There is much to know about writing a fairytale! We began by reading lots of fairytales! Old ones, new ones and different versions. Then, we began to discuss "What makes a  fairytale good?" We made a rubric (that is what we do so that we know what to have in an excellent story). Good fairytales have detail, they're interesting, have difficult problems to solve and should have some magic or mystery.

Then, we researched! We took a whole bunch of fairytales and in groups looked for story starters, settings and characters. Finally we wrote them down to guide us and then we started writing our story boards. Story boarding is when you draw all of the  important parts of a story - character, setting, problem, events and solution. You can add lots of detail to a drawing and it's not as hard as thinking of those details when you write. It also gets your brain all warmed up to story writing.

We looked at what makes a good fairytale again and Miss Wilson wrote one for us. We help her by giving suggestions and asking her to put in description where it might sound good. Then, we decided if it met the "criteria" for an excellent story on our rubric.

Before we got our "W.I.P" - Work In Progress books out for our rough draft, we conferenced with Miss Wilson. She asked us lots of questions like - Who is this? Where are they? How did they get there? Does this make sense? What colour? How big? Before you know it, you have lots of description and detail that you didn't even know was there!

Then, we had a gallery walk, where we can look at everyone else's work and ask them questions. It helps get ideas and to show off the good work we all do.

Once we wrote our rough draft, we had to read it over twice and look for mistakes. Then, we had to read it to a friend. You usually find the mistakes when we read it aloud. This is called editing. Next, we conferenced with Miss Wilson again to edit our work. We use C.O.P.S. to edit our work. That means you check for Capitals, Overall (printing, spacing and neatness), Punctuation and Spelling. Once we've made all our changes we give our rough draft to Miss Wilson and she typed it up on the computer. Then, we did the illustrations. Miss Wilson published our story by putting our title page on and coiling it.

We get choices on how we want to present our story to others. Miss Wilson had bought some clay to make puppets with, so everyone picked making a puppet and putting on a puppet show for their project. To really get to know our characters we did a character sketch which is just a web of all the characteristics of our puppet.

Then we sat on the "Author's Chair" and shared our work with our classmates. We put on a puppet show and Miss Wilson taped us. It was tons of fun! Following is a sampling of the story maps, story books and puppets that were created by the children.

John Against the Dragon by John

One cold afternoon John went for a walk. He saw a frozen building. A dragon was just about to burn it. John must defend the building. John throws the dragon right when an axe falls on the building. The dragon sees the axe. He throws the axe on John's head. The dragon hops on the axe on John's head. John flips the dragon and he falls into the dirt and then vanishes. John skips away.

The End

King Christian by Christian

Once upon a time there was a dragon, who was hungry. So, he went to Christian's castle that was in an open area in the forest, and took the princess. "Help, Help," she cried. So, King Christian and Prince Braedan went to rescue her. They got on their horses and found the dragon. They followed the dragon to a cave. They made a deal that they must fight the dragon, while Prince Braedan went to get the Princess. King Christian fought the dragon and with one mighty blow he killed the dragon. They rode back to King Christian's castle and had a big feast with chicken. The next day. King Christian said that his son Braedan would get married and everyone was invited.

The End

Colter and the Dragon by Colter

Once upon a time a long. long, time ago there was a good boy named Colter and he had a dragon. They lived in a castle. Colter's dragon flew away. Colter had to go and find his dragon. He walked and walked until he came to a big, big, big cave. Colter cautiously walked inside the big, big, big cave. Luckily, he found his dragon. Colter told the dragon to come with him and said, "Don't ever fly away again like that! You scared me!"

The dragon said "Roar, roar", and that meant that he would never do it again without asking. They went home together, and lived happily ever after.

