Seven Days of Daring Deeds

Language Arts/Art

Students will write and publish an adventure story in which main events take place on consecutive days of the week.

What You Need

• Construction paper
• Unlined writing paper
• Crayons, colored pencils or markers
• Binding materials (a two-hole punch and yarn, or a stapler)

What To Do

1. Tell students they are going to write and illustrate a story, working in seven writing teams. The story is to be about some adventures that occur on a trip and take place over seven days. Team One tells about an adventure that happens on Sunday, Team Two tells about Monday's adventure, and so forth. Each team should use about the same number of pages (say, one or two) for its part of the story.
2. Help the class plan the story's setting, characters, and plot.
   • SETTING: As a trip destination, suggest a familiar place in your community or a place students know about from their reading or from social studies classes. Let students decide the time of year when the story will take place.
   • CHARACTERS: Students decide who the characters are (perhaps a family of three or two friends and a dog) and how the characters are traveling (e.g., on foot, on a train, in a canoe, on a bus).
   • PLOT: Have students brainstorm some exciting events (a thrilling canoe ride, an encounter with wild animals, a scary climb up a mountain, etc.) to build into their story. List the events on the chalkboard.
3. Work with each team as students plan and write the story. Pay special attention to the first team so students get off to a good start.
4. Read the whole story to the class. Before students publish their book, work with three or four students to finalize the text. Then have students make the final draft.
5. Select a team of artists to illustrate each day's adventure.
6. Ask a student to place the illustrations where they belong in the text and then bind the book. Keep it handy on a shelf or table so that students can read it to themselves or to one another.