A plot idea is just the beginning when you want to write a book and these simple questions help you turn that idea into a complete story.
Help students plan and pre-write a narrative short story by following this blog post. Includes free graphic organizers and step-by-step directions.
When it time for kids to do some story writing, often it’s difficult for them to start because either they don’t know exactly how to organize their story or they don’t know what to write about. This FREE Story Writing Pack helps with both problems! *This free printable pack can be found towards the END of ... Read More about Story Writing Ideas for Kids {FREE Pack}
Comparing The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker to Dramatica Story Theory
A plot idea is just the beginning when you want to write a book and these simple questions help you turn that idea into a complete story.
When teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, there are so many writing skills to cover. They range from creating a sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end) to more difficult
When it time for kids to do some story writing, often it’s difficult for them to start because either they don’t know exactly how to organize their story or they don’t know what to write about. This FREE Story Writing Pack helps with both problems! *This free printable pack can be found towards the END of ... Read More about Story Writing Ideas for Kids {FREE Pack}
This guide gives you some tips on dropping hints of romance without explicitly stating it, or having your characters shout it from the rooftops.
Download a Free Roll-a-Story Writing Printable
There's a lot of things that you need to consider when writing stories. You can use any of these story outline templates to create a good piece of work.
Students can use this graphic organizer to map out their ideas for a story (short or long). This is made based on the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where and why). ...
Sometimes deleting a scene can be the best thing you can do for your project
These methods of outlining will help you create a novel outline that makes writing your first draft a breeze, whether it's your 1st or 10th time writing a book.
Okay--I think I have admitted this before but here I go again, I dislike teaching writing. {Gasp!} I know, shame on me. Such an important part of a day in the life of a first grader. I'm contributing my dislike of writing to not be such a great writer myself growing up. One of my .unstated. resolution's was to become a better writing teacher. Well, let me tell you...this week I have jumped right in! Seems like I just hadn't found a way(in the past) that fit me or my students. While I was going through my writing folder desperately searching for ideas, I found a sheet that gave me inspiration and my writing lessons were brought to fruition! We started off this week talking about "story starters" and how important it was to catch your readers attention in the first sentence or two of your story. The anchor chart *fanatic* that I am made this: Here are the books I used that had great beginnings to show examples of interesting ways to start a story. The next day we picked a character to write our story about and described it using my 'Describe a Snowman' bubble map. I told them I wanted them to use their imagination and be creative. I showed them a few different type of snowmen (from clipart I found) to get their little wheels spinning. Their creativity came to life and describing is what they did! Our next step was to talk about the parts of a story: beginning, middle, end. We discussed these concepts: Beginning=story starter, character and setting introduction. Middle=give your character a problem. Ending=solve the problem and end the story. They caught onto this SOOOOO much better than I ever imagined! I created a worksheet for them to record their thoughts. After completion, we talked about the AND Disease! They thought this was HILARIOUS!!! I wrote and example of something like this on the board: When I read it they {laughed and laughed and laughed}! They thought I was crazy for using the word AND so many times. They were surprised when I told them that --they-- were actually the ones who were consumed by this disease! I had them go back and edit their papers for the "and disease", capitalization and puncuation. Our final day of writing consisted of completing our final draft. I had them transfer their edited writing and complete it by drawing a picture. I was in ~AWE~ after reading most of their stories....had I really taught them step by step with my own ideas!? Heck yes, I felt like I had hit the jackpot!! We will be at it again this week creating a penguin story to go along with our penguin unit! I'm hoping the process will be a little bit more independent (fingers-crossed)! This teacher is all smiles : ) P.S. If you made it this far, you can click on all the above templates and pick them up in my TpT store for FREE!
Storytelling activities not only build imagination and creativity, but they can be a beneficial learning tool too! Great for the classroom.
I created a list of 365 story ideas for every storytelling medium possible: novels, screenplays, TV shows, plays, and even video games.
These methods of outlining will help you create a novel outline that makes writing your first draft a breeze, whether it's your 1st or 10th time writing a book.
Editor’s Note: The following article continues Johan Liedgren’s series on storytelling and its role in crafting narrative in design, advertising and film. On New Research Suggesting There Are Only …
Ask yourself these questions whenever you are contemplating new information, or looking to improve your critical thinking skills
Have you ever had the vibes of your story figured out but no plot? This post gives you an easy process to find out what actually happens in yor novel
Need a simple way to visualise your character arc? Print this worksheet + learn about Kurt Vonnegut's hilarious story shapes.