The End

Jordan and the Beanstalk by Jennifer

Once upon a time there was a beanstalk and a girl and a mother too. They saw a man selling magical beans. They bought some. Thy went home and mother threw the beans out the window. The beanstalk started to grow! It grew into a huge beanstalk. Jordan climbed it. At the top, she found a castle with a giant mother and an Ogre. The Ogre was a asleep. Jordan took the gold from the Mother. Then, she took the chicken that lays the golden eggs. Then, she took the talking harp.

The End

Jesse and the Dragon by Jesse

Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in a big castle. His castle was a stable. One day a mean dragon came and blew fire at Jesse. Jesse got scared  and stabbed it in his tummy. The dragon was dead, and they all lived happily ever after.

The End

Jennifer the Princess by Jordan

One day a princess named Jennifer lived in a bad castle in the woods. The princess Jennifer was upset because she was alone. She dropped  oil on a hot stove and there was a bonfire. The castle caught on fire. A prince came to the castle. The prince had a rope and he threw the rope up to the princess who caught the rope. The prince climbed it and the prince blew the fire out. The fire was out! They fell in love  and they lived in a new castle. A castle that was not on fire. They lived happily ever after.

The End

Jesse and the Dragon by Kathleen

Once upon a time there was a boy and a mom and a dad named Jesse. They lived in a house. One morning a mean dragon came and took the Dad. Jesse said "Come back Dad!" Jesse found the fairy. "Why are you crying?" She asked.

"Because my Dad is gone with the dragon!" said the boy. The fairy put the dragon to sleep. Mom found the Dad in a cage. The family rescued him and lived happily ever after.

The End

The Flying Dragon by Kevin

Once there was a fire breathing dragon. He had scales on the back of his back. One day he thought of setting fire to the castle. So, he flew up the sidewalk and down the sidewalk until he found a castle. It was in an open area in the forest. He breathed and puffed on it till it burned down and then he took the princess. The armored guard, who was in charge of taking care of the princess, shot the dragon with a bow and arrow into the dragon's bottom. Luckily, he dropped the princess and fell asleep for a million years. The princess found a King and got married and hired the guard for their new castle.

The End

Kayla by Madison

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Kayla who lived in a little, grassy hut behind a couple of tall, rocky mountains. She lived by a blue, blue, shiny lake. One day Kayla was feeling very bored. She had a great idea! She carved a big ling stick into a part of a fishing rod. She went looking for some string to attach to her stick. Then, she had a fishing rod. So, Kayla went fishing in the nearby lake. Kayla was so happy. She caught the biggest fish ever. Kayla was very pleased. She had fish for dinner. She invited her friend Jackie. Jackie lived in France, but she spoke English. Jackie was very nice. She took two hours to get to Kayla's hut and then it took two more hours to decorate her hut. "Perfect timing," said Jackie.

"Yah," said Kayla "Hope you like fish!"

"Mmmmm, I love fish," answered Jackie.

"Well that's good," said Kayla. So the two enjoyed fish for dinner.

The End

Mark

Once upon a time there was a Grandma in the kitchen. She was baking gingerbread cookies. All of a sudden the gingerbread man ran outside! "It's a pig!" said the gingerbread man. He ran some more. A dog, a cow, and a horse he saw. They didn't catch him! Then, there was some water!

"OH NO!" said the gingerbread man.

A fox said " I will help you gingerbread man. Fox is thinking, "yummy!"

Gingerbread man gets on the fox's tail, then his back, then his head and last his nose. Suddenly, SNAP! OH NO! Fox ate the gingerbread man!

The End

Jack and the Beanstalk by Matthew

There once was a boy named Jack. Jack had a mom and dad and brother named Chris. Jack's mom and dad went to I.G.A. and Jack went too. Suddenly a dragon appeared and took Jack! Jack yelled, "HELP!" The dragon slipped and Jack twisted and wiggled  and wiggled and wiggled. Then, Jack hit the dragon and ran all the way home. He will always remember to stay with his mom and dad.

The End

The Queen and King by Michelle

There was Queen and a King who lived in a village and they wanted buy a castle, but they didn't have much money. A witch came and gave them money for their castle. They lived in Canada. They got married and they lived happily ever after.

