Ice Cream “Small Moments” Stories freebie with rubric

For one last writing assignment for the year, we wrote ice cream stories. We’ve written several personal narratives this year, but for this one, I wanted them to take this big topic and zoom in to make it a small moment. This is of course Lucy Calkins-inspired.  🙂

I started by writing a boring version of an ice cream story. It was basically just listing events like this:


I went to the ice cream store on Saturday. I went with my son. We got chocolate. It was good. We had fun. 

I asked the kids if they enjoyed my story, then went into reasons why it wasn’t very interesting. We decided that we would rewrite the story together to make it more interesting.

First, we brainstormed some sensory words that could be used in an ice cream story. Then I modeled the small moments concept during a shared writing. I was leading the story with an experience I had getting ice cream, but as a class we worked on narrowing the topic and zooming in on small details. Together, we wrote a great “small moments” narrative! My students helped me add in interesting words and good transitions. They has some really cute ideas to make my story sound more interesting. I don’t have a picture of the actual story, but one cute idea was: “The line was pouring out the door” in place of “There was a long line.” Another student said, “I wondered if anyone would notice if I cut the line. I couldn’t wait another second.” SO cute!

We reread the story together to practice the editing process as well. After going through the whole writing process together, the kids were ready to write their own ice cream narratives. After writing our stories, I set the timer for 5 minutes. For the entire 5 minutes, students have to reread their paper to edit. Even if they already edited, they all still have to take this 5 minutes for one more edit. Then we read our papers to a buddy. I encouraged them to ask each other questions about their stories. Finally, we read our stories to the class.

I’ve created this freebie for all of you to write ice cream stories with your class:

 

If you take the freebie, I’d love to hear from you. If you do a small moments writing assignment, I’d definitely love to hear what you do and how you teach it. If you have links to your blog talking about it, that would be fabulous! I’m always looking for more ideas about how to teach this concept.

If you love rubrics and would like a megapack of them, click here!