Tag Archives: creative writing

Fairy Tale Creative Writing Project

We have been enjoying the Fairy Tale unit for more than three weeks now. Students have kept a record of the similarities and differences between fairy tales.

They even compared and contrasted different versions of familiar fairy tales!

Today, students began the process of writing their own fairy tale using our interactive bulletin board.

Students chose a setting card, two character cards, and a problem card. They then organized this information in a story map.

Next, students began writing their fairy tales, making sure to begin with “once upon a time…” They will illustrate their fairy tales as well, ending up with their very own book. Stay tuned for updates on this project next week!

A Tricky Little Visitor

This morning when the students arrived, they immediately noticed that their leprechaun traps had been tripped, and there were little green footprints all over their desks!

These traps were created last week as part of the March Family STEM Project.

I had the students write down the three steps it takes to catch a leprechaun.

 

Lucky me! I caught some little leprechauns of my own!

 

 

Dino Day

We wrapped up our dinosaur unit with a dinosaur showcase this morning. Parents were invited to attend our Dinosaur Extravaganza where they looked through the math and language arts activities the students completed over the last two months. Activities included measuring life-sized footprints.

Bones with long vowel words hidden on them were excavated.

Students wrote a creative piece about what they would do with a pet dinosaur.

They researched a dinosaur of their choice.

Students classified dinosaur skeletons as herbivores or carnivores based on characteristics they had learned.

 

The art activities were incredible.

 

Students sculpted the dinosaur that they researched.

Each student created a glow in the dark, Pop Art-style painting of the dinosaur they researched.

The finale was the premiere of each students’ dinosaur presentation that was created using the Puppet Edu app. I am so proud of the students’ hard work.

 

I’d say we have a class full of dinosaur experts now!

Dinosaurs

We are entering the third week of our dinosaur unit. The days have been jam-packed with all things dinosaurs. From dinosaur-themed language arts centers, to a dinosaur research project, to dinosaur crafts galore, students are eating up this unit!

Students wrote a creative writing piece about what they would do if they had a pet dinosaur.

Students learned about and built volcanos!

 

Students excavated bones (with a twist!) in our sensory table…

The font is so small that I couldn’t even read the long vowel words with my glasses and a magnifying glass! Good thing the children have solid vision!

 

Students created Perler Bead dinosaurs.

 

They even have made dinosaurs from several types of food:

The “Waffle-a-saurus”

 

The “Fruit-a-saurus”

 

And my personal favorite, Dinosaur Pizzas, inspired by the book written by Lee Wardlaw, who visited our Lower School earlier this year.

 

We went on an exciting field trip to the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, where we participated in the learning lab, Meet the Teeth. Students revisited the terms herbivore and carnivore.

The also classified skulls according to the types of teeth each had.

Each student has chosen a dinosaur to research using the website PebbelGo!, which is a wonderful tool for beginning researchers. Students were encouraged to select a dinosaur about which they knew close to nothing. They are working on creating specific pieces in Art Class to go along with their research. We will wrap up our Dinosaur Unit by putting all the pieces together in a short digital presentation that each student will design. Here is a peek at the reports:

Look for a future post with the finished project soon!

Dinosaur Creative Writing

Students wrote these creative writing stories a few weeks ago, but they are so fun, I just have to share! The writing prompt was, “Imagine you wake up, and there is a dinosaur in your backyard. What would you do? How might you spend the day?” In addition to focusing on leaving spaces between words and ending punctuation, students were encouraged to write using only lowercase letters, except when a capital letter was necessary. That’s a lot to think about!! Here are some responses:

It is exciting to see how the students’ writing is transitioning from best guess to more conventional spelling.