Story Swap Grades 3-5

A fun activity for your students to work on beginning, middle, and end. "I use a story swap to
teach beginning, middle, and ending parts of a story. One student writes the beginning of a
story and then passes it on to a friend who writes only the middle. The student passes the
story on again and a third student writes the conclusion. The stories are continually passed
around the room so students write a beginning one time and then write a middle and an end.
Anyone who is not writing is asked to illustrate the part they have completed. When the story
is complete, it's given back to the original author and that student reads it to the class or a
small group."

Cartoon Dialogues Grades 3-6

Summary: A fun and exciting way to get students interested in writing dialogue!
To help children learn how to write with dialogue, I choose four frame cartoons with dialogue
bubbles. For beginners, I make sure that the cartoon speakers alternate. I make and use a
transparency of the cartoon and make a paper copy for the kids with lines below it. I model
for them how to write a brief introduction that includes the setting and maybe something
about what they see happening. We write the dialogue for each speaker's bubbles and write
a conclusion sentence or two at the end. After a few cartoons, they become very capable of
using correct punctuation and adding in description to take the place of the pictures in the
cartoon. They can then incorporate these skills into their own stories.

Paragraph Burger Grades 3+

Summary: This is a fun holiday activity that allows your students practice in writing the four
types of paragraphs. Be creative and adapt it to any present!
Here's a great writing activity for the holidays that reviews the four basic types of writing
styles and that can be adapted to any grade level. My students write one expository
paragraph explaining how to wrap a present, one descriptive paragraph describing what the
present looks like after it's been wrapped, and one narrative paragraph describing what will
happen to the present. The final paragraph is a persuasive paragraph explaining why the
present is the best present given.