Around the World Stories

"Around the World" stories have three purposes:
1. Learn to think and write quickly
2. Write a story with a complete beginning, middle, and end
3. Work as a team!

My students strategized on who should be in charge of the beginning, middle, and end as we passed our papers around the room with three to five minutes to write for each turn.

How did we get our story topics?  All students were asked to write three separate ideas on a piece of paper:
A main character
A setting (where and when)
A plot/story line/problem

Without knowing what they were going to do with these, the students wrote ideas that they thought would make a great story.  How surprised they were when I took their ideas, shuffled them in piles, and assigned them each their own crazy story to begin!

No one's story turned out the way they thought it would!

My favorite is the one posted here:

Main character: Joe
Setting: Halloween Party at a Middle School
Plot/story line/problem: Broke his wing

The children erupted in laughter as I read that last part.  Deven (entering 6th grade) started it:

     "Mom!  Do I have to wear a Chicken Little costume for the Halloween party?!  It's going to be so embarrassing!"  Joe could not stand his weird costume that he was going to wear to school.  His mom made it herself, so it would hurt her to take it off or complain about it too much.


Ryan (entering 5th grade): While he was at the party, he was running around and he saw his friend wearing a Batman costume.  Then he started feeling a little weird.  Five minutes later, he had glasses and wings!  He looked almost like Chicken Little in a Chicken Little costume.


Dara (entering 5th grade): When Joe was at the party, he saw soooo many more Chicken Little costumes.  Even the popular boys wore them!  Except they were advertising for the chicken meat at the party.


Charley (entering 5th grade): Joe needed to use the restroom, so he got up and walked toward the men's room.  Then, as he walked through the door, "RIIPPP!" The wing broke!


Kaitlin (entering 6th grade): "Oh no!  What do I do, what do I do?  Now I'm a chicken with one wing!"  Everyone laughed at him now.


Amy (entering 6th grade): Then he thought, "I have a fairy costume at home!  I can wear that!"  Joe rushed home, put on the fairy princess costume, and rushed back to the Halloween party.


Nicole (entering 5th grade): When he got there, everyone was laughing at him and they said, "You're a fairy?  HA HA HA HA!"  


So Joe said, "I don't care, what if you were a Fairy Princess, what would you do?"


Melissa (entering 6th grade): "I would laugh at myself!" one boy said.


So Joe laughed.  Giggled, smiled, and shouted.  "I mean, who cares?" he scoffed.  "It's just a weird Halloween costume."


Definitely, he thought, if you don't let small things bother you, no one really cares at all.


I love how Amy completely changed the costume, leaving it up to the ones in charge of the "end" to really think and get creative!   I also really like Melissa's character building lesson at the end.

What a fun teamwork assignment!