Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Scary short stories


Halloween has always been one of my absolute favorite holidays. As a kid, I usually had my costume picked out by my birthday in the summer and couldn’t wait to go trick or treating with my friends. The amount of loot we made out with every year still blows my mind… I mean, who really needs 86lbs of candy? It’s insane. I’m pretty sure that’s when my sugar addition and subsequent tooth decay started, but that’s not what this post is all about.

Beyond the costumes and candy, Halloween is the official kickoff of the holiday season. It’s a time for haunted houses and ghost stories. A time for FUN. And that’s what this week is all about.

In language arts, we’ve been working on narrative writing so I decided to shake things up with some good ol’ scary stories. I’m not a huge fan of horror in general, but the students love them and they’re great for teaching elements of good narrative writing.

We started the lesson with a couple of spooky tales from this AWESOME website. I read the first one aloud in our reading area while we pretended to be around a campfire at night. Then we brainstormed together on the white board about what elements make up a scary story. Here’s a look at what we came up with:

Excuse my messy board
 
Here's the PDF if you want to download it.
Later, I turned them loose to start drafting their own haunted stories that they will share later in the week with the class.

Because I’m trying to find new and interesting ways for my students to present their work with 6 + 1 traits, I am going to have them voice record their stories and use editing software to add creepy sound effects to the background. I’m really excited to see the finished products. I promise to post more on these when I have them completed. Until then, enjoy some Halloween candy for meL

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