Writing Tales!

While we never stop schooling, Bug & I started up full-time homeschooling 2 weeks ago. We are using a new (to us) writing program called Writing Tales. I hadn't heard of it until I saw it mentioned on a homeschooling message board. I did a bit of research and realized that it would be perfect for the girl. I went back to the homeschool board and did a quick search in the 'for sale' section and found a copy at a great price. Yay!

The way this work is, we read a fable, learn some grammar, then Bug writes the fable in her own words. The second week, we keep working on grammar, Bug writes a rough draft where she is allowed to get creative...give characters names, change what animal they are, etc. At the end of the week she writes her final draft. At the end of the school year, she will have 15 fables that she's written that we can bind into a book.

With Bug's permission, here is her retelling of the fable, The Crow and The Pitcher, followed by her rough draft (where she got to be creative). If you click on the page and it will open up a bigger version. It didn't scan clearly, I suspect because it was written in pencil, so I'll type each version here, as well.


Retelling:

A crow was strolling around on an island, looking for water to drink. Suddenly, something caught his eye. He looked over to his left.......and he saw a Pitcher! Overjoyed, he bounded over and stuck his beak in, but something was wrong. There was very little water in it! To solve it, he took 20 pebbles and dropped them in, one by one. Finally, the water was high enough so that he could drink from the Pitcher.






Rough draft:



Once, in the jungles of Africa, there was a baby panther crying under a boabab tree. She was thirsty and her name was Sniffy. Her mommy was killed and she needed someone to take care of her. She got up and set off to find some water. Suddenly, she tripped on something and fell right on her sensitive, little pink nose! She got up and turned around to see what she had tripped on. It was a large, tall, hollow rock, and it didn't have a lot of water in it! Sniffy saw a big piece of meat lying nearby. She picked it up with her mouth, put it in the water, and the water level rose. Then she drank the water.