This activity encourages young writers to identify the rules in their own poems and to then experience the joy of either smashing the rules outright or finding a graceful way to reimagine them.

In this Spark, students will pretend to be their favorite food and write about what that food would do on an average day.

In this activity, students illustrate a favorite word and explore what makes words meaningful through illustration, research, and discussion.

Writing can be a powerful tool when working through feelings of grief, sadness, or anger. This Spark creates an intentional opportunity for youth to write and speak about what is on their minds.

In this Spark, students will play a game of bingo to improve their poems!

In this Spark, students will use backward thinking to create a four-panel comic strip story using the backward problem-solving skills of software developers.

Students will write a personal narrative where they describe themselves as a place. Not a specific place, but all the things a "place" consists of.

Students will define the word “ode” for themselves and identify the people and moments in their lives they’d like to celebrate in a poem.

This Spark provides students with the opportunity to get to know their classmates by sharing personal stories about a specific topic.

In this Spark, students will write an acrostic poem that can be used as a tool to introduce themselves to their classmates.

Nouns, adjectives, adverbs—and in this case—verbs are the building blocks of super sentences. In this Spark, students share action words that bring them joy and incorporate those verbs into a story.

In this Spark, students will learn more about voice: what it is exactly, and how to name the elements of it.

After writing about their personal and social identities, students discover that sometimes what makes us unique is what brings us together.

In this lesson, students tackle the art of writing authentic dialogue that reveals information about the characters, plot, and conflict.

This Spark uses students’ favorite things to support their persuasive writing practice.

In this activity, students write about a cause they are passionate about and imagine how they can create change in the world.

By combining two classic games, students will learn how storytelling and art can build community or help them break through writer’s block.

Writing can be a powerful tool when working through feelings of grief, sadness, or anger. This Spark creates an intentional opportunity for youth to write and speak about what is on their minds.

In this session, students will write haikus that includes two perspectives, one of a hero and one of an engineer, to design a secret lair for a superhero.

In this activity, students create original monsters in archetypal protagonist and antagonistic roles by focusing on internal and external characteristics.

In this Spark, students will write a poem that engages the reader in answering the question: Can you guess this food?

Students will imagine (and write about) their own fantastical worlds, using the cover illustrations of magazines as inspiration.

In this lesson students will work together to revise a scene from a first draft by adding descriptive details.

Students will write a poem about nature using sensory details to capture the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feeling of the subject.

In this Spark, students will play a game of bingo to improve their narrative writing.

In this twist on a classic game, students will practice intentional inclusivity with their classmates, as well as brainstorm other ways to continue building community throughout the school year.

What are students made of? This activity prompts students to reimagine recipes and write about their life experiences.

Students identify the power of imagery in poetry, then practice putting this power to use in a poem about their neighborhood.

Candy hearts are a Valentine’s Day staple, with their funny—even punny—sayings about love. In this Spark, students will lean into the world of youth slang to write some “sweet” sayings of their own.

Author bios offer students another opportunity to express themselves through writing and to feel like a real author. This Spark walks students through the process of writing one.

A fun, free-writing task which challenges students to take cheesy pop lyrics and make them into their own original poems.

Students reflect on what it feels like to stand up to bullying and write about a time when they used their voice to make a difference.

Students teach a "pirate" how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and learn how to give effective instructions in the process.

In this activity, students explore Instagram as a form of public rhetoric and practice using hashtags as a way to engage with larger communities.

This spark activity is designed to get your students on their feet while reinforcing the need for strong dialogue in narratives.

In this Spark, students will explore the many ways you can connect to a poem.

A BINGO board full of fun, engaging writing prompts to keep skills sharp over the summer break!

Students experiment with alternative ways of writing poetry by reordering and rearranging pre-existing text.

Students use illustrations as entry points to write stories about friendship from a new perspective.

Students will learn to be empathetic towards those who are different by brainstorming scary characteristics of specific monsters and then developing more positive aspects to their nature.

This activity reinforces the role of dialogue in a story, with students creating realistic conversation in A-Z fashion.

In this Spark, students put on their detective hats and sleuth out places to add more details into their writing.

Students enter a Writing Laboratory, no lab coats required, and use methods of observation to embark on their writing process.

Students write similes to express what their emotions feel like and build plans to treat others with kindness and empathy.

In this Spark, students will develop a setting that captures the environment of an alternate world.

Students plot significant memories on a timeline in this reflective writing activity.

Invite students to write freely with this lesson that includes directions for students to set up a writer's journal and favorite journal prompts.

These 10 prompts ask students to browse the 826 Digital Student Writing Gallery for writing inspiration.

Students will be asked to take an existing 4-panel comic and create their own dialogue. This is a fun quick activity or warm-up exercise that will challenge students to write efficiently.

Students learn to incorporate setting as a key element of a story, starting with inspiration from collages.

Students will imagine what they would do if they were someone or something else.

Students will use their knowledge of popular music to learn basic computer programming concepts.

Students pose questions to the magic 8 ball in this activity centered on character motivation.

Students play a spin-off version of Balderdash in this activity, working as budding archeologists who must use the power of observation to solve a few artifact mysteries.

Students are inspired to write about a time that they felt accepted and appreciated for who they are.

With a little folding and loads of creativity, students make their own zines that feature abstract recipes.

This activity explores the way emotions change how we perceive settings. Students work in groups to create descriptions of apartments based on an emotion they draw from a hat.

Nouns, adjectives, verbs—and in this case—adverbs are the building blocks of super sentences. In this Spark, students will practice identifying and using adverbs in their writing.

In this activity, students practice analyzing a character’s internal motivations and fears and develop their own original characters.

In this activity, students work as budding archeologists and creatively reimagine ways for archaeologists and historians to use artifacts to tell stories.

Students draw inspiration from powerful change-makers to write celebratory, haiku poetry.

Students discuss the 2021 inaugural poem by Amanda Gorman and write their own poems in response to "The Hill We Climb."

To jumpstart their own poems, students take inspiration from the poetry of the others.

This Spark introduces students to the fantastical world of Flood City and prompts them to write a journal entry from the perspective of a Flood City resident.

In this activity, students will explore superhero traits or superpowers that they know or admire. What kind of jobs do they do? How do their powers help them achieve this?

Engage young writers of any age at home with this collection of 826 Digital writing prompts and activities.

In this activity, students will examine narrative structure, explore the purpose and practice of myths, and put the two together to create their own original piece.

Challenge students to rewrite a classic nursery rhyme with a twist.

Students will identify their favorite sensory memories and transfer them to a visual heart map.

This activity prompts students to write words unspoken, in letters undelivered.

The Character-O-Matic is a writing tool that helps students to create new characters. In this lesson, students will use it to create a character profile that reflects their own identies.

Students will anthropomorphize an inanimate object to produce interview questions and answers.

In this activity, students draw upon inspiration from existing text and the world around them to launch stories of their own.

We are all parts of a whole, just like a pizza! In this Spark, students will think about all the things that make them who they are and then write a poem in the shape of a pizza.