Starting Stories

Hi Peeps!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I spent past of the day with my family, catching up with my sister (the first time I've seen her since August- when she went away to college). We actually spent a lot of time watching flash mob videos on Youtube (she hadn't seen The Big Bang Theory's one and I showed it to her).

I've also been stocking my wishlist at a certain nameless website, waiting for Cyber Monday ;).

And I've been cutting out the monstrous load of cardstock that I've printed out (CC I Can Statements, Math centers for the next few weeks, and Math vocab). I think I printed out a little over 100 sheets, so you can imagine how my fingers are feeling!

Last week when we were working on Writing, I did this really cool activity from  Lesson Plan SOS Ultimate Writing Resource (It is super helpful  and I would totally recommend buying it during the sale (That's what I did last year!) Well worth the price!).

It had the elements of the story, and just like their Pass the Pencil activity, the kids write something, fold it and pass it along.  I did the activity with them (I had asked them and they responded with a resounding Yes!).

The characters I had were a chicken monster, and Billy Bob Jr. My story's setting took place in a trash can. One of my interesting situations was getting robbed and the other was they gotten eaten by a lion. (My kids are kinda gory this year...).

After we passed everything around, I wanted to show them how to take the elements they had and create a story. I started to write on my chart, and then realized Duh! I have a SMART Board! (and I can type way faster that I can write neatly on chart paper :)

So I started my story on the SMART Board think aloud while I was writing to model for my students (which I really need to do  to more of...I just wish their was more time for writing (we only have a 90 minute ELA block and after the 30 minute whole group I have kids leaving at different times for different small group times...and they're not all back until it's almost time to leave).

Using the things I've been given, I started my story.

After that, I had the kids work form their worksheets to create their stories. A few of them were stuck, and a few of them finished really quickly. We'll work on that! ;)

Hopefully, this will help a few kids when they are struggling for an idea. We'll continue to work on stamina, and well as putting more detail into their stories.

Oh! and to go along with the Writing theme of this post, Tonya is giving away two sets of her monthly writing calendars!


Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn