Making a Story Roll - Writing Center Activity

Did you know that April 10th {this Sunday} is "Encourage a Young Writer Day"? While you should inspire and cultivate your students' writing skills every day, consider setting up a unique writing center activity to recognize the day. Imagination Soup guest contributor, Alida Bunder, suggests making story rolls - an exercise that will get your students excited about making {and writing!} books. Story Rolls

Collect an assortment of recycled toilet paper, paper towel, and even wrapping paper rolls, as well as colored printer paper or construction paper in various colors. Before beginning the exercise, cut the materials to the appropriate heights.

• If using toilet paper rolls, you'll need to cut a stack of paper to the height of 4-inches.
• If using a full paper towel roll, a standard sheet of paper will fit its 11-inch height.
• Both paper towel and wrapping paper rolls can be cut down to fit the width of a standard piece of printer paper (8.5-inches) as well.
• If using non-standard paper (i.e. construction paper, scrapbook paper, etc.), you'll most likely have to cut both the cardboard tubes and the paper.

With these pre-cut materials, invite your students to create a story roll! Have them place several sheets of paper end to end, creating one long sheet of paper using glue or double sided tape, and attach one end to the cardboard roll. Then, using each piece of paper as a "story frame" have your kiddos brainstorm a theme, write several story sentences, and use various graphic art tools, magazine clippings, etc. to illustrate their tale! When finished, roll the paper around the cardboard tube and secure with a colorful ribbon.

Your kinders are sure to have a blast with this exercise - it'll stretch their imagination, provide practice in proper sentence structure, and excite them to know that they've created their very own story book! In honor of their creations, set aside a shelf in the classroom library to display the books and invite other students, classes, teachers, etc. to come peruse the 'new literature'.