Download this FREE printable writing paper for kids - complete with 20 different style sheets, including dashed line for little kids and and regular line for older kids. Great for creative writing, handwriting practice, or writing stories and letters.
Inspire your second writers with this list of journal ideas and 2nd grade writing prompts shared by one of our Journal Buddies readers!
We talk a lot about using picture books in our teaching. I am wondering though if you are using wordless picture books in your lessons. If not, you are missing out on a great teaching resource. I try to incorporate wordless picture book in my lessons for a variety of lessons. picture source Well, besides the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words, there are plenty of other great reasons to incorporate wordless picture books in your teaching: -They lend themselves to any lesson you could think to teach. -They level the playing field in the class. Without text to contend with, you can still teach reading and writing skills/strategies to the whole class or mixed ability groups without needing to level. This is great for your lower performing students and your ELL friends. In fact, I find that my high ability students are often the ones that don't so as well with wordless book activities. They often like to stick to the text and want it to be "right." With wordless picture books, you have a lot of wiggle room which can make them uncomfortable. My lower performing students are often able to take the lead in these types of activities. -It sparks your friends imagination. Without text, you will be amazed at what they read into what they see. -You can use the same books across many grade levels depending on what you ask your friends to do with them. They aren't just for little kids! -A lot of the ways I use these books require my kids to be up and moving or working on the floor in small, cooperative groups. Anything different from seat work is always welcome! -These lessons also often require collaboration, conversation, and decision making as a class. I thought I would share with you some of the ways in which I have used wordless picture books in my classroom. Now, for each of the skills/strategies I list below, I have given an example of how you can teach it. However, there are a bazillion other ways you could teach these lessons. These are just some examples. You could expand the lesson or simplify it as you see fit or maybe you have your own idea on how to do it. Do what works for you! Sequencing -Copy all the pages of your book. Divide the pages into three parts; beginning, middle, and end. Give it to three groups. Each group sequences their pages. Then, bring the three groups together to decide the sequence of the three sections. Once they have decided, I tape the pages in order up around the room and we view the story from beginning to end. As a groups, they can make any last minute changes at this point. We then read the actual book and see if we sequenced the same way the author did. This is where the real lesson comes in. If there were no changes, you can discuss how they determined sequence. It's important for them to verbally justify their reasoning. If their sequence doesn't agree with the book, they have to defend their reasoning. I find that there are times when the sequencing my friends do really does make more sense than what is done in the actual book. It is in the discussions where I hear how my friends are applying sequencing skills. This is great for your ELL friends as it puts them on an equal playing field to the rest of the class as there is no text to struggle with, and still teaches them the skill. Many of the lessons that follow are great for your ELL friends for the same reason. This is also great for the lower grades if you use a simple book. They can organize simply for beginning, middle, and end. Inferencing & Predictions Without words, you must really analyze the story story through the illustrations. When reading the book with your friends, have them make predictions before the next page. Without text to cite, they really must apply some good inference reasoning. When you do this as you read the book, they are always in anticipation of turning the page to see if they were correct. Dialog & Mood Select a page or two that has two characters. What would those characters be saying in this situation? How do I write that dialog? Using just one page for this makes it a good quick hit for a mini-lesson. You can then give your friends another page to write the dialog in independent practice. This is a great way to have them practice crafting power sentences as it forces them to incorporate mood, which they must determine from what is happening in the illustration. You can also just use the illustrations to determine mood without having to write the sentences. In this case, the dconversation you have with your friends is critical. They need to explain how they determined mood. What in the picture gave you that idea? What are the characters doing? What is the setting? Did the illustrator use darker, moodier colors or brighter, happier colors? I find this same technique an excellent way to teach internal monologue. After reading the book with the class, I focus on a page that comes later in the story. At this point, there is something going on in the story, some conflict, so my friends have something to work with. We then focus on one character in the illustration. I ask my friends what this character might be thinking. What would his thought bubble say? We go on to discuss how internal monologue gives us insight to the characters, their feelings, motivations, etc. and how it can give us additonal information that we may not otherwise know. My friends then work in pairs to come up with internal monologue for different characters in the book or for the same character in different parts of the book. Without