Animal Stories - The Process
The purpose of this project is to have pairs of Grade Nine and Grade One students ‘buddy-up’ to learn about the parts of a good story and then to write a fantasy story. The first step was for the students to be paired. Then, in their pairs they first discussed, and then wrote down their ‘favourite things’ in a chart that was provided. Once the students filled out these interest sheets, they shared a picture book that the Grade One student had chosen.
During the next three visits to the library, the Grade Nine students used the Grade One picture book to talk to the Grade One student first about character, and then about setting. Once the Grade One student had an idea about the character, he or she drew the character from memory. The character had to be drawn the size of a full sheet of paper. For setting, the Grade One student had to use a larger sheet of paper and draw the setting from the picture book. When this was done, the character was glued onto the setting. 'Problem' was first talked about by the teacher/librarian who asked the Grade Ones what they thought was a problem. A 'Franklin' video was shown to the students and then the problem from the film was talked about. The student pairs then went back to the original picture book and talked about the problem and the solution.
The students went back to their classrooms for three weeks to write and illustrate an animal story. The Grade One students could choose any main character except the one that was in the first book they shared with their Grade Nine buddy. After they wrote their book they illustrated it and the Grade Nine Buddy helped them scan the book. The Grade Nine students chose the details of their books from the chart of favourites that the Grade Ones had filled out during their first meeting. They then illustrated their book and scanned it.
The students then met and created puppets in the shape of the Grade One character. Puppets were cut out of sheets of foam and then the Grade Ones decorated them during an hour spent in the Art Room. All pairs had their pictures taken with the puppet they created.
Once the stories and the puppets were finished the students got together for a sharing session and some ice cream. A pair of students chose the theme for the webpage and the Grade Nine buddies showed the Grade Ones how to create a hyperlink to their story page.