For classrooms, libraries, and home
Ideas + Resources
Free guides, activities, and teaching ideas.
Start with a book or find what your readers need.
The last page
is just the
beginning.
What will your readers discover?
Select below to find activities, articles, and listening for your readers.
Find what your readers need
Writing + storytelling
Choose a download, read a teaching idea, or listen for inspiration. Check each activity’s book requirements before you begin.
Downloads + activities (8)
- Download the guide
Discussion + project guide
Ready-to-use creative activities help students see how stories work and start building their own.
Book-specific guide
Guide created by Debbie Gonzales
- Download the guide
Discussion + activity guide
Read, discuss, and write with Warning: Do Not Open This Book! and Please, Open This Book!.
Both named books
Guide created by Marcie Colleen
- Download the guide
Create Your Own Idea Jar
Collect characters, settings, and possibilities in an idea jar of your own.
Idea Jar printable
- Download the guide
Discussion, project + reader’s theater guide
Bring Idea Jar into writing, discussion, and collaborative storytelling.
Book-specific guide
Guide created by Debbie Gonzales
- Download the guide
Empowering Students with Picture Books
Explore voice, confidence, and creative expression. Includes I Don’t Draw, I Color!, Warning, Please, and books by Carmen Oliver.
Multi-book activity pack
- Download the guide
Emotional Memory / Mining Memory Activity Guide
Explore memory through art and writing with Lisa Rogers’s Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony and Beautiful Noise.
Uses named books by Lisa Rogers
- Download the guide
Improv Story + Heart Mapping Lesson Plans
Use collaborative storytelling and heart mapping to explore ideas, personal connections, and community.
Flexible storytelling activities
- Download the guide
Creative Writing Lesson Kit
Explore narrative structure and writing with picture books. Choose a narrative picture book that fits the lesson; examples include We Love Fishing!.
Requires a suitable narrative picture book
Teaching articles (5)
- Read the article
Build an idea incubator
Collect questions and possibilities that can grow into nonfiction writing.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Build writing confidence
Explore belonging and story structure through inclusive picture books.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Build voice and confidence
Creative picture-book activities that help students express themselves. Includes I Don’t Draw, I Color!, Warning, and Please.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Memory, art, and creative expression
Explore emotional learning, memory, and creative expression through picture books. Includes There Was a Hole.
Teaching article
- Read the article
Turn a picture book into a classroom activity
Find a starting point for extending picture-book reading into classroom activity.
Teaching article
Picture This listening (3)
- Open episode audio
Crafting Stories with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Explore picture books, chapter books, and writing lessons with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Unlock student creativity
Move beyond story time and explore classroom creativity through picture books.
Picture This podcast
- Open episode audio
Creativity with nonfiction picture books
Explore creative possibilities for teaching with nonfiction picture books.
Picture This podcast
Have a book in mind?
Select a title to find its guides and activities.
This Is a Good Story
A story worth building.
Discussion + project guide
Ready-to-use creative activities help students see how stories work and start building their own.
Book-specific guide
Download the guideGuide created by Debbie Gonzales
Also useful: activities to adapt
- Download the guide
Creative Writing Lesson Kit
Explore narrative structure and writing with picture books. Choose a narrative picture book that fits the lesson; examples include We Love Fishing!.
Requires a suitable narrative picture book
Start here. Take it further.
Need a more participatory read-aloud? Start with the first selection. Want readers to look more closely at illustrations? Try the second. Each article, activity, and episode works on its own.
Get everyone into the story.
- Read
- Create
- Listen
Look closer. Find a story.
- Read
- Create
- Listen
A newsletter from Adam
A story idea worth trying.
A resource worth saving.
Creative activities and useful discoveries for your classroom, library, or kitchen table—with ways to make them fit.
One short email each month. Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Read the sample issueA dragon withthe wrong job.
Newsletter signup is optional. Activities and downloads stay free.
School visits
From the page.Into your school.
Bring creativity, critical thinking, and storytelling to life with a visit built around your students.
Spark curiosity.Curiosity
Build creative thinkers.Creativity
Give ideas a voice.Confidence
School-visit planning
Planning an author visit?
For your principal or PTA
First, share the idea.
A one-page look at the student experience, classroom value and visit options.
Get the one-page overview PDF · 1 pageThen, plan the day.
The Complete Guide to Hosting Successful Author School Visits helps you prepare a visit around your students and goals.
Get the planning guide (PDF)