Lesson Introduction| Learning Activities| Discussion Questions

Literature 3–6

Most sections of this lesson can be taught in one to two class periods and can be repeated on a regular basis.

Lesson Introduction
The focus for language arts students in grades 3–5 is to develop their writing skills based on content area reading.

Write the Caption
Use our humorous and thought-provoking photos to inspire creative writing.

1. Go to Scholastic News Online and go to the "Games and Quizzes" section. Click on "Write the Caption."
2. Have students study the featured photo and write a caption for it in the space provided. Captions can be funny, creative, or simply a guess about what's going on in the photo.
3. Students can click on "Preview Caption" to see how their caption looks under the photo. If they are satisfied, they click on "Send Your Caption" to submit their work. If they would like to make changes, they can click on the "Back" button.
4. Check back the following week to see if your class's captions were selected for posting. At this time, students can also read the real caption to learn what was really happening in the photo.
5. When students spot a photo on the site that grabs their attention, encourage them to use the picture as a jumping-off point for a short story.

1. Have each student get a blank notebook or loose leaf binder to use as a news journal.
2. Have students select one story each week to write about in their journals. If you'd like, provide a list of writing prompts to get students started. These might include:
   • Who is affected most by this event? How might this news event affect you and your family?
   • What surprised you about the news story?
   • If this is an ongoing news event, what do you predict will happen next?
3. Collect students' journals and write notes back to your students. In your comments, you might ask additional questions, remark on students' original ideas, encourage students to try out a different perspective, or spur them to think more critically about the story.

1. Direct students to "Scholastic News Hangman" on the "Games and Quizzes" section.
2. Have students play the three different versions:
   Scholastic News Hangman
   Movies, TV, Music Hangman
   Sports Hangman
   Students can play multiple times until they have completed all the words. As they play Hangman, students can keep a score sheet of how many words they guessed and how many letters it took before they guessed the words.
3. Once they are confident in the game, have students create individual spelling/vocabulary tests. Students should exchange their test with another student to take and return the filled-out test to be graded.

Create a Seasonal Postcard as a creative story starter. Direct students to the postcard maker. Encourage them to look at some postcards created by other students as examples, then create their own. Direct them to create the design first and then write a story that matches the postcard. Have students print a copy of the postcard before submitting it for online publication.

Extend this activity

Have students write creative short stories based on their postcard image. You can post the image and the story on a class bulletin board.

Subscriber Advantage: Grammar and Mechanics
With so many opportunities for putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, Scholastic News Online also helps students with the nuts and bolts of writing. Here's how to find help with word choice, spelling, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, and more.

1. Log on to the Storyworks page of Scholastic News Online.
2. Click on "Sentence Chef" for tips on constructing sentences and paragraphs.
3. Click on "Grammar Cop" for PDF reproducibles on using homophones, spelling, contractions, possessives, verb tense, and other language-arts topics. With a large menu of activities to choose from, you can have each student practice on the skill that is most challenging to him or her.

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