Browse lesson plans

Dear Peter Rabbit

Students will identify formal language and sentence structures in friendly letters. They will use similar formal language and style to create friendly letters to other story book characters.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and Information Skills)

By Caroline Annas, Elizabeth Gibson, and Stephanie Johnson.

Love Letters: Using imagery to convey feelings

After listening to Arnold Adoff's Love Letters, students will write and share their own love letters. This lesson is especially fun around Valentine's Day.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts)

By Jennifer Reid.

Oedipus the King: Personal letter-writing assignment

Students will work in groups to evaluate the personality of various characters from Oedipus the King. Each student will write two personal letters in the role of one character from the play responding to the events of the play and the various relationships within it.

Format: lesson plan (grade 10 English Language Arts)

By Greg Townsend.

ABCs by the week

This is an ongoing series of lessons to teach the 26 letters of the alphabet through functional skills that can be used on a daily/weekly basis building on and transferring to other educational tasks. These lessons incorporate coloring, marking, painting, cutting, pasting, creating, listening and following directions.

Format: lesson plan (grade K English Language Arts)

By Karen Dawsey and Sherry Waters.

Career research and writing

In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.2

In this lesson for grade seven, students will learn about a career that interests them and then share what they learned in peer groups. Students will then write a letter to the Better Business Bureau stating why they should be given an internship in their chosen career.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)

By Michelle Kimel.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett, Anissia Jenkins, and Sonya Rexrode.

Dear Juana: Editing a letter

In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.3

In this lesson for grade seven, students will discuss the importance of proofreading and editing in various careers. The teacher will model proofreading and editing a sample letter, and then the students will write and peer-edit their own letters.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)

By Anissia Jenkins.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.

Directed reading lesson: Dear Mr. Blueberry

This plan is a directed reading/thinking activity for the book Dear Mr. Blueberry with questioning and a follow-up written activity that focuses on the story elements. Another activity involves discussing facts about whales in the story and, then, finding other facts about whales that are used for a writing activity.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–3 English Language Arts)

By Candace Hall.

Geography centers

A geography unit in which students investigate and compare their hometowns and other cities. The unit incorporates nine centers: math, science, social studies, reading, writing, computers, puzzles and games, art, and listening. They all have activities that are integrated with the geography unit.

Format: lesson plan (grade 1–2 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)

By Laurie Perry.

George Washington and Frederick Douglass letters: Recognizing point of view and bias

In Where English and history meet: A collaboration guide, page 4

This lesson uses two letters written by famous individuals. Frederick Douglass, a well-known former slave who became a leader of the American abolition movement, escaped from slavery in Maryland to freedom in New York in 1838. George Washington was a large slaveholder in Virginia (as well as the first president of the United States).

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Karen Cobb Carroll, Ph.D., NBCT.

Giving can be fun

The purpose of this lesson is to incorporate the use of writing in a friendly letter format to foster the spirit of giving and sharing within the classroom. Using word processing, the students will create a friendly letter that will be shared with classmates in the spirit of giving and sharing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 English Language Arts)

By Sue Hunnicutt.

Grammar and editing

In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 1.4

In this lesson for grade six, students will learn about the conventions of grammar and will learn how to write and edit a business letter.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)

By Jennifer Brookshire and Julie McCann.

Hello, friend!: Writing a friendly letter

Students will apply their knowledge of a friendly letter to compose a letter to send to their pen pals. Students will then type up their letters using the Kidspiration program.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Computer/Technology Skills and English Language Arts)

By Kelly Norton.

Wish you were here!

Students apply their knowledge of vocabulary and writing skills along with art skills to create a postcard.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts and English Language Development)

By Maggie Harder.

Resources on the web

Dear Librarian: Writing a persuasive letter

In this lesson, students use online writing tools to plan and write a persuasive letter to their school librarian requesting new books be added to the library collection. After students have read Emily’s Runaway Imagination,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

E-pals around the world

This lesson from ReadWriteThink helps teachers select e-pals for their students and develop real-life writing and learning experiences for them. Students learn the format of a friendly letter and the parts of an e-mail message. With careful selection of... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

A genre study of letters with "The Jolly Postman"

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, The Jolly Postman is used as an authentic example to discuss letter writing as a genre. Students explore the letters to the storybook characters delivered by The Jolly Postman They then learn how... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

I'm gonna sit right down and write someone a letter

Through the vast online resources available from EDSITEment, you and your students can read the correspondence of the famous, the infamous and the ordinary, some of whom lived through extraordinary times. Use these fascinating letters as a starting point... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Letter poems deliver: Experimenting with line breaks in poetry writing

Students learn to demonstrate their understanding of line breaks and how format creates dramatic effect by writing their own letter poems. As a whole class, students use the Letter Poem Interactive tool, which demonstrates how to turn a letter into a poem... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Mail time! An integrated postcard and geography study

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students write to friends and family asking them to send picture postcards. This activity provides motivation for writing and reading and provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about maps as students discover where... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Teaching audience through interactive writing

This ReadWriteThink lesson supports young writers in learning about audience. Through interactive writing, students work together to create an invitation letter for a group of their peers. In addition, students work independently to create invitation letters... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink