Story elements

Happy Sunday friends!

We've been working *really* hard on story elements- especially setting and characters, and beginning/ middle/ end in my classroom lately!

I introduce these basically on the first day of school- as soon as we start reading and my kids know it like the back of their hand by this time in the year!

I introduce setting first with this anchor chart:

And I introduce characters with this anchor chart:

Then, after we read each story we go back and talk about all the story elements. 

Now- this year I have a Smart Board so I have a file I just pull up and we insert everything into it, but this was a picture from last year. As the year goes on, I let my kids come up and help draw with me. Can you guess what this story is?? 

I wish I had a video of us doing this- it's very interactive. My mentor teacher when  I was student teaching taught this to me (she is AMAZING!) We have a sound effect for each story part- After setting and characters we chant what the anchor charts say- the "star" of the show *main character* (like an announcer introducing the show host) after wish we hug ourselves and wish really hard.  Problem is all their favorite... we say "dun dun duunnn" like a suspense movie and for resolution we all pretend to have a magnifying glass out.

This helps my kiddos out *SO* very much in retelling (which we all know is a huge Kindergarten skill) and eventually they will become masters at summarizing! 

Something that I'm working on is a big puzzle for my kids to be able to use in retelling. Each piece has a story element on it- I'm going to blow it up poster size, laminate, etc. and use it for kids to come up and hold the piece to help retell. (now... I realize I am missing the rising action/ climax/ etc.... but we are kindergarten, here!)

We've used this as a worksheet and cut up and glued back together before- the kids love it! Feel free to snag it if you'd like! {click on the picture}