Fairy tales, superhero stories, fables, tall tales, and every other imaginary story falls into Fanciful Stories. Besides learning the structure and elements of a story, writers will also focus on surprising the audience and weaving in a theme, all through the lens of fiction.
Use this with all of your kids, from your little ones to your high schoolers. Spend about a month on this unit, give or take, according to your own pace. Remember though, that you can come back to this next year if you like. It’s not necessary to learn everything about writing fanciful stories during this unit. The goal is to grow as writers.
Here’s how to use Fanciful Stories:
Step 1: Mini-Lesson
The beginning of each lesson starts with a mini-lesson, a short lesson about grammar, punctuation, word choice, writing skills, and more. Mini-lessons appear in sidebars on every page so there are lots to choose from. You don’t need to do all of the mini-lessons in the unit; just pick and choose the ones that look interesting or are skills your kids need to hone!
The mini-lesson sidebars in Fanciful Stories include lots of ideas about how to write descriptively, how to use literary techniques, and how to punctuate and organize dialogue and paragraphs in a story.
Step 2: Exercises
All through the unit are exercises to teach the skills of writing fanciful stories. You’ll learn the elements of a story with a printable booklet, how to craft a detailed setting with maps and story boxes, how to assign your characters’ story roles, and how to write realistic dialogue, plus so much more. There are printables and hands-on interesting exercises throughout the unit.
The exercises mostly end up in your Journal. They are not graded and they are private unless the writer wants to share them. Spelling, grammar, and mechanics don’t matter. This is about getting ideas down on paper!
Like the mini-lessons, you don’t need to do all the exercises. Pick and choose the ones you like. You’ll be coming back to this unit next year, so be sure to save some good ideas for later.
Step 3: Writing Project
To finish off Fanciful Stories, each writer will choose a piece of writing from his or her Journal or from the Idea Bank within the unit to take through the writing process. That piece of writing will be expanded, corrected, revised, and then published for an audience (probably your family!) where it will get applauded.
Then Mom, Dad, or another mentor will carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the finished writing project with help from the Fanciful Writing unit guide. Kids and parents will talk together about what the writer learned and what the writer can make even better.
Printable Pack
This unit comes with a Printable Pack of printables that go with exercises and sidebar mini-lessons.
Supplemental Links, Videos, & Resources
There are Pinterest boards, weblinks, and a YouTube video playlist that go with this lesson on a separate page for Writer’s Workshop.
Carmen Stodden –
This Writer’s Workshop unit was so fun! It really brought out the creativity in my kids! And the mini-lessons along the side were just what they needed to give them skills with writing dialogue, etc. We loved it!
Heather O. –
I teach multiple ages and I love that this program is engaging while allowing room for each child to work at their level.
Jessica H. –
This unit style approach to writing has helped me teach all 3 of my kids (each 3 yrs apart) at the same time, making writing a family subject we all enjoy together!