious for students to see as satire, but this one does a great job of taking a serious subject and turning it on its head to make a point.
In class: This piece is perfect for students who aren’t ready to grapple with some of the more complex satirical pieces they’re often given in school. If your group isn’t quite ready for Swift’s A Modest Proposal, this is a great place to start. As an introduction to satire, pairing this piece with actual news reports of cases where privileged young people have received shockingly light sentences for serious crimes will definitely keep your students engaged (and enraged?).
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This short story caper takes on the classic detective trope and mocks it mercilessly. Over-the-top costumes, mistaken identities, and a ridiculous reveal make this a truly funny short story to share with your students.
In class: I wish I still taught the mystery unit I taught for many years so that I could add this funny short story to the mix. This is a perfect piece to introduce satire. It mocks many of the most common elements of typical detective stories in a truly hilarious fashion.
Given her prominence in current popular culture attributed to The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood is an author our students should know. This short story about a fairy-tale writer receiving some “constructive criticism” on how to make their story more inclusive is sure to inspire reactions among your middle or high schoolers.
In class: This is a great short story to use when teaching the importance of how dialogue can impact tone. Additionally, it would be a great piece to bring to any discussion of whether or not students should read “old” stories that have language or ideas that are considered problematic today.
Definitely one for older students, this essay is a more complex text than many on this list. That being said, it’s a classic for a reason. Swift’s shocking and controversial (and highly satirical) suggestion that the plight of poor Irish peasants could be solved by having them sell their infants to rich British people to eat continues to resonate to this day. Give this to your high school students without any warning and get ready for some interesting reactions and responses.
In class: This piece is a staple in many high school lessons about satire, but I think it could also be used brilliantly in discussions about current political discourse. We struggle with recognizing satire in media today just as much as people did in Swift’s time. Additionally, the parallels between how the wealthy and elite in society look down at the less fortunate then and now could definitely make for some heavy, yet important, classroom discussions. Finally, it’s a perfect text for a lesson on tone—ask students to consider why Swift chose to write in a logical and emotionless voice about such a horrifying idea.
The main character in this funny short story becomes famous. He rushes home to tell his family. Your students will love the reactions of his stunned family. They’ll also have plenty to say about the protagonist’s glorious new stardom.
In class: Perfect for units covering tragic heroes or characters who fall from grace, Chekhov’s work is a pretty searing commentary on the ideas surrounding what it means to be famous. Your students will have a great time making comparisons between the protagonist and various YouTube or TikTok stars of today.
Time to throw a curveball into the game. Have you heard of The Moth? It’s an organization with the mission to “promote the art and craft of storytelling and to honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience.” They have open-mic storytelling nights in different cities around the country where people just stand up and tell stories based on a preset theme. You can find lots of them on The Moth’s website and on YouTube. This one is about a man who has his identity stolen by a Domino’s Pizza employee. His mission to get revenge will have you and your students laughing out loud.
In class: Many of the stories do include a swear word or deal with adult themes, so be sure to preview the story first. I love the idea of sharing verbal storytelling with students of all ages, especially in the context of a unit on funny short stories. It’s great for reluctant readers and could make an awesome alternative assessment option.
Written by the same author who wrote The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this story is also about an unhappy man who dreams of improving his life. The way he accomplishes this, however, is where the humor (and some shock!) comes in.
In class: Introducing students to more challenging text can always be a bit of a tough sell, so it’s nice to have a few short stories to warm students up to the idea. Students can practice transacting with text, asking questions about sections that confuse them, and working together to build comprehension.
Another curveball addition to this list of funny short stories! I love introducing my students to examples of real-life writing that is actually going on today. While many funny short stories on this list are from the early 1900s, this piece was written in 2020 and appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. The site features humorous pieces on a variety of timely topics. While many aren’t appropriate for school, others, like this one, are perfect examples of how people are still writing and creating today. In this piece, the personified “afternoon walk” explains to the person taking it that it can’t be everything the walker needs it to be.
In class: Best suited for older middle school and high school students, I would love to use this as a mentor text. Imagine the creative writing pieces students could come up with if asked to personify something in their lives.
Confession time: I hate ordering food by phone. It doesn’t matter if it’s healthy or not, or if I’m ordering for one person or twenty. I hate it. I get flustered and almost always end up messing something up. Hence why this story, about a man who gets nervous in banks, spoke to me. Leacock’s description of the main character fumbling his way through opening a bank account had me laughing out loud.