fail, I find after I do this lesson, my friends begin to incorporate internal monologue in their own writing. Character Analysis After reading the book, what do you know about the main character/protagonist? This really focuses your friends on a characters actions. Create a list of character traits with your friends. The lesson comes, again, in having your friends justify their choices. What makes them say the character is kind or frustrated or loving? You get the idea! Narrative Writing Obviously, there is no text in a wordless picture book. Have your friends write the story guided by the illustrations. This is a good way to teach or review narrative writing. You can write the story on chart paper as a shared writing activity. This way you can be sure to guide them in incorporating the required narrative elements. Or, you can always do this as a small group or independent writing assignment. I like doing it in small groups at the end of the narrative writing unit. I can see my friends applying what we have learned. Also, it is really a lot of fun when we read the stories from the different groups. While we all had the same illustrations to follow, the stories are always different. The plots vary, some go for humor while other groups are more serious. Some groups embellish beyond the pictures, while others pretty much stick to the pictures. Identify Plot Structure, Story Climax For this, I usually have my friends sequence the story first. Then, we discuss the story plot. Once we know what is happening in the story, my friends identify the story page that shows the climax of the story. We can then look at the pages before and after. If you have taped your story along the wall as we do, you can then move the pictures to show the plot mountain. picture source When you tape the pictures in a visual display on the wall, they can then use sentence strips to label the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. It is a very concrete, visual way to teach these elements. Main Idea & Supporting Detail If you've done either the sequencing or plot structure lessons above where you ordered the pages on the wall, you should try this lesson. Have your friends identify the page that essentially shows the maid idea. Once you are all in agreement, have them take down any pictures that don't support that main idea. You will be left with only pages that show events which support the main idea. Again, a very visual and concrete way to teach this skill. I would chart this with words. Write the main idea and then, looking at the pages, come up with a sentence for each supporting detail. I would also just suggest being particular about what book you use. Some wordless picture books tend to be very fanciful and imaginative. This works best with a book that follows a less imaginative, "real" story. Those are just some ideas for lessons you can teach with wordless picture books. Depending on your learning goal and what you require of your friends, I find them to be excellent books to use across all grade levels. In particular, your older students will really get a kick out of using them because it is so different from their norm. So, let's talk books. Wordless picture books can be hard to find if you don't know what you are looking for. In my public library, the wordless picture books are mixed in with all the other picture books. You could spend forever looking for one without words. With a simple Google search, I was able to find a few different lists. Below are two links I think might be helpful in getting you started. I selected these list because they both have books I have used with great success. I'll tell you a little more about two of my favorites that are on the lists. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has a nice selection of books listed online. One of my favorite books on this is list: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. It is a wordless retelling of the Aesop fable and won the Caldecott in 2010. It's perfect for so many different lessons. This one book can easily be used for all the lessons I listed above. The Louisville Free Public Library also has an online list. A few of the books on their list are the same as on the Carnegie list, but there are some different ones. One I like and have used is You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Weitzman. Being just a quick train ride away from New York City, my friends can always make connections to this book as many have been to large museums in the city. What I really like about this book is that there are multiple illustrations on each page. There is usually a larger, main illustration with smaller ones around it. It is like having supporting details on the page for the main picture and is very helpful for your students that need more information or visual clues. Between these lists, you should have a good starting point. There are a lot of great wordless books out there, and these are just a small sample. There are so many others I could go on about. Talk to your school media specialist, and see what they recommend. It would be nice if they had a special section just for these types of books. However, don't be discouraged if you can't get your hands on any wordless picture books or don't have the time to go looking. It is easily solved. Grab your favorite picture book and some Post-It notes. Simply cut the Post-Its to cover up the text. Voila! You can turn any picture book into a wordless picture book. So, is any of this helpful or have I just rambled on? :-) How are you using wordless picture books? Do you have a favorite to share?
Have you ever had the vibes of your story figured out but no plot? This post gives you an easy process to find out what actually happens in yor novel
Looking for short story ideas that will help you get published? Check out this list of over 100 story ideas to help you write great stories.
