Fiction Writing

Thank you so much to Mrs. Anne Nydam for visiting third grade this afternoon! If you don't know, Mrs. Nydam is a published author and illustrator. You can check out her work at her website http://www.nydamprints.com/.

221 writers are getting ready to begin a unit focused on writing fiction. Mrs. Nydam shared many of the strategies and techniques she uses as a writer of fiction. Here's some of what our third grade writers learned:

*Every story needs a problem and solution
*Write stories like the ones you like to read
*Show don't tell - Don't say 'big,' describe how it's big
*Notice and pay attention to everything. Record or save the ideas you find most interesting
*Name your characters
*Put yourself in the character's place
*Never forget the small characters
*Notice problems in your own life. You might use one for a story

Third grade writers will be coming home with a small writer's notebook today. Each night (Monday-Thursday) they should write at least 2 entries. I am not expecting paragraphs, but at least 2 sentences for each entry. There are no right or wrong entries, as long as they are appropriate to third grade.

Entries might include:
*Interesting facts
*Descriptions of interesting people, animals or things
*Problems that happen to you, or somebody else
*Sights, sounds, smells, etc...
*Anything children notice that they find interesting

I expect the writer's notebook to come back to school each day.

Happy writing!