In class: Finding characters from the past that students can relate to is tricky. I like the idea of asking students to free-write or discuss what situations make them feel anxious or uncomfortable. They could write down feelings, descriptions, and images. After reading this story, they could create their own humorous (or serious) stories about their own scenario.
I’ll admit this one blew my mind a bit, which is why I love the idea of sharing it with students. This short story, about a young man who invents a device that gathers together all the stories and novels ever written and then, using a mathematical formula, uses them to churn out new stories at lightning-fast speeds, was written in 1954. That’s right, Roald Dahl predicted ChatGPT and AI-generated storiesdecades ago. Watch your students’ minds be blown as they read this one.
In class: While Dahl may not have meant this short story to be considered science fiction, it certainly could fit into that genre. This piece would be perfect to pair with nonfiction articles about how AI is affecting creative fields as well as an argumentative unit in which students discuss whether or not these stories are better or worse than those written by human authors.
Yes, it’s a poem. But it also tells a story, which makes it a great addition to this list of funny short stories. In this poem, we meet a grumpy old man who is always telling people to grow up. But one day, someone tells him to “grow down.” When he does, he discovers he likes it much more than growing up.
In class: This piece would be perfect for students who are struggling to grasp concepts like theme or characterization. There’s plenty of direct and indirect characterization throughout the poem, and the message is pretty obvious throughout. Additionally, Shel Silverstein’s voice is perfect for discussions about tone.
I chuckle, groan, and, yes, roll my eyes every time I reread this short story. It’s such an enjoyable little piece, about a man who discovers “proof” that aliens exist and are hiding among us even though they can do shocking things with their bodies. It was always particularly well received by my students who didn’t really love figurative language and wished authors would just “say what they mean.”
In class: This story would be great as an introduction to dramatic irony. Part of what makes it so great is how we, as readers, groan each time the protagonist finds “proof” of alien life that we recognize as just an author’s use of imagery, hyperbole, and nonliteral language.
Another poem, I know. But it’s longish, so that counts, right? Your students might pick up on the parallels in theme between this fast-paced poem and the character of Mike Teavee from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl was definitely not a fan of young people watching television instead of playing outside or reading books. One can only imagine what he would have thought about how much time our students spend looking at their phones today!
In class: I love the idea of asking students to write a modern version of this poem, substituting cell phones or TikTok in place of Dahl’s loathed television. It’s also a great piece for discussing tone, as Dahl’s feelings are made so abundantly clear throughout the text.
Jason Reynolds is a genius when it comes to creating characters who seem so real it feels like you’ve met them before. This short story about a young man getting ready for the first day of school will hit your students right in the feels. They’ll laugh, they’ll relate, and they’ll definitely identify with the struggles the protagonist experiences as he prepares to return to school.
In class: This short story would fit beautifully into any lesson about mood and point of view. The main character’s ability to express himself and his feelings is so enjoyable to read. It would also be a great study on how allusions can date a text. While our students will understand immediately why the character cares so much about his sneakers remaining perfectly white, will people in the future? It would be interesting to pair this piece with an older text and compare the allusions of each.
We Are Teachers
We sometimes shy away from challenging texts when looking for new stories to share with our students, but Twain is an excellent author to turn to when you want to explore how to tackle tough reads. There’s definitely something to be said for slowing down and really focusing on how an author uses words to tell a story. This one, about a man listening to an incredibly long-winded tale about a frog-jumping contest gone wrong, will have your students chuckling by the end.
In class: This story would be ideal for introducing students to the tall-tale genre, a unique American storytelling tradition that celebrates colorful characters, improbable events, and hyperbole. It also would be a perfect mentor text when teaching regional dialects or how dialogue affects mood and tone.
We’re headed back to O. Henry for this one because he was just so good at funny short stories. Your students will get a kick out of seeing a humorous Western romance unfold between Joséfa, a brave and headstrong ranch owner, and Ripley Givens, a cowboy trying to impress her with his bravery. They’ll like it even more when they get to the part with the puma and O. Henry’s telltale surprise ending.
In class: Like many other witty short stories in this list, this is a perfect short story for a lesson on irony. I like it more, however, for how it turns themes like pride and our perception of others on their heads. Have your students do a pre-writing exercise sharing their background knowledge of Westerns, damsels in distress, and cowboys, and then have them compare their previous perceptions with the reality presented in the story for a fun and meaningful discussion.
Get your free printable funny short stories!
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Fill out the form on this page to get your free printable of seven of the short stories on this list!
