3rd Grade Narrative Writing

By: Elena Kohn, 3rd Grade Teacher

We are all storytellers, but being able to tell a really gripping story where the characters and places come to life takes practice and effort.   This is what third graders have been working on.  Each third grader outlined, drafted, edited and revised a true “small moment” story about something in their life.  We learned that stories that seem initially mundane- stories about going to school, being stuck in traffic, and being bored at home- can actually be really magical.  What matters is how the author crafts their words.  We practiced adding hooks to capture our readers’ attention.  We learned all about dialogue and punctuation.  We learned how to organize our writing with paragraphs.  Additionally, students worked to create a comic of their writing, demonstrating the skill of being able to summarize a piece of writing.

Please enjoy this example of a student’s small moment story!

THE CIRCUS SHOW By: Mia (3rd Grade)

“We’re here,” my mom said. It was the night of the performance. I was wearing  a special  gymnastics suit with a skirt. I got out of the car and  walked into a big room. I looked  up  at the spotlight. It looked like there were thousands of them.

My friends were chatting loudly. 

“Are you excited?” I said to Gaia.

“Ya,” she said.

“Practice time,” my teacher said. I walked to the big balls that you stand on.  They are called globes.  It was time to practice my routine with my friends Gaia, Charlie and Chloe. I got on the globes and we started our routine. 

First we circle the room and then Chloe and Charlie get off the globes. After that me and Gaia jumped from globe to globe. