Writing

Unit 4
Day 3: Beginning: Once upon a time _____ lived in ______.

Content Area: Writing Grade: K Date: Friday, December 15th, 2017

Unit of Study 3: Creative Story Writing Unit

KRL2.Q1 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Objective Beginning of Story Objective Comment [RS1]: This is the first lesson of the unit in
SWBAT to identify a story starter “once upon a time…” and use it to start a story of his/her own. which students confer their knowledge about stories they
have read having a beginning where a character and setting
SWBAT draw and label a character. are introduced into their own writing. As a result, there are
SWBAT draw and label the setting. several scaffolds provided by the teacher to ensure student
success.
Prompt: Write the beginning of a story by drawing and labeling the character and setting.
Answer: Once upon a time ______________ lived in _________. Comment [RS2]: First and foremost, a sentence prompt
Key Points Knowledge: is given to students to begin their writing: "Once upon a
time, _____ lived in ______." This sentence prompt gives
• Writing Checklist- a writing tool used to check one’s own writing students a clear space to put the character and the setting.
• Word Wall- a place with sight words
• Story Starter- words to use to help start a story

Skill:
• Good writers can write a strong beginning to their story
Teaching Strategies Demonstration | Guided Practice | Inquiry | Explain and Give Examples | Visual Aids | Songs | Chants |
and Methods Think-Aloud | Vocabulary | Other: _______ (please specify)
Think pair share: Students will brainstorm ideas and share out with partners Comment [RS3]: There are also many turn and talks
Author Share: One student will share out their writing piece of the day. incorporated when students are brainstorming ideas for a
character and setting and these ideas are written and drawn
Materials • Link to Cinderella opening. (play from 1:25-1:59) on an anchor chart to support student idea developing during
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXmEE-Pt6o independent practice.
• PPT slide for teacher to model on
Value | Curiosity | Confidence | Community | Character | Choice Comment [RS4]: Finally, this lesson incorporates some
of KIPP NYC's character values, such as confidence, which
Even if you don’t think that you know how to draw something you can give it your best shot. will encourage students to take risks and try their best
When we share our work we are building a stronger community. It is important to share your despite this being a new activity.
work in a loud proud voice. Sometimes in writing, we get to make our own choices. We will have
the opportunity to write our very own stories.
Hook/ SAY: Today we’re going to be starting something very new and exciting. I know sometimes
Connection during choice time a lot of you make up amazing stories either will dolls or puppets, and you tell
stories that involve characters and wonderfully creative settings. Starting today, we are going to
be learning more about how authors write stories and how illustrators draw the pictures to go
with the stories. Today we’re going to be learning about a new story starter—a new way to start
a story—that you’ve probably heard many times. Listen to how this story begins and listen to
some of the first things you hear the author tell us about the story.

DO: Play clip from 1:25…. Go until 1:59 (until the narrator names Cinderella)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXmEE-Pt6o
Teach/Intro to SAY: So how did the author begin her story?
New Material ASR: Once upon a time.

SAY: That’s right, the author said “once upon a time.” Repeat that with me.
ASR: Once upon a time. That’s a great beginning to a story. If you say “Once upon a time,”
people always know you’re starting a story.

ASK: What else did the author tell us right away?
ASR: Characters and setting.

ASK (Turn and talk): Who were the characters named right away?
ASR: Cinderella, widowed gentleman.

ASK (Turn and talk): What was the setting?
ASR: Far away land, tiny kingdom.

SAY: I loved how the author told me the characters and setting right away so that I could picture
the story in my head.

SAY: As good writers, we are going to make sure we always tell the audience who the characters
are and where the story is happening—the setting of the story. We will also use what we know
about emotions to show how our characters feel.

ASK: What are emotions?
ASR: Emotions are feelings.

DO: Show turtle visual on PPT of beginning, middle, and end
This turtle is a visual aide for students to remember what part of the story they are thinking
about/working on…hopefully it will help lower students who are struggling with beginning,
middle, and end.

SAY: Today we’re only going to write the beginning of our story. [Point to head of turtle].

ASK: What are we writing today?
ASR: The beginning of our story.

SAY: The beginning of the story is where our story starts, just like the head of this turtle is where
the turtle starts. The beginning of the turtle is his head. If you forget what beginning means, you
can remember it’s where the turtle and our stories start. All stories always start with a beginning.
All stories start with a?
ASR: beginning!

SAY: Then, tomorrow we will write the middle of the story. The middle of the story is in between
the beginning and end. The middle of the turtle is his shell. [Point to turtle’s shell]. Last, the next
day, we will write the end.

ASK: What is at the end of the turtle?
 ASR: the tail.

SAY: Yes, the end of the turtle is the tail. By the end of the week, you will have written a
complete story with a beginning (point to head), middle (point to shell), and end (point to tail).
But for today, we’re only going to start our story with our beginning.

DO: Show next slide where beginning of turtle is circled.

DO: Pull up PPT slide for teacher model with “once upon a time…lived in” pre-written for tracing
purposes

SAY: In the beginning of our story, we introduce the character and a setting. A few weeks ago we
thought of characters and settings. Today, when we write the beginning of our story, we will
choose a character and a setting for our story. Hmm, let’s sing the character song to remind us
about what a character is.
ASR: A character is a person, animal, or thing, that thinks, talks or feels, thinks, talks or feels,
thinks, talks or feels, all in a story.

SAY: I have to think, do I want it to be a person, animal or thing? I think I’m going to choose a
fairy—that’s part person and part imaginary animal. Think about if you want to write about a
person, animal or thing?

DO: Give think time).

SAY: I know from my song that characters must think, talk, or feel. Are you going to show your
character thinking, talking, or feeling in your story? When I think of a character, I have to think of
what he or she looks like. I am going to choose a fairy who is a girl. She will have magical powers!
She will have hair with a flip at the end. She will have wings so that she can fly. When I draw my
fairy character, I have to draw her in her setting. I want her to live in a forest. I will draw a forest
with lots of tall trees and grass. I will use the story starter, “Once upon a time.” Listen to how I
put my story starter, my character, and the setting together: “Once upon a time there was a
magical fairy who lived in the forest.

SAY: Now that I thought about my sentence, I can draw my illustration of the beginning of my
story. The beginning must include the character and setting. So if I forget my setting, my
beginning won’t be complete!

Drawing and sentence are already written in last slide of PPT

DO: Talk about what you see that’s so important in the pre-done version of the beginning instead
of modeling drawing/writing your own beginning. Ask students what else you could draw in the
beginning? How could you make it even better.
Guided Practice/ SAY: Now, let’s think about a story starter for one of you. Today we’re using, “Once upon a
Turn and Talk time….”

ASK: What do we need to think of first?
ASR: A character.

 SAY: That’s right, first, you need to think of a character for your story. Turn and talk to your
friend about a character in your own story.

ASK (Turn and talk): What character do you want in your own story?
ASR: [student names character]

Chart different character ideas.

SAY: Great, so on _____’s paper I will see the label [the name of the character]).

ASK: Now that you got a great idea for a character in your story, what else do we need in the
beginning of a story?
ASR: Setting.

ASK: ___, what’s the setting of your story?
ASR: [student names setting]

SAY: So on ____’s paper the setting will be labeled.

ASK: What do you think ____ can label in the setting?
ASR: Trees, desk, street, sun, etc.

Chart different setting ideas.

SAY: Now, class, close your eyes and picture the character _____ in the setting _____.

SAY: Now that we’ve imagined the beginning of the story in our heads, we can begin to write our
story. Let’s start with the sentence starter. I see it here (refer to the PowerPoint slide of the
teacher model) “Once upon a time ______. Let’s add to our story by saying, “Once upon a time
______ lived in ________.”

ASK: Is there a confident student who can use this character and setting in the story starter and
come up with the beginning sentence for this story?
ASR: Once upon a time [the name of character student came up with] lived in [setting student
came up with].

SAY: Now that we’ve helped _____ with their story, I want for you to think of your own stories. I
am going to be looking for students to have a lot of great ideas and lots of creativity. Think of a
really fun character and where they are going to live. We will go back to our seats and draw the
character to your story and the setting. Then, you will finish the story starter. We are just working
on the beginning of our stories today because tomorrow we will write the middle of our stories.
Let’s read our story starters “Once upon a time _______ lived in ________.”

Link SAY: Ok stars now we are going to go back to our seats where we will sit down silently and begin
thinking about the beginning of the stories we will be writing today. This is an opportunity to do
your best work. We are not talking at all because it is really important to let all of our friends get
to use all of their writing time. We want to show our RESPECT to our friends by being quiet and
not disturbing them so that they can do their best work. I’m going to be looking carefully to see
 who labeled both the characters and setting in their story.
Independent Student Actions:
Practice Students should be silent at their desk for 15 min. They should be thoughtfully writing the
beginning to their stories. After independent time, there can be a share time.
Teacher Actions:
CO-1 and CO-2 Teachers should be circulating. The teachers will be reinforcing good behavior:
perfect writer’s position, correct pencil grip, bubble in mouth, students who are sitting and
thinking before they start their writing. If there is any student who is stuck, teacher should
prompt that student. If many students are stuck it might be appropriate to pull a small group
back to the carpet or guided table and have the group write sentences. Comment [RS5]: During the execution of the
Share/ Author of the Day: Prompt: Share one compliment and one area of growth. independent practice portion of this lesson, my co-teacher
and I noticed that a few of our students had difficulty
Closing Go over writer’s checklist for this student’s work. beginning to work because their fine motor skills are
Check for Teachers will circulate and assess the writing assessment to ensure understanding and to record lagging, making it difficult for them to draw, and because
Understanding/ students who are struggling with the task of writing sentences when doing their own work. they lack letter recognition, making it difficult for them to
add labels to their drawings. As a differentiation strategy, I
Assessment(s) pulled these students into a small group. Together, we came
Homework Along the same vein as the IP in today’s lesson. There will be a large box with a line underneath up with the idea for a character, a mail person, and a setting,
for writing sentences. Write the beginning to a story. his mail truck. Together we brainstormed the shapes of a
mailman: a circle for his head, a square for his body, and
Prompt: Once upon a time_______ lived in _______. long rectangles for his legs and arms. I drew each shape of
Differentiation Remediation: Individual conferencing or small group pull to the rug or the GR table. the mail person on a white board as we discussed it and
Strategies Extension: If students are finished writing the sentences for the pictures, you can have them try students did the same on their papers. Then, together we
practiced stretching out the word "mail person" and listening
to finish adding details and labels to their pictures. for the first sound. Once students were able to isolate the /m/
sound, we used our alphabet chart to find the letter that
makes the /m/ sound, then together we labeled our mail
person with that letter. We followed a similar structure to
draw and label our setting and over the next two days, we
focused solely on drawing and labeling our problem and
solution instead of writing sentences to match. This scaffold
not only enabled these students to successfully draw and
label a story, but it taught them strategies to make up for
their lagging skills, such as picturing the shapes in the object
they are trying to draw and using an alphabet chart to locate
unknown letters and help with letter formation.