Fresh Squeezed Creative Writing Juices
by Joanne Mikola

Sometimes we misunderstand a child’s reluctance to set pencil or pen to paper to write. Even the traditional “What did you do over your summer vacation?” theme falls short of the desired results as the topic is simply too large. Rephrasing the assignment as “Describe the best day of your summer vacation” may help focus the student’s memory on highlights that can generate a choice.

The following groupings of ‘story starters’ can be used many ways. As is, they are intended to give a nudge in the direction of imagination, only.
Each link has three different choices:

• 1 word clue starter
• 1 picture clue starter
• 1 audio clue N.B. The audio clue will begin playing as soon as you open the page. If you wish to turn it off, just click the square ‘off’ button on the left side of the banner.

Student Instructions :  
Choose one story starter for your project.
Add a minimum of two more paragraphs to the word clue starter or three paragraphs for the picture or song starter. Your finished work should tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.
Draw a picture to illustrate your story for the word and audio clue choices.

Series One
Series Two
Series Three
Series Four * This audio track has violent sound effects pertaining to the American Civil War song recorded. 

Evaluation: 
The instructor/parent should select from the appropriate objective(s) to introduce a skill, knowledge, process, or content. These story starters can be used for practice and reinforcement of any/all of the following:

Sample Terminal Objectives: Grade 2 *	Needs Improvement	Satisfactory	N/A
Grammar Objectives:
Uses adjectives appropriately for description	.	.	.
Use a variety of  sentence types correctly and appropriately (e.g. questions and exclamations.)	.	.	.
Use the negative correctly (e.g. I will not do that/I cannot do that/He does not do that)	.	.	.
Use connecting words (e.g. also, finally, after, but) correctly to link simple sentences.	.	.	.
Punctuation Objectives:
Use question marks appropriately	.	.	.
Use capital letters for proper nouns (e.g. holidays, place names, titles)	.	.	.
Use comma correctly to separate items in a list, in dates, and in addresses.	.	.	.
Spelling:
Use ‘es’ to form plural of certain words (e.g. radishes)	.	.	.
Visual Presentation Objectives
Use words and pictures to create a message	.	.	.
Print legibly	.	.	.
* partial list from the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, Curriculum Expectations, Grade 2

 

Sample Terminal Objectives: Grade 3 *	Needs Improvement	Satisfactory	N/A
Grammar Objectives:
Use correct subject-verb agreement	.	.	.
Correctly use nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs	.	.	.
Use irregular plurals correctly (e.g., deer, loaves, children)	.	.	.
Punctuation Objectives:
Use the apostrophe in common contractions (e.g., can’t, I’ll)	.	.	.
Use exclamation marks appropriately;	.	.	.
Spelling Objectives
Use abbreviations to spell frequently used words (e.g., Mister/Mr.)	.	.	.
Use phonics and memorized spelling rules (e.g., some verbs ending with a consonant double the consonant before ed or ing: stop/stopped, signal/signalling) to increase accuracy in spelling;	.	.	.
Word Use and Vocabulary Building Objectives:
Use compound words	.	.	.
Choose words that are most appropriate for their purpose (e.g., to express a feeling);	.	.	.
Use common prefixes and suffixes	.	.	.
Visual Presentation Objectives
Print legibly and begin to use cursive writing	.	.	.
* partial list from the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, Curriculum Expectations, Grade 3

 

Sample Terminal Objectives: Grade 4 *	Needs Improvement	Satisfactory	N/A
Grammar Objectives:
Write simple and compound sentences.	.	.	.
Use a variety of  sentence types correctly and appropriately (e.g. questions and exclamations.)	.	.	.
Use verb tenses correctly and appropriately (e.g. simple past, present and future)	.	.	.
Use connecting words (e.g. also, finally, after, but) correctly to link ideas in a paragraph.	.	.	.
Punctuation Objectives:
Use the apostrophe to indicate possession.	.	.	.
Use quotation marks for direct speech.	.	.	.
Word Use and Vocabulary Building Objectives:
Use synonyms and antonyms.	.	.	.
Choose words that are most effective for their purpose (e.g. to describe vividly)	.	.	.
Visual Presentation Objectives
Use proper form for paragraphs (e.g. indentation, spacing, margins)	.	.	.
Use cursive writing legibly	.	.	.
* partial list from the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, Curriculum Expectations, Grade 4

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