{Manila Authors' Fair}

On Thursday, we had our annual Authors' Fair. This is one of my favorite days of the school year. My students write stories that must have: characters, settings, a problem & a solution. I have my students take their stories through the writing process. We started in March by thinking of ideas of what to write about. Then once their stories were completed we edited them and re-wrote another 'correct' draft. Then their WONDERFUL parents type their stories (so I don't have to type & glue 24 books). We then spend the rest of April illustrating our books. Thursday was the Authors' Fair. Parents come to see their child's completed book. It is a fun afternoon! They are so proud of their books! Some of my favorite problems in their books this year were: Katie's- A bunny & a bird run into each other on their way to work. Then the bunny can fly & the bird can hop. Brigham's-He made his own version of the popular kid's book Skippy Jon Jones...In Brig's story a cat see's his reflection & thinks he's a cheeta, so he enters a marathon & learns he is not a cheeta when he gets last place. Faith's- A monkey who fell out of his tree & couldn't climb back up until...he found a magic banana! I even talked jon into dropping by this year. Some of my girls were a little shy around him. One of them wouldn't read her story to jon until I agreed to be a buffer between them. She was later quoted as saying, "jon's big and scary!" However, they all didn't feel that way, another one of my girls said she wanted to marry him.

I am so proud of all my students. They come into 1st grade barely writing sentences & leave writing 1-2 page stories! It is so much fun to watch them learn & grow!