Story Elements!!!

I had a great week of reading last week! We are really diving into story elements and defining them at this point in the year; I love this! I reveal a new element each Friday, there is all kinds of buildup the kids begin to wonder, it is exciting! Have I put enough exclamation marks in this post yet?

Last week I read and blogged about More and The Cloud Spinner. Here is the chart my students and I made together, a little shared writing. We were really figuring out characters.

 

On Friday I revealed setting, and students began trying to identify the setting of books in their book boxes following our Read to Self time. All this week setting will be our focus. 

The book that will tie all the story elements together is the book that I will revisit each week while we work through these elements, Rosie's Walk, the best book in my estimation for this task! It just has it all, great characters, one setting, a clear problem and a resolution all easily contained within simple text!

 Another book that I plan on using this week to help us identify setting is Stella, Star of the Sea. It is perhaps one of the sweetest stories I have been introduced to recently.

I also discovered this book over the weekend, Sweet Dreams by Rose A. Lewis. It is a poetic bedtime story. It is loveliness ten times over and I am particularly partial to a story that includes moon flowers. We have/had moon flowers that come up each year and they are a sweet sight each evening in the summer. I plan on sharing this with my class as well.


 

 And, lastly, a great book for setting, a great book for me this week! Chalk, by Bill Thomson. I have had this book recommended by a few bloggers over the past few weeks because today I am hosting a Chalk-A-Bration for poetry month.  I have been so excited for this day, my class and I have been preparing, I have been preparing, and finally I will read this book to my class today.

 It will be a great start to a great week!