A Bit of Creative Writing

Today in Writer's Workshop we worked on writing a story using a new strategy. I think overall it was a success! The students all drafted a story with a bubble gum theme. The objective of the lesson was to vary the start of each sentence using a different letter of the alphabet. Here is the example that I wrote to help teach the lesson. It's a true story by the way! Students began by writing the alphabet across the top of their paper.  Then as they wrote their story, they had to cross out the letter that each sentence began with. In the example below, I used as many letters as I could. It is not important that students use every letter, only that they try their best and use as many as possible! 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Let me tell you about a sticky situation. On a beautiful spring day I was riding in the backseat of my mother's car. Windows open, breeze blowing, life was good! I chewed my bubble gum as we drove to pick my brother up from school.

You would not believe the bubbles I could blow! Right as my bubble was growing into about the size of a soccer ball, the wind blew my long hair right across my face! No, no, no!! My mom saw the whole thing in the rear view mirror. We pulled up to the school and she came around to see the damage. Ughh, lots of sticky gum stuck in my hair. Please mom I thought, get this out!

As we were driving home, mom said she wasn't sure if we could get all of the sticky pink gum out. On the kitchen counter I sat as she tried to wash the gum away. By the time my dad got home, it was clear that the gum was probably there to stay.

This story ends with a very bad haircut. As you know, a girl's hair is important to her. VERY important. Just imagine how I felt! Here's the moral of the story: Never chew gum in a car with the windows open. Ever.

I know, I didn't use "Z" or "X". But that's okay! The students first drafts were impressive because the sentence structure was much different than in usual narratives. Tomorrow we'll do a second draft and some conferencing. Later this week we have a fun art project- related to the bubble gum theme, to celebrate all of the hard work and terrific writing!