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.Related video above: The risks to children under President Trump’s new AI policyThe landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.The company has agreed to pay authors or publishers about $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.”As best as we can tell, it’s the largest copyright recovery ever,” said Justin Nelson, a lawyer for the authors. “It is the first of its kind in the AI era.”A trio of authors — thriller novelist Andrea Bartz and nonfiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson — sued last year and now represent a broader group of writers and publishers whose books Anthropic downloaded to train its chatbot Claude.A federal judge dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites. If Anthropic had not settled, experts say losing the case after a scheduled December trial could have cost the San Francisco-based company even more money.”We were looking at a strong possibility of multiple billions of dollars, enough to potentially cripple or even put Anthropic out of business,” said William Long, a legal analyst for Wolters Kluwer.U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco has scheduled a Monday hearing to review the settlement terms.Anthropic said in a statement Friday that the settlement, if approved, “will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims.””We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems,” said Aparna Sridhar, the company’s deputy general counsel.As part of the settlement, the company has also agreed to destroy the original book files it downloaded.Books are known to be important sources of data — in essence, billions of words carefully strung together — that are needed to build the AI large language models behind chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and its chief rival, OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Alsup’s June ruling found that Anthropic had downloaded more than 7 million digitized books that it “knew had been pirated.” It started with nearly 200,000 from an online library called Books3, assembled by AI researchers outside of OpenAI to match the vast collections on which ChatGPT was trained.Debut thriller novel “The Lost Night” by Bartz, a lead plaintiff in the case, was among those found in the dataset.Anthropic later took at least 5 million copies from the pirate website Library Genesis, or LibGen, and at least 2 million copies from the Pirate Library Mirror, Alsup wrote.The Authors Guild told its thousands of members last month that it expected “damages will be minimally $750 per work and could be much higher” if Anthropic was found at trial to have willfully infringed their copyrights. The settlement’s higher award — approximately $3,000 per work — likely reflects a smaller pool of affected books, after taking out duplicates and those without copyright. On Friday, Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, called the settlement “an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders generally, sending a strong message to the AI industry that there are serious consequences when they pirate authors’ works to train their AI, robbing those least able to afford it.” The Danish Rights Alliance, which successfully fought to take down one of those shadow libraries, said Friday that the settlement would be of little help to European writers and publishers whose works aren’t registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.”On the one hand, it’s comforting to see that compiling AI training datasets by downloading millions of books from known illegal file-sharing sites comes at a price,” said Thomas Heldrup, the group’s head of content protection and enforcement.On the other hand, Heldrup said it fits a tech industry playbook to grow a business first and later pay a relatively small fine, compared to the size of the business, for breaking the rules.”It is my understanding that these companies see a settlement like the Anthropic one as a price of conducting business in a fiercely competitive space,” Heldrup said.The privately held Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI leaders in 2021, earlier this week put its value at $183 billion after raising another $13 billion in investments.Anthropic also said it expects to make $5 billion in sales this year, but, like OpenAI and many other AI startups, it has never reported making a profit, relying instead on investors to back the high costs of developing AI technology for the expectation of future payoffs.The settlement could influence other disputes, including an ongoing lawsuit by authors and newspapers against OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft, and cases against Meta and Midjourney. And just as the Anthropic settlement terms were filed, another group of authors sued Apple on Friday in the same San Francisco federal court.”This indicates that maybe for other cases, it’s possible for creators and AI companies to reach settlements without having to essentially go for broke in court,” said Long, the legal analyst.The industry, including Anthropic, had largely praised Alsup’s June ruling because he found that training AI systems on copyrighted works so chatbots can produce their own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “quintessentially transformative.”Comparing the AI model to “any reader aspiring to be a writer,” Alsup wrote that Anthropic “trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different.”But documents disclosed in court showed Anthropic employees’ internal concerns about the legality of their use of pirate sites. The company later shifted its approach and hired Tom Turvey, the former Google executive in charge of Google Books, a searchable library of digitized books that successfully weathered years of copyright battles.With his help, Anthropic began buying books in bulk, tearing off the bindings and scanning each page before feeding the digitized versions into its AI model, according to court documents. That was legal but didn’t undo the earlier piracy, according to the judge.
NEW YORK —
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.
Related video above: The risks to children under President Trump’s new AI policy
The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.
The company has agreed to pay authors or publishers about $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.
“As best as we can tell, it’s the largest copyright recovery ever,” said Justin Nelson, a lawyer for the authors. “It is the first of its kind in the AI era.”
A trio of authors — thriller novelist Andrea Bartz and nonfiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson — sued last year and now represent a broader group of writers and publishers whose books Anthropic downloaded to train its chatbot Claude.
A federal judge dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites.
