Writing Activities: "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street"

 

Talk about a book being designed as a springboard for writing lessons!  I read this book to a group of third graders, and I knew exactly what the teacher had in mind.  It's primary purpose is to give students good techniques for writing as they follow the journey of a little girl, Eva, through her neighborhood.  She encounters various characters who give her tips for writing:

• Mr. Sims, the actor, tells her to pay attention to details.
• Mr. Morley, the chef who makes mousse, tells her to use old words in new ways.
• Alexis, the dancer, tells her to stretch her imagination.  
• Mrs. Martinez, who makes soup, tells her to add a "little something" extra to give the story some action.

After meeting these characters and applying what she's learned, the little girl's boring day turns into quite an eventful one, and she has a great story at the end.

All the advice from the characters will help your students during the writing process.  

WritingFix has a popular lesson plan based on this book available for free.  It's perfect to use as a mentor text and lesson for writing workshop.

Check out the lesson, printable sheets for students to practice editing their writing based on the book's advice, and check out samples of students' work.


Here is another site that provides printable resources for working with the book.

Native American Heritage Month: Writing Activity

ReadWriteThink has an appealing writing activity to tie in to Native American Heritage Month.


The complete lesson plan include a list of books that are porquoi stories, or folktales that describe the origin of something.  After reading one or more examples of porquoi stories, the students can analyze the tale and then use it as a springboard to create their own similar folktale.


The lesson also includes some helpful websites, one of which is a classroom project by fourth-graders who created their own stories and drew illustrations.  This one comes from a student project which describes why giraffes have long necks:

                                                                                    saskschools.ca
                                                                                                 Ms. Klemmer's page


ReadWriteThink also provides a rubric for grading the writing projects.


This activity is a really nice way to celebrate Native American Heritage Month and introduce some Native American stories to students.  Though November is Native American Heritage Month, this activity would also be well-suited for anytime in the school year, and would fit nicely within a unit on folktales and myths.




-Veronica

Made of Awesome: Weekly Writer Activity

Here’s a great way to add creative writing to your week:  Weekly Reader (another company I quite enjoy) has a Weekly Writer serial writing activity that features some of your students’ favorite authors! 

From the site:

“Each week, the Weekly Writer presents another cliff-hanger. Ideally, the entry leaves readers eager to know what happens next.”

The Weekly Writer entries are composed by some of the most popular, award-winning writers in children’s and young adult literature, such as Walter Dean Myers, R.L. Stine, Lois Lowry, Chris Van Allsburg, and Stephen King.  They write the beginning of a story which culminates in a cliffhanger, and students can read and submit their additions to the story and have them posted on the website for all to enjoy!

Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has written this week’s story.  Imagine your students’ wonder as they contribute to a story written by their favorite authors!

This week’s submission is due by Thursday.  Be sure to check the teacher’s page for tips on how to implement this activity.  Check the site periodically for authors added to its roster and new stories!

Here are a few lesson plan ideas:

1. Weekly Writer could be ideal whether you’re looking for a writing center/station, writing workshop lessons, a long-term creative writing project or an enrichment activity.  Students can read the beginning of the story each week individually, in groups, or as a class.  Then, they can work on the story during the week, edit and fine-tune their ideas, and submit their completed work to Weekly Reader.  The class can also check the serial story’s evolution on the website.  Celebrate as a class if one of your students is chosen to have their work posted on the site!
2. As the website suggests, this activity is great for exploring story elements and author’s craft.
3. After reviewing the stories, have your class start its own serial writing activity.  Over the course of several weeks, students can begin an original story and add to it in installments.  Post the updates on a classroom blog.
4. Read the story beginnings to the class once a week, brainstorm some thoughts as a class, and then assign a daily journal writing activity that allows students to continue their own version of the story.  When the final version of the story is posted, read it together as a class and have students share their work to everyone or small groups.
5. Use Weekly Writer to initiate an author study.  Have students research the authors and read some of the popular novels they’ve written.  You can also have your class research the history of serial writing. The site mentions Charles Dickens, yet there are many other authors who got their start by writing stories in installments.  Encourage your students to find about other authors and stories that use this technique.

-Veronica