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. (Her children are in fourth grade here at Eliot.) You can check out her work at her website http://www.nydamprints.com/.

221 have begun 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 - think about what it was like when you felt that way...
*Notice problems in your own life. You might use one for a story

You can see Mrs. Nydam and her work this weekend at Needham Open Studios! If you do, be sure to tell her that your child enjoyed her visit to third grade!

Happy writing!