The Writing Process & Story Writing

We have begun story writing in grade 4/5! At the beginning of last week, I showed the students a picture of a puppy who had torn apart a roll of toilet paper. We discussed what the puppy might have been thinking, why it tore apart the paper, what the owners would think if they discovered the mess the puppy had made, etc, Then I told them that I decided to write a mini story about the torn up toilet paper from the perspective of the puppy. I imagined that the puppy was angry to be left alone all day, bored, trying to send a message and communicate it's feelings, etc., Then I showed them two different photos. One of a polar bear with it's paws up against a truck window, and the other of a group of geese - one of whom, has dived off the edge of an waterside cliff. They chose which story prompt to use for their own story writing. Once they had chosen their story prompt, they then had to choose which perspective they wished to write from (either the mother goose who saw her gosling dive off a cliff, the gosling who dove off the cliff, the polar bear with it's paws up against the truck window or the person sitting inside the truck). We began our writing by using story planners in order to map out all of the elements of the story (setting, problem, plot action/events, conclusion/resolution of problem). Most students have already completed their first draft of writing. Next steps are revising and editing our rough drafts (reading them to make sure they make sense, checking for consistent tense and voice, editing for spelling and punctuation, etc.). The final step in the writing process will be publishing. So far, the stories are looking great. I think we have a lot of budding creative authors in grade 4/5!