Mrs. Lyons' Class and the Runaway Turkey Class Book

I've always LOVED writing!!  Writing and illustrating have always been a passion.  I still enjoy it today but I've found that teaching it is also very exciting.

I especially enjoy that moment when kids look forward to writing and no longer see it as "work."  They quickly learn that we write everyday for EVERY subject.

For the first trimester, we focused on opinion writing.  I added narrative writing in but it was very direct teaching.  They wrote pieces focused on mom, dad, friends, the seasons, etc.

Now, it's time for the more CREATIVE and IMAGINATIVE writing which can be difficult for some students.

I decided to introduce narrative writing differently this year.  After the read aloud, Run, Turkey, Run, I introduced the story planners the kiddos would be using.

You can download them here if interested (Narrative Story Planners)!

I modeled how the story had a beginning, middle events, and a closing.  We discussed that the events helped moved the story along.

Instead of having the kiddos jump right into writing their own story I told them we'd be making a class book about a runaway turkey.  They helped to brainstorm and voted on the characters, setting, and events. As we talked about our story I filled in the planners.  

We created our runaway turkey story and they had GREAT ideas! They orally told me the story and I wrote it.  Today they illustrated the pictures.  I absolutely love their illustrations, how they added dialogue, and labels.  

Take a peek and enjoy!!

I wanted to do an illustration too!

I believe it should be lying and I wrote laying...

Such clever kids!!  They came up with naming the turkey Tom (male turkey) and adding our assistant principal's last name.  So fitting...

I can't wait to see the stories they come up with.