If Anthropic had not settled, experts say losing the case after a scheduled December trial could have cost the San Francisco-based company even more money.
“We were looking at a strong possibility of multiple billions of dollars, enough to potentially cripple or even put Anthropic out of business,” said William Long, a legal analyst for Wolters Kluwer.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco has scheduled a Monday hearing to review the settlement terms.
Anthropic said in a statement Friday that the settlement, if approved, “will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims.”
“We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems,” said Aparna Sridhar, the company’s deputy general counsel.
As part of the settlement, the company has also agreed to destroy the original book files it downloaded.
Books are known to be important sources of data — in essence, billions of words carefully strung together — that are needed to build the AI large language models behind chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and its chief rival, OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Alsup’s June ruling found that Anthropic had downloaded more than 7 million digitized books that it “knew had been pirated.” It started with nearly 200,000 from an online library called Books3, assembled by AI researchers outside of OpenAI to match the vast collections on which ChatGPT was trained.
Debut thriller novel “The Lost Night” by Bartz, a lead plaintiff in the case, was among those found in the dataset.
Anthropic later took at least 5 million copies from the pirate website Library Genesis, or LibGen, and at least 2 million copies from the Pirate Library Mirror, Alsup wrote.
The Authors Guild told its thousands of members last month that it expected “damages will be minimally $750 per work and could be much higher” if Anthropic was found at trial to have willfully infringed their copyrights. The settlement’s higher award — approximately $3,000 per work — likely reflects a smaller pool of affected books, after taking out duplicates and those without copyright.
On Friday, Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, called the settlement “an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders generally, sending a strong message to the AI industry that there are serious consequences when they pirate authors’ works to train their AI, robbing those least able to afford it.”
The Danish Rights Alliance, which successfully fought to take down one of those shadow libraries, said Friday that the settlement would be of little help to European writers and publishers whose works aren’t registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
“On the one hand, it’s comforting to see that compiling AI training datasets by downloading millions of books from known illegal file-sharing sites comes at a price,” said Thomas Heldrup, the group’s head of content protection and enforcement.
On the other hand, Heldrup said it fits a tech industry playbook to grow a business first and later pay a relatively small fine, compared to the size of the business, for breaking the rules.
“It is my understanding that these companies see a settlement like the Anthropic one as a price of conducting business in a fiercely competitive space,” Heldrup said.
The privately held Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI leaders in 2021, earlier this week put its value at $183 billion after raising another $13 billion in investments.
Anthropic also said it expects to make $5 billion in sales this year, but, like OpenAI and many other AI startups, it has never reported making a profit, relying instead on investors to back the high costs of developing AI technology for the expectation of future payoffs.
The settlement could influence other disputes, including an ongoing lawsuit by authors and newspapers against OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft, and cases against Metaand Midjourney. And just as the Anthropic settlement terms were filed, another group of authors sued Apple on Friday in the same San Francisco federal court.
“This indicates that maybe for other cases, it’s possible for creators and AI companies to reach settlements without having to essentially go for broke in court,” said Long, the legal analyst.
The industry, including Anthropic, had largely praised Alsup’s June ruling because he found that training AI systems on copyrighted works so chatbots can produce their own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “quintessentially transformative.”
Comparing the AI model to “any reader aspiring to be a writer,” Alsup wrote that Anthropic “trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different.”
But documents disclosed in court showed Anthropic employees’ internal concerns about the legality of their use of pirate sites. The company later shifted its approach and hired Tom Turvey, the former Google executive in charge of Google Books, a searchable library of digitized books that successfully weathered years of copyright battles.
With his help, Anthropic began buying books in bulk, tearing off the bindings and scanning each page before feeding the digitized versions into its AI model, according to court documents. That was legal but didn’t undo the earlier piracy, according to the judge.
A chill is in the air, costumes are filling the stores, and Halloween is right around the corner. That means spooky season is upon us! Celebrate the season with these fun and creative Halloween activities and games. You’ll find party games perfect for a class Halloween celebration as well as more educational finds like writing prompts and STEM and math challenges. There are enough Halloween activities on this list to do something different every day in October and then some!
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Quick and Easy Halloween Activities
Try these activities as part of morning meetings or bell ringers, or to fill in when you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class or day. They’re all simple to pull off, with minimal (or no) prep needed!
Tell Halloween jokes
What’s a witch’s favorite subject in school? Spelling, of course! Share some belly laughs with our favorite Halloween jokes for kids.