The End

Jack and the Beanstalk by Ryan

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack and his mom. They lived in a deep dark castle. One day a dragon came and took the castle and Jack's mother. Jack meets a fairy that leads him to a secret room and he finds a sword and shield. He looks for his mom and finds her in the cave with the dragon. He gets the sword and cuts the dragon's tail. He rescues his mom and they live happily ever after.

The End

Jack and the Beanstalk by Rocio

Once there was a boy named Jack and Jack had a baby brother and a mom. Jack went to a castle to save a princess from a dragon. All of a sudden he saw the dragon. The dragon grabbed the princess and Jack was too late! Luckily, a fairy came with needle. It said "sleep" on it. It would make the dragon fall asleep. Jack crept up to the dragon and stabbed it with the needle. The dragon fell asleep and Jack ran to save the princess. Finally he found the princess and married her and they lived happily ever after.

The End

The Dragon and E.T. by Jack

There once was a castle with a princess in it and a dragon came and blew it up. Some knights went to save the princess in the dragon's castle. They found the castle but they couldn't beat the dragon's friend E.T. Nobody could beat E.T! Jack came along and had his special shield and beat E.T. and the dragon. E.T. was gone and the dragon died. They lived happily ever after.

The End

Jack and the Beanstock by GianMarco

One day Jack was helping his Mom. Mom gave Jack some beans and went to bed. Jack was on the beanstalk and he saw the castle. He went in the castle and there was a tall woman. Fee Fy Foe Fum! It was the Ogre. Jack took  the hen. He went down and then he went back up again. The Ogre was there, eating in his castle. Jack took the golden eggs. The Ogre woke up. Jack ran and the Ogre ran. Jack crawled down the beanstalk and the Ogre fell.

The End

Sleeping Beauty by Quinn

Once upon a time there was  Queen and King. They wished and wished for a beautiful baby. One day their wish was granted. Their baby had hair as golden as the sun. The baby grew up into a beautiful princess named Beauty. She loved the castle very much. Beauty loved to go into the attic and play with the spiders. The King and Queen were so happy.

On the Princess's first birthday they only invited 12 fairies. They didn't invite the snobby fairy. All the fairies had fun giving out their magic gifts. They had beautiful chocolate and white cake on golden plates. Suddenly, the snobby witch swung open the door and yelled, "Why didn't you invite me?" The King said, in a nervous voice, "We didn't invite you because we thought you had a nasty flu".

The snobby fairy said, "I have a special gift for Beauty too! A-a-a-a-a-a! My gift for Beauty is, on her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel. Beauty will fall into a deep, deep sleep years." The Queen screamed so loud that the house shook.

The King said, "Don't worry, I will burn all the spinning wheels in town."

Years passed by and it was Beauty's 16th birthday. The chefs were busy making Beauty's cake. Beauty was sitting by the gate waiting for all the guests. All the guests arrived by ten o'clock at night. When they saw the Princess, they gasped and said, "Happy Birthday!" They ate and ate and ate. They had drinks as red as Beauty's lips.

Beauty went up to the attic because she forgot her elegant necklace. She noticed a small woman sitting at a spinning wheel spinning some pink silky blankets. Beauty asked, "Can I please try?"

The small woman said, "Of course you can darling." Beauty pricked her finger in the spinning wheel. She fell onto the pink silky blankets with pillows as red as Beauty's lips. Beauty slept for 100 years! All of the guests in the castle fell fast asleep. Even the King and Queen. A Prince knew about the Princess and he wanted to rescue her, so he did. The prince entered the castle as white as snow. The prince found Beauty lying on the silky pink blankets. He kissed the princess right on the lips and she woke up. All the guests and the Queen  and Princess woke up. The Prince asked them, "Can I marry her?"

The Queen said, "Yes, you can marry her". So they did and they had ten babies. They lived happily ever after.

The End