Writing partners naturally imagine creative adventures! This colorful storyboard sends plots, characters, and settings in new directions.

• 1.

  <STRONG>Choose story triggers</STRONG>. Embark on a story-writing adventure in which you add exciting twists and turns. With your classmates, brainstorm 12 (or as many as you wish) challenging story triggers that keep a plot moving. Some examples: Change the setting, enter a different time period, develop a character's personality, or add an animal to the plot.

• 2.

  <STRONG>Make a storyboard</STRONG>. With your classmates, write the title of your creative writing expedition on posterboard with Crayola® Gel Markers. Measure a grid of boxes in rows and columns. Attach hook and loop fastener tape to the back of each mini journal and in each box on your grid. Attach a notebook and write a story trigger in each box. Add unique, colorful borders around the edges.

• 3.

  <STRONG>Start your stories.</STRONG> Pair up with another writer and begin a story in your mini journal. Write with Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils so you can make corrections easily.

• 4.

  <STRONG>Pick a trigger</STRONG>. Each day, writing partners choose a different journal, read the story that has been started, and then add a new twist based on the story trigger on the grid. Switch colored pencils with each chapter. After adding a new adventure, place the mini journal in a different box. The next pair of writers generates new excitement tomorrow.

Standards

• Students identify story-writing triggers that keep a story's action, plot, character, and setting moving.
• Students use story triggers to add to a community story-writing project.
• Students work in pairs to write original chapters in ever-changing stories.

Adaptations

• Create a larger grid with enough mini journals so everyone can create individual stories.
• Wrap up the story-writing adventure by publishing a library of original works. Each pair of writers adopts one mini journal to revise, edit, and publish in a picture or chapter book. Share books in a classroom library for all students to read and review.
• Try a similar project with biographies of people, famous or families. Include various aspects of their lives as triggers: early years, education, family, major accomplishments, memorable quotes.