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Share Halloween quotes
Post a new quote daily to greet students (we’ve got 101 of them to choose from, with images that are all ready to display). Or ask students to choose their favorite quote and create an illustrated poster you can display in the classroom or hallway.
Snag our free printable word searches, with options for easy, medium, and hard. They’re perfect for early finishers and extra credit!
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Pose Halloween trivia questions
Whether you set up a class competition or just use these trivia questions as bell ringers or morning meeting openers, they’re sure to challenge students of all ages.
Solving coded messages is fun, but it also teaches valuable skills like pattern-matching and logic. Grab our free worksheet to try it with your students.
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Watch a Halloween video
Check out our roundup of terrific educational Halloween videos. Get some math practice, learn about Halloween around the world, or try some spooky yoga. You’ll find options for every subject and grade level.
This crossword is just right for elementary students. Pair up younger kids to make it a little easier, or assign this as a fun seasonal homework or enrichment activity.
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Solve a Halloween word scramble
We scrambled 20 themed words for kids to unscramble. The worksheet is designed at an elementary school level, but it makes a fun timed challenge for middle or high school students too!
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Color Halloween coloring pages
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Let’s face it, Halloween is a tough day to teach, especially by the afternoon. It’s totally OK to give yourself a break and pass out these coloring pages to end the day!
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Halloween Books, Poems, and Read-Alouds
Use the seasonal picks in these roundups for story time, reading comprehension practice, book talks, reading groups, and more!
Best Halloween books for kids and teens
This collection includes all the classics (Room on the Broom or Bunnicula, anyone?) as well as new reads to discover. Our list includes picture books, chapter books, and even middle grade and young adult options.
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Popular pumpkin books for kids
With both fiction and nonfiction options, this list gives you lots of choices for learning about Halloween’s unofficial mascot!
Whether you prefer the classics like Poe (“Once upon a midnight dreary …”) or are looking for cute new options to share with little ones, you’ll find the perfect poetry picks on our list for all grades.
Halloween isn’t just about ghosts and witches—it’s also time for monsters to shine! From silly to scary, this roundup is full of Halloween-ready tales to share with kids.
Pumpkins are round … right? Well, not always! The Spookley books are really popular with kids, and there are so many fun (and educational) ways to use them in the classroom. Check out our roundup and activity ideas to learn more.
When you don’t have time for a whole book, short stories are the way to go. In short fiction, writers have to make good use of every word to capture the mood and draw readers into the tale. That makes this format perfect for horror and suspense tales, like the ones in our roundup.
Looking for some ways to bring the spooky season to your ELA classroom? We’ve got you covered! These activities help kids learn and polish their reading and writing skills.
Hang a Halloween word wall
Add a new word to your wall every day, or spend the whole month using spelling and vocab words from our huge list (225+) of Halloween words.
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Give fairy tales a Halloween twist
How would the story have changed if Little Red Riding Hood were a werewolf, or it turned out that Cinderella’s Prince Charming was a vampire? Challenge your students to think outside the box and give new (spooky) life to old fairy tales.
Hold a Monster Adopt-athon
This is part art project, part writing practice, and totally fun! First, kids draw a picture of their very own monster, any way they like. Then, they write up a description of the monster, including its favorite things, where it was born, and the proper care and feeding to keep it healthy. Finally, kids present their monsters to the class, and other students choose the ones they’d like to “adopt”!
Hop on pumpkin letters
Use our free pumpkin templates to create a Pumpkin Hop course. Simply write a letter on each and tape them to the floor. You can add obstacles in between if you like, or simply have kids jump from letter to letter saying the name and sound it makes as they go. We love this for active learners!
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Free Pumpkin Templates
Create a Pumpkin Hop with our templates! Kids can jump from letter to letter, calling out names and sounds.
Who would win in a fight: a vampire or a werewolf? Are kids ever too old to go trick-or-treating? What’s the best design for a jack-o’-lantern? Divide kids into teams and let them prepare their arguments using our free printable organizers. Then, hold a face-to-face debate or fishbowl discussion and let them (civilly) argue it out!
A ghostwriter helps someone else put their story into words (though they don’t usually receive any credit as an author). Pair students up, then challenge one to come up with the detailed plot for a spooky story, while the other “ghost writes” the story itself, adding description and dialogue as needed. This is the perfect writing activity to use with our free ghost templates!
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Compose a Halloween poem
If your students groan when you ask them to write a poem, you need our poem-writing worksheet bundle! This free collection will walk students through writing seasonal poems like limericks, odes, haiku, couplets, blackout poetry, and more.
This quick and easy free printable activity is great for helping kids learn how to alphabetize. You can also use this list for spelling or vocab words.