How to write a children's book— everything you need to know! How to Write a Children's Book That Rocks! Thinking of writing a children's storybook? As an independent publisher, I often get calls from men and women who have either written a kids' story or have one in mind they want to write. This article
The Color Monster is the story of a monster who, with the help from a little girl, learns about his emotions through different colors. This book companion is the perfect cross-curricular addition to your classroom for teaching your students about their emotions. What is included? • Visual craft with step-by-step real picture sequencing • Writing activity (to go along with the craft - great for bulletin board displays!) • STEM emotion activity • Visual recipe to make monster cookies • 7 differentiated cut/paste worksheets (errorless included) • Task box emotion clip cards When do you use book companions? Book companions are a great addition to any reading or language arts block. They also serve as a great print-and-go lesson for any substitute binder. PLEASE NOTE * 1. You will need to purchase the book The Color Monster - A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas to go along with the book companion and craftivity. 2. Part of this book companion is included in the January Mini Lesson Plan Pack. Connect with me: • Newsletter • Blog • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • Don't forget about the green ★ to follow my store to get notifications of new resources and freebies! Thanks for Looking and Happy Teaching!
We are starting our unit on Bears! Last week we read many versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Part of our work on the story included this story map. It is made for kindergarten students, but would be appropriate for first grade too. They drew pictures to show their ideas and then I labeled the drawing or wrote the dictation about what what happening in each part of the story. First, the kiddos worked on the setting and characters. I love this colorful busy picture that includes all sorts of details. She put the beds outside the house because she wanted to include some of the items from inside the house in the picture. This little boy drew just the house, but added the different sized bowls and had me label them. This was a great characters picture. So darn cute! Then on another day, students did pictures for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. First, we did an activity together where we ordered picture cards and talked about different parts of the story. It was great to hear the kids verbally retelling the story in their own words. That is one of the things that is great about doing an activity like this - a great way to really listen carefully to the oral language of students. I love the picture of Goldilocks in this one. Her hair is great! I was so excited when this little sweetie used the word "discovered" in her dictation to me. Woo hoo! Great language! I thought my sweet little students did a great job with this activity! And I was happy with how much they were enjoying the many versions of the 3 bears stories. And, now that they have done a complete story map with a very familiar story, I can start doing these with more challenging literature. OK, here is your freebie, just click on the link under this image to go grab it in my TpT store: Story Map FREEBIE by Katie Byrd I hope it is a big help in your classroom! Please leave some love in the comments if you are using it with your class. Happy Teaching!
Do you have an idea for a novel? Before you start writing, here are two exercises that will help you test out your story idea before penning the first draft!
Little storytellers, take a trip to the beach with this fill-in-the-blanks story! Your young writer will practice her parts of speech to finish the story.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts today, and while I plan to continue blogging throughout NaNo, I wanted to make sure I gave you something good to keep you happy during my crazy month. *smile* Of course, whether or not you’d define today’s post as anything good might depend […]
You're in the middle of your writing block during the day and students are sitting at their desks (maybe on the floor or in bean bags dispersed throughout the room) writing. Smoke is coming out of their pencils. They are writing epic stories about dragons, or spaceships -- or something equally as epic. This is your classroom every day, right? (Not) "I don't know what to write about!" (now that's more like it!) At least that's what *I* used to hear a lot. Well, no more. Give even those most reluctant writers something to talk about with "Roll and Write." You can make anything work if you turn it into a game, right? Here's how it works. You give each student a copy of the page below to place in their writer's folders. When they are stuck on what to write about, they simply roll a die three times. The first roll indicates the setting of their story (so if I roll a 3, my setting is a party on Friday night). The second roll gives them a character, and the third roll gives them a plot. The stories can turn out pretty hilarious. It encourages creativity and originality. No three rolls are the same. This freebie even includes a blank 'Roll and Write' sheet for you to swap out new combos every so often. Even that student that hates writing can get on board with a story about a frazzled teacher at the beach last summer that breaks her ankle. Oh shoot - did I just jinx you? I wish you no harm, a teacher needs her summer! :) Grab your freebie here! I'd love to hear about the stories your students come up with! Pin this post for later:
A summary of the comprehensive outlining method developed by Youtuber and writer, Kat O’Keeffe.
Want to write a story that works? Learn how to plot your novel using the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet in this post! (Free worksheet included!) #writingtips
