Ohio Blizzard Bags for 5th Grade: A Printable ELA Pack
Ohio Blizzard Bags for 5th Grade: A Printable ELA Pack
Need a 5th grade blizzard bag that is more than busywork? The Grade 5 ELA Pack ($13.99) gives you grammar, structured writing prompts, phonics and morphology, and two reading stories to print and send home. It is a solid base for the paper make-up days some Ohio districts use after calamity days run out, and you do not have to write a page yourself.
Open the Grade 5 ELA PackThe Grade 5 ELA Pack is a $13.99 download with five Grade 5 resources: a grammar pack on parts of speech, sentence types and punctuation, structured writing prompts, phonics and morphology word study, and two reading comprehension stories, The Secret Garden Door and Mia and the Magic Kite. Separately the five cost $19.95. It prints easily, which is exactly what a paper blizzard bag needs.
The resources
Grade 5 ELA Pack, Grade 5
5 resources in one download: $13.99 instead of $19.95 bought separately.
Start with the first resource; the others are optional add-ons. Open any cover for the full contents and price.
Grade 5 ELA Pack | Grammar, Writing Prompts, Phonics & Two Reading Stories
Grade 4 ELA Pack | Grammar, Writing Prompts, Phonics, Reading & Vocabulary
Grade 6 ELA Pack | Grammar, Writing Prompts, Word Study & Reading
Grades 1–6 Literacy Skills Curriculum | Grammar, Writing, Phonics & Reading Packs for Every Grade
The real problem
Why 5th grade blizzard bags take more thought
Ohio districts have long relied on calamity days for snow and ice closures. Under the state's make-up rules, districts that opted in could use online lessons or paper blizzard bags for up to three make-up days once their calamity days ran out. Ask your building office whether your district uses that option for 2026–27 and what it expects in each bag. The bag itself is the hard part. You fill it weeks ahead without knowing whether it will be opened in January or March, so it cannot depend on last week's lesson. Fifth graders can work longer on their own than younger students, but they stall fast on open writing tasks with no frame, and a reading page with no real text behind it turns into guessing. A good 5th grade bag holds a story worth reading, questions tied to it, a writing task with clear structure, and word work that needs no explanation. It should also come back in a form you can check quickly.
Why it fits
What goes into a Grade 5 bag from this pack
The five parts split cleanly across up to three blizzard bags, with some material left over for class.
- The Secret Garden Door gives one bag a full reading text with comprehension questions on paper.
- Mia and the Magic Kite supplies a second story, so two bags each get their own reading.
- Grade 5 Writing Prompts are built as structured practice, which helps students write without you there.
- Phonics and morphology word study adds quiet practice that parents rarely need to explain.
- The grammar pack on parts of speech, sentence types and punctuation fills the skill page in each bag.
- All five parts download together, so one print run stocks every bag for the whole class.
Getting started
Packing three bags in one afternoon
One possible split, offered as a suggestion. Match it to your district's make-up plan and to what your principal wants inside each bag.
- Bag 1: The Secret Garden DoorStory, questions and one grammar page. Starting with a reading text gives students something concrete to do first, and the grammar page is short enough to finish even if the story runs long.
- Bag 2: Mia and the Magic KiteThe second story with its questions, plus a phonics and morphology page. Students who finished bag 1 already know the routine, so this one usually goes more smoothly at home.
- Bag 3: a writing dayChoose one structured writing prompt and pair it with grammar practice on punctuation. A writing bag works well later in the season, after students have had more writing practice in class.
- Number the bags and send them earlyMark bags 1, 2 and 3 rather than dates, since you cannot know when they will be opened. Send them home after winter break or keep them in desks for a closure announced the night before.
- Collect and close the loopWhen school reopens, collect the bag and spend a few minutes discussing the story. Keep the remaining prompts and pages for ELA review later in the spring.
What to buy
Grade 5 pack or a neighboring grade?
Most 5th grade teachers need only the Grade 5 ELA Pack at $13.99, whose parts total $19.95. If part of your class needs easier work, the Grade 4 ELA Pack ($13.99) is the step down, with its own story, The Mystery of the Missing Map. Advanced readers can take bags built from the Grade 6 ELA Pack ($10.99, parts $14.96), which adds academic word study with roots and prefixes. Intervention teachers and anyone with a split class should look at the Grades 1–6 Literacy Skills Curriculum: $49.99 for 24 packs that would cost $95.76 separately.
Honest limits
Before you count on it for make-up days
The pack is a general Grade 5 resource. It was not written for Ohio, contains no Ohio standards codes and says nothing about calamity days, so compare it with your district's ELA standards and its make-up plan yourself. You decide what goes into each bag, add a cover note and handle the copying. The license is for your own class; a grade team sharing one copy should send Teach Lessons a short message first. If it is not what you need, you can exchange it within 7 days for store credit of equal value. There is no cash refund.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Does the pack meet Ohio standards or count for make-up days?
The pack is not aligned to, endorsed by or approved under Ohio's ELA standards, and no product decides whether a day counts. Your district's make-up plan and the state rules decide that, and they can change from year to year. Check the pages against the standards your district uses and ask your principal what a blizzard bag must contain.
Is 5th grade too old for blizzard bags?
Not at all, and they are often the easiest age for it. Fifth graders can handle longer independent work than younger students, which makes paper bags realistic. The key is structure: a story with its own questions and writing prompts that come with a frame keep them working without a teacher to ask.
How many bags can I make from one pack?
The pack is not divided into bags, so it depends on how much you put in each. With two stories, a set of writing prompts, grammar and word study, three solid bags is a reasonable plan, and there is usually material left over for class review or a fourth bag if your district asks for one.
Can students do it on a tablet instead?
The materials work for print and digital classrooms, so you can share pages through your school's usual platform if your district runs online make-up lessons. For a paper bag, print them. Either way, keep the files inside your class and off public sites, since the license covers your own teaching only.
When does the download arrive?
Right after checkout, by email, with a copy saved under Orders in your account. If a closure comes earlier than planned, you can still print that evening, though copying for a whole class is much easier during a planning period in December, before the season starts.
Can my grade-level partner use my copy?
Each license covers one teacher's own teaching. If your 5th grade team wants to build everyone's bags from one pack, send Teach Lessons a short message first and ask about team use. At $13.99 a pack, each teacher buying a copy is also a simple option.
Pack the bags before the first calamity day
Open the Grade 5 ELA Pack, read the two stories and the prompts, and print your three bags while the weather is still mild.
Open the Grade 5 ELA Pack