I love dedicating a significant amount of time in my classroom to writing.  Over the years, I have found many excellent resources that guide you to creating students who love to write and write well.  

The stories below are from our Tall Tales unit a few years ago.  The students had to break down the elements of a Tall Tale and then create their own character.  Then, the wrote their own Tall Tale and to show the exaggeration, we taped the story pages together to show exactly how tall their tale was.  

​The kids really enjoyed this project (can you tell?! These are from 2nd graders!) and were able to create some great stories!  

A few years ago as I was browsing on TpT, I found this incredible resource and it was absolutely free!  

I took it to my 2nd grade team and we all agreed that the kids would love these activities.  

​As we were focusing on "How To" writing at the time, this tied in perfectly!

Even my reluctant writers were enthusiastic about this writing opportunity. 

At some point, someone said you should put butter on him and therefore, many of the pieces involve getting butter, but hey - if they're writing, what do I care?!  

They're writing and they are associating it with a fun time!

​Win/Win for everyone I think!