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Inspire with Halloween writing prompts
What is your favorite Halloween costume and why? Would you spend a night in a graveyard for $100? Why or why not? We have 18 more Halloween writing prompt ideas plus free printable writing paper for students to use!
One of the best ways to work on writing clearly and concisely is by asking kids to create a set of instructions on how to do something correctly. Let them choose from seasonal topics like “How To Carve a Pumpkin,” “How To Trick-or-Treat,” or “How To Create a Haunted House.” Bonus tip: Choose one or two essays to read aloud in class, trying out the directions to see how well they work!
Assemble a Halloween acrostic
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In an acrostic, the first letter of each line spells out a word or message. These are a lot of fun for kids to create, and we’ve made the process easier with our free printable worksheets!
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Cook up cauldron sentences
You’ll need a large plastic cauldron for this activity (and if you like, a big mixing spoon and a witch’s hat!). Ask each student to write a Halloween-themed word or phrase on a piece of paper and toss it into your cauldron. Mix up all the “ingredients,” then draw them out one at a time and ask kids to use each one in a sentence. For more of a challenge, try to incorporate each sentence into a larger story.
Complete a Halloween vocab worksheet
Here’s another simple, no-fuss Halloween printable activity you can use anytime you need it. The vocab words are ideal for the elementary crowd.
Writing messages in code takes some patience and creativity, but it’s so much fun to receive and decode them. Use our free printables to help kids practice writing and cracking codes, then have them send messages to each other through a classroom post office box decorated with ghosts!
Picture prompts give writers a lot to work with: They can help set a plot in motion, create an atmosphere or mood, and inspire writers to include more details in their work. Take a look at our big collection of picture writing prompts to find some for the spooky season, or browse the web to find the perfect picks for your class.
Write a persuasive essay about the best Halloween candy
Kids have a LOT of opinions when it comes to this topic, and it makes a fun, low-stakes topic for learning how to write a persuasive essay. You can also have them make the case for their favorite scary movie or the best Halloween costume. Plus, we’ve got graphic organizers to help them get started!
Give your science and math lessons a bit of seasonal flair with these fun Halloween learning ideas.
Work on Halloween-themed math word problems
There are so many spooky situations that could easily be turned into math word problems. Our collection includes free slides you can share with your students. Try using them as problems of the day all throughout October.
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Sort flash cards into pumpkins
Pick up some plastic pumpkin buckets and label them with flash card answers. Then, see how quickly students can sort flash cards into the right ones!
Use candy corn for Halloween math activities
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Pick up a few bags of candy corn and grab our free printables, then engage your students in meaningful Halloween math activities, from matching to multiplication.
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Solve spider equations
Cut one large and one small circle from black construction paper to form a spider’s body and head. (Don’t forget the googly eyes for fun!). Then, cut and attach eight strips for legs. Use white crayons or chalk markers to write a target number in the middle of each spider. Finally, have kids brainstorm various equations that equal the target, and write them on the legs. For instance, if the target number is 8, kids could write 5 + 3, 4 x 2, 32 ÷ 4, etc. This is a fun way to work on fact families too.
Color Halloween math mystery pictures
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Solve the equations and color the pictures. We love this free printable worksheet as an enrichment activity or Halloween week homework assignment.
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Brew up some math potions
For this fun Halloween early math activity, you’ll need a plastic cauldron and “ingredients” like colorful pom-poms, plastic spiders, googly eyes, etc. Make up a set of “potion” cards with recipes like “3 spiders, 2 red pom-poms, 5 green pom-poms, and 5 eyes.” Little ones drop the correct ingredients into the cauldron and give it all a stir. This is such a fun way to practice counting!
Color in a Halloween coordinate grid picture
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Teach coordinate grids for math or geography. Use the given coordinates to color in the squares and reveal a Halloween picture. Kids can also create their own pictures and give coordinates to their classmates.
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Take a candy survey and graph the results
Survey your class to determine what their favorite trick-or-treat candies are. Then, use the results to make graphs: bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, etc. This makes a fun homework assignment too: Ask kids to survey 20 people and create their own graph.
Tackle a Halloween STEM challenge or two
Our collection of free printable cards is perfect for grades 2 to 5, though older kids will enjoy them too. Challenges include options like “Build a spiderweb out of pipe cleaners,” “Make a brain with play dough,” and “Build a bone bridge with Q-tips.”
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Make ghosts “dance” with static electricity
This simple little demo is so much fun! Cut small ghosts from white tissue paper, and blow up an orange or black balloon. Show kids how to rub the balloon on the right type of surface to create static electricity, then hold it over the ghosts to draw them up and make them dance.
