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100% written and illustrated by kids ages 6-13

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Writing Activity: Stories about trust, truth and lying

The Mother’s Day Gift by Mathew Thompson, age 11, Dallas, Oregon

The Clay Pot by Naomi Wendland, age 12, Lusaka, Zambia
These two stories deal with the same problem: the tempation to lie to hide a mistake. The temptation to lie to cover up a mistake is a common one, and most people, at some point in their lives, give in to the temptation to pretend they haven’t done something that, in fact, they have.


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Writing Activity: plot a story on a graph with the brilliant, funny “Shapes of Stories” talk by Kurt Vonnegut

This writing activity is based on a very funny Kurt Vonnegut lecture on the shape of stories. In this project, students learn to develop compelling narratives by graphing the plots. American author Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) is best known for his book Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).  In this very funny, very brilliant talk on the fundamentals of the narrative arc, Vonnegut […]


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Writing Activity: developing character and perspective with character sketches

This writing activity is built around 11-year-old Ella Staats’ story, “My Mother’s Little Girl'” published in Stone Soup in September/October 2012. Read the story and then work on your project, which is write a story with two lead characters. But before you write the story, write a full character development, at least two typed pages […]