Writing a Fiction Story with the Littles

How many times do you have students get confused when reading a realistic story and think that it's nonfiction?  So often students think that for a book to be fiction it must have totally made up characters, silly settings or unrealistic things happening.

I created a lesson to help my Kindergarten and 1st grade students see that a real life situation can be made up.  The story can seem real, but if we wrote it about something that didn't really happen, it's fiction!

First we refer to book characters we've read together, talking about how we know it is a fiction.  Their responses include... ducks can't be president, cats don't drive tractors, etc.

Then we move into becoming authors as a class.  I present to them the story plan and basic story elements.  I have preselected character choices, setting choices and problem choices.  I find this allows for the focus to be on writing and not opening them up to so many possibilities.

After the story plan is complete, we move to the computer that is projected with a Keynote template already in place.  Again, I pre-created a 4 page slide show with a title/author page, beginning, middle and end pages.  There are already text boxes with questions like "Who is the main character? What is the problem?"  There are already preselected pictures to match what I had on the plan.

We write the story, very guided.  Then I record the story, turning it into an audio book.  After we discuss how we know it is fiction.  We wrote it!  We made it up even though it could really happen.

Think of the possibilities of how this lesson can then be taken into the classroom... more lessons, literacy centers!

Purchase this lesson here: Write a Story Lesson Plan and Printables