"Help! I need a standalone lesson!"

Have you ever just needed a one-off, one class period activity because that's just the way the timing worked? That happened to me the day after Spring Break. Because of the absolutely absurd "block" schedule my school has, I needed, essentially, a sponge lesson to use up a single class period before we were ready to start our next whole-class novel, Fahrenheit 451.

And I am just not the kind of teacher who can say "Have a free period." or "You can use this as a study hall." Because, let's be honest, both of those are terrible options.

Besides, what I did instead was way more engaging-6 Word Stories.

And I added the ever-popular activity of writing on the desk with an Expo marker. (This never fails to get them eager to actually write!)

I started my introducing them to the Hemingway 6-word story- For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn. Then I shared a few more examples I found online and we discussed what makes a 6-word story effective.

Next, I showed this super helpful sub-4 minute video, which shows 8 illustrations that the inspire the students to write a 6-word story to describe what's going on.

We took time to share out favorite stories and I pushed kids to replace words, remove prepositions, and add a twist.

Finally, since it was the day after Spring Break, I had them write a 6-word story to sum up their vacation. Here are some examples:

• Stayed home. Friends gone. Certified screenager.

• Long flight and island life. Sunburn.

• Visited my grandparents. Did unpaid labor.

Of course, you could have them write their own examples about literally anything. School lunches, life as a [insert grade level here], favorite book, dream job. Seriously, it works for any topic.

If you want to give this a try, here is a DIRECT link to my slide deck, which has the YouTube video we used to inspire their 6-word stories.

And, yes, it's totally free. Just felt like sharing this in case you also need a sponge lesson on a random day.

Happy teaching and learning and making every class period matter.