Explode a pumpkin volcano
Carve a jack-o’-lantern, then use baking soda and vinegar to make it overflow with “lava.” Kids never get tired of this one! Get all the directions you need in our video.
Put a Halloween spin on this traditional STEM project. Give kids wood craft sticks, rubber bands, plastic bottle caps, and some glue. Then, challenge them to build a catapult that will launch candy pumpkins into a target.
Mix up some Halloween slime
Kids LOVE slime. Fortunately, it makes a really fun science experiment, and you can give it a Halloween twist with food coloring and mix-ins like googly eyes or pumpkin mini-erasers. Get four different slime recipes plus worksheets for the classroom at the link.
Ask kids to do some research about bats, and make a list of their favorite facts. Then, cut out bats from black construction paper and use white crayons or chalk markers to write in the facts. Turn one of your bulletin boards into a cave with some gray paper, and hang your bats for a truly fun and educational Halloween display!
Explore the pumpkin life cycle
Pumpkins take a long time to grow, and it’s not really practical to try this in a classroom (unless you’ve got a school garden, of course). Instead, watch our free video on the pumpkin life cycle to help kids learn more about it. And if you’ve got a strong stomach, you can try leaving a carved pumpkin out in the elements to watch it decompose!
Use the same principles and method from our dancing popcorn video to see gummi worms twitch and writhe instead! Mix baking soda with water and drop in some candy worms. Then, slowly pour in vinegar and watch as the carbon dioxide bubbles make the candy rise and fall. Creepy and cool!
Here’s one more baking soda and vinegar experiment you can easily turn into a Halloween science activity. Follow the instructions in the video. Use orange balloons, and before you attach them to the bottle, use a black permanent marker to draw a jack-o’-lantern face on them. It’s so exciting to watch the pumpkin balloons expand like magic (except it’s science, which is even better)!
These games make terrific choices for a class Halloween party, and they’re fun to play at home too!
Halloween Bingo
Everybody knows it, everybody loves it! Use our free printable Halloween bingo boards for a class-wide game. Each kid gets to cut out the cards and place them anywhere they like on their card, so no two boards will be the same!
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Ghost and pumpkin bowling
Collect 10 empty plastic bottles and paint them white, then add ghostly faces. Line them up as pins. Use an orange ball (you can use a black permanent marker to add a jack-o’-lantern face if you like) to knock them down!
Freeze Dance, Halloween style
Start the music and dance, dance, dance! When the music stops, freeze in place. Anyone still moving is out for that round. Play until just one dancer is left standing. Our spooky Halloween playlist has all the tunes you’ll need!
Give this challenge a seasonal spin by adding ghosts faces to white paper cups. Give each player 10 cups in a stack, and ask them to stack them into a pyramid and then back down into a stack as fast as they can. If the pyramid falls over, they have to start again. This one is always a crowd favorite!
Pin the spider on the web
Draw a spiderweb on your whiteboard, and give each student a paper spider with tape or a magnet on the back. One at a time, blindfold the players, start them about 10 feet from the board, and spin them around three times. Their goal is to make their way to the board and get the spider as close to the middle of the spiderweb as possible.
Witch hat ring toss
Grab some small plastic cones from the dollar store. Paint them black and add some silver or gold buckles with a paint pen, so they look like witch’s hats. Line them up and see if kids can toss rings around them to win a prize.
Halloween Make-a-Word
This one is fun and simple: How many words can you make using the letters in HALLOWEEN? Grab our free printable to make this game even easier.
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Wrap the Mummy race
Break kids into pairs, and give each pair a roll of toilet paper. At the word “Go,” one player wraps the other in toilet paper as fast as they can, turning the player into a “mummy.” When they’re fully wrapped, the mummy races for the finish line.
Ghost and pumpkin hunt
Print and cut out ghosts and pumpkins from our free printables, then hide them around the room. Divide players into two teams, Ghosts and Pumpkins. Each team works together to try to find all of their ghosts or pumpkins first.
It’s a snap to give these classic games a Halloween twist when you use our free printable Halloween word lists! Whether kids want to act it out or draw it, we’ve got hundreds of words you can use for these games.
Make or buy orange beanbags, and draw jack-o’-lantern faces on them with permanent marker or a paint pen. Line up some buckets (pumpkin trick-or-treat containers or plastic witch’s cauldrons make this extra fun), then give each player a chance to toss as many as they can into the targets. Tip: Add different point totals to the buckets to give the game a bit of a strategic element.
