Today's Classroom Activities :

Rebus Writing

Reading the Rebus
Reading Collect several rebus stories from children's magazines in your library. Read several to and with your students. Then ask the children to cut pictures out of magazines or catalogs that they could use in a rebus story. Provide construction paper hearts on which to affix the pictures. In group time, write your students' stories on chart paper.

Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme
Students are first introduced to a variety of books using rebus writing. They then brainstorm lists of rhyming words that they could use in their own rebus poems. Finally, students create their own rebus poems and share them with an audience. This lesson uses Jean Marzollo's book I Love You: A Rebus Poem as a model for using rebus writing to create wonderful poetry; however, any of the rebus books included on the accompanying book list would be appropriate for this activity. This makes a wonderful Valentine activity, although it is certainly not limited to that holiday.

Colorful Creative Writing Rebus
Students read rebus samples from various sources, write poems about colorful places, including detailed descriptions of people, scenery, and objects. Then they can create small, relevant illustrations to communicate meaning using symbols in place of words.

Solve the Rebus Puzzles
Challenge your students to solve a series of rebus puzzles in this brain teaser printable.

Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Hieroglyphs
This lesson introduces students to the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world, and through tomb paintings.