Mrs. Vaage

The four grade one teachers in our school collaborated to create the grade one pages.

Creating Fiction Stories

Our class worked a lot on the aspect of creating story.

At Halloween, we immersed ourselves in the genre of Scary Stories. Then, we attempted our own scary stories. The children were very successful in adding the elements necessary to create a "scary" feel to their stories. They added these motifs: dark, spooky, haunted, creatures, and surprise. Each child wrote several stories to practice with this genre. To see some of our Scary Stories, visit our Halloween Writing Page.

In addition, we immersed ourselves with Robert Munsch stories to absorb his style of writing. We created our own class book, entitled "Stuck on Mars." We had brainstormed to note all the attributes needed to make a story feel like it was written by Robert Munsch. To see how well the children understood his "voice," please check our online story.

Another favorite genre or style of story that our class loved was the Magic School Bus series of books. We read every book several times, and understood that the informational reports created as part of the illustrations were as much a part of the story as the text line. We created our own version, "Aliens on Mars." Click here to see the online version.

This class has been very interested in science, and so it is easy for them to write nonfiction, or information texts. We have created so many class reports generated by the information they have given me, that it comes easy orally. The challenge of writing reports in mid-March is that children often know so much and can express it orally. However to record their knowledge in print often challenges their attempts at spelling and encoding to print.

We have the reports that the children created for the Magic School Bus story. Click here  to see the variety. Some are one line summaries. Others are copied from a reference source. Others have synthesized the information they know and described it in their own words.

In addition, the children wrote reports on Endangered Animals which are also posted on the web. Click here to see their work. Our student teacher, Miss Heacock, helped them to record their reports in Microsoft Word, which then we published.