Pro-tip: Use our free templates to make the most impressive pumpkin carvings for your classroom. If you’d like to carve pumpkins with students as a class activity, consider using artificial mess-free craft pumpkins for a keepsake kids can display for years to come.
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Draw a pumpkin
Use our free video to teach students how to draw a pumpkin. Once kids have this skill down, they can include pumpkins in all their Halloween art projects! Try having students draw their own pumpkin patches, adding their own creative flair.
Draw a monster, but let the dice make the hard decisions! Roll a single die or pair of dice to determine how many of each of these body parts to include: head, arm, leg, eye, ear, mouth, nose, finger, and toe. This is a clever way to sneak some counting practice into art time.
Beaded pipe cleaner pumpkins
You’ll need orange and green pipe cleaners and pony beads for this Halloween craft. Take four orange pipe cleaners and twist them together in the middle, then fan them out so you have eight “spokes” of a wheel. String orange beads onto each spoke, then curve them up to meet in the middle, forming a pumpkin shape. Twist the ends to hold them in place, then add a green pipe cleaner with beads for a stem, and some green curlicues if you like.
Jack-o’-lantern lacing plates
This cute craft also provides excellent fine motor skills practice. Use a hole punch to punch even-spaced holes around the edges of orange plastic disposable plates. Cut out jack-o’-lantern faces from black construction paper and glue them in the middle. Give kids orange yarn and show them how to lace the yarn in and out of the holes.
Halloween painted rocks
You’ll need river rocks, craft paint, and brushes (or paint markers) for this creative Halloween activity. Decorate rocks to look like ghosts or jack-o’-lanterns, or paint them with spooky messages and pictures of witches, monsters, vampires, and more.
Drinking-straw skeletons
Cut white paper drinking straws into smaller pieces for “bones.” Give each student a handful, along with some black construction paper and glue. Ask them to create a skeleton in any pose they like, gluing it in place. For a fun expansion on this project, skip the construction paper and glue and use pipe cleaners instead. Kids string the “bones” onto the pipe cleaners, putting them together to form poseable skeletons.
Cotton ball ghosts
Try this cute activity with younger classes. Print and cut out our free ghost templates using white card stock. Spread the ghosts with a thin layer of glue, then have kids glue cotton balls in place to fill in the shape. When they’re finished, attach ghost faces made of construction paper.
Lite Brite pumpkins
Raid an old Lite Brite set for the colorful plastic pegs. Use a skewer to poke holes in a hollowed-out pumpkin (for a mess-free option, use craft pumpkins instead), and drop a battery-operated light inside. Push the pegs into the holes to create all sorts of spooky designs.
Yarn tassel ghosts
These ghosts are so easy to make! Cut a piece of cardboard about 5 inches wide, and wrap white yarn around it at least 20 times. Use a small piece of yarn to tie the top loops of yarn together, then slide the yarn off the cardboard. Tie a second small piece of yarn about an inch below the top to form the head. Finally, cut the yarn loops apart at the bottom and trim them if needed. Glue on small black beads for eyes and mouth, then hang your spooky creations!
More Halloween Activities for the Classroom
Rock your own Halloween costume
Courtesy of Gabriella S.
Need some creative ideas for Halloween costumes? Check out our roundups for inspiration from real We Are Teachers readers!
Watch Halloween movies
These kid-friendly picks are the perfect way to finish out Halloween in your classroom. Everything here is a no more than a little bit spooky or scary, but you’ll definitely want to watch in advance to make sure your choice is appropriate for your audience.
Set up an artificial “campfire” in your classroom using orange and yellow streamers attached to a box fan lying flat on the floor. Turn out the lights and give everyone flashlights instead, then gather around the “fire” and tell scary stories. Check out our free collection to get things started!
We Are Teachers
Dig into Halloween sensory bins
Assemble sensory bins full of the sights, sounds, scents, and textures of Halloween. Include some of these: popcorn or rice dyed orange and black; black beans; slime; cooked spaghetti noodles; water dyed orange and black; cinnamon sticks; candy corn; candy pumpkins; letter beads or magnets spelling “Halloween;” mini-erasers of ghosts, pumpkins, etc.; plastic spider rings; large googly eyes; plastic skeletons; mini pumpkins or cauldrons for scooping; or Halloween-themed confetti.
Create a Halloween escape room
This one takes some dedication, but your students will absolutely love it! Our free printables will walk you through the process step-by-step. If you’re not up for crafting your own puzzles, buy a ready-made escape room game (there are plenty of them available), then add your own decorations to customize it for your class.
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