Squiggle Stories!

While my older classes worked on a longer piece, I assigned my younger class this fun assignment that was such a big hit that I will be bringing it to the older grades next session!  In this creative assignment, students were given eight squiggly lines to choose from.  (My youngest class heard "Harold and the Purple Crayon" before we started, as a little inspiration!)  They were then to turn that simple squiggle line into a work of art.  It was amazing to see how the same squiggle line turned into so many different objects and scenes for different students!

After a timed drawing session, the students spent the second half of class writing a short story about their picture.  The story could be in either 1st person or 3rd person narration, and it was interesting to see what the children chose to do.  Describing what was happening was the key, and all students were encouraged the use adjectives to make their stories more descriptive and exciting.

Enjoy looking at these and reading what the students came up with!  Then ask yourself.... what do YOU see??

 

     It was raining.  I went into the water and I found a castle.  Inside there was shiny gold and I got it.  I finally got home with the gold.

Ian, 1st grade

     A group of letters were having a play date at a little girl's house at night.  They played ballet and had a great time.  But then it was time to go.  Then the girl was alone.

Samantha, 1st grade

      There once was a school of fish.  One day, a new fish came to town.  He was a shark!  He also tried to eat the other fish.  Luckily, the fish were very fast swimmers.  And he only chased them at recess.

Charlotte, 2nd grade

      On a nice hot day, I went to a magical skate park.  There were neon green stairs, the ground was orange, and almost everywhere I looked, I saw purple.  It looked so much fun.

     I started skateboarding as fast as I could.  I couldn't wait to get on the big purple jump.  When I did, I flew so high, it felt like I was flying like a bird.  I would like to be a bird.

     My skateboard's wheels hit the ground.  I thought I landed on cement.  I almost fell of my purple skateboard.  I had barely begun.

     I was there for the whole day.  I had a magical key so only I could go in.  I can't wait to go back.

Josh, 3rd grade

It's wonderful to see the progression from 1st to 3rd grade, isn't it?  All students were told to use their imaginations, and use adjectives and lots of description in their short stories, but you can see how an older child can write more and take the story further than a younger child has the ability to do.  I think all of these turned out fabulous!