BRINGING A STORY TO LIFE

Today we went back to our small moment stories after a brief affair with poetry.  We took a look at the stories we'd written and figured we could make them even better.  After all, in first grade our writing motto is: "Once you're done, you've just begun!"  We used some mentor texts to make our characters move and talk in our stories and thus make our stories jump off the page!

We read this book for the first time today and we're pretty sure it's our new favorite.  Though the story is not necessarily non-fiction, we were able to learn from the fabulous author Julia Denos as she brings the colors in this book to life.  We learned that bringing a non-human element to life is called personification.  The little girl in this book tries to tame all the beautiful colors in the world, but soon realizes that they are much better off free to mix and mingle in the wild where they belong.  We made some awesome connections to our own lives as we read this beautiful, colorful, action packed book.  Check it out at the library!

Look at these action words.  The author could have written exploded based on the picture.  Instead she wrote:
grew       yawned       stretched       twirled       bloomed       whirled,
leaked       swirled       spreading       billowing      twisting

This is an awesome text we use for small moment stories!  George McClements masterfully takes the terror of eating three peas at dinner time and turns in into some serious drama and a great read.  Have you ever experienced this at your dinner table?  We studied his words and noticed how he uses very specific action words to help the little boy come to life.  He also uses speech bubbles to show what the parents are saying to each other throughout the very dramatic dinner scene.  His character talk and move and this helps them become real for his readers.

Check out the serious toe curling, finger wiggling action...and be sure to take note of the parents voices in the background!