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My formal unit is almost complete. My students have reflected on their writing, rewritten one selected work, reviewed it with a friend, edited it with a friend (and then had it edited by me), conferenced with me, and then wrote their final copy. They also went into the computer lab to type up the final version so that everyone’s stories could be printed in the book. I then created a table of contents and an “About The Author” section, showed them a simple bookbinding process, and we all went home with beautiful final products. On Friday we’re going to celebrate by having a publishing party, where the students will read their work aloud, thank their friends for their help, and bask in their own greatness. I thought that maybe the best way to share the experience with the blog would be to post a couple of the published stories from my third grade classroom. Enjoy!

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TRAIN CRASH

It was a Friday afternoon. I packed my suitcases. My mom said, “Wait you forgot something”. I skedaddled away from her. I rushed to the train station.  The train was going.  I jumped on. By the way I was going to New York. The conductor was grumpy. He said, “Sit down.” We got inside the train. It was really boring inside. We were waiting hours and hours. This is so lackluster.  “Well, what can I do?” Suddenly the train started shaking. I started dancing! “Finally,” I said, “Some excitement.” Then too much excitement came. The train was falling out of the track. We evacuated to the back cart. Everyone was there. The train fell out of the track. I said, “I am never going to let mom send me to a train again.” No, I am serious. This will never happen again.

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Giant Fox in New York City

One morning there was a giant fox named Katy. She was a white Artic Fox. Everybody in New York City thought she was abnormous. She always destroyed neat, beautiful, and tall buildings. There were 25% of the buildings left, because she was mad and that is why she destroyed the buildings. They could not believe she came to New York City. She always was in Asia. One day on a beautiful Sunday the fox came to New York City. She was even bigger than a 500 year old tree. Katy destroyed millions of houses and crashed cars. Everything was horrible. One day Katy went to a place called ‘Nicer’. She met a fox named Alicon and they built houses together. Alicon and Katy went to New york and started to rebuild all the houses. Everything was a better life.

The Mystery of the Cut Down Trees

There was once, “A Thousand,” trees. One only survived. The rest were cut down. Also, the trees were the only plants on the planet! Also, that tree never broke down. Next, people wanted to break it down. Then, only one mysterious kid didn’t want to. That mysterious kid had a brother called, “Alex.” The mysterious kid was mysterious looking. Also, none of the people knew who was cutting down the trees. The crowd still wanted to cut it down. The kid said, “This is the last tree in the world that wasn’t cut down.”

Everyone finally knew who was cutting down the trees. It was the, “GHOST TREE BREAKER.” HE wasn’t invisible. His head is a skull on fire. The trees are not coming back because of the GHOST TREE BREAKER. No one could see that well because the GHOST TREE BREAKER is a part of the sun. The kid disguised the tree, so the GHOST TREE BREAKER could not see it was a tree. HE went back home and said, “I will be back with a form of LAND BREAKING.” Also, that tree still stands today.

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Have a good weekend!