Publishing Party!

During the month of February, third graders had a special opportunity to hear from Mrs. Madden, author of The Magic Maple Tree. Mrs. Madden has been a part of the St. John’s family for many years and we were so excited to visit with her!

After hearing all about Mrs. Madden’s publishing journey and the writing process, we decided to follow in her footsteps and celebrate the finishing of our personal narrative writing by having a publishing party just like she did when she published her book!

The students were so excited! We wanted to make a class book of all our writings so that each student had the ability to read one anothers as well as read  theirs to other students. We even had Mrs. Todd’s class join us so we could read to them. Our class had a  book cover contest which really helped the students feel engaged and a part of the experience!

Some of the things we focused on in our personal narrative writing was writing grabbers or “hooks” to get the reader's attention, as well as conclusions that focused on what lesson was learned from the narrative piece. The students also included transition words, descriptive writing, and varied sentence structures.   We are so thankful for authors like Mrs. Madden who inspire students like mine to continue to write and celebrate their writing accomplishments with a publishing party! -Mrs. Clark, 3rd Grade