We started this project off with a couple of read alouds, giving students the opportunity to think about story elements. After each reading we discussed the main characters and their feelings and how those connected to their actions. We identified the problem and solution while retelling important events from the beginning, middle and end of the story.

Then, students were challenged to create a list of adjectives and phrases to describe the perfect holiday tree in their minds. The list was then used to draft a descriptive paragraph. Students  then published their paragraphs on a shared Google Slide and added a drawing using Google Draw.

As we move into the holiday season we have moved into a new unit in Writers’ Workshop.  We will be focusing on fictional narratives.  The first step was to think about characters and their traits.

We read the story: Olive the other Reindeer. As we read we recorded character traits we noticed about the main character, Olive.  We also recorded ideas from the text that led to our thinking.

Then it was time to create our own characters that will star in our own creative stories.

Students first wrote about their characters and then drew pictures.  We used Chatterpix to publish our thinking.  Here is the video created about Olive, the other reindeer.  Look back tomorrow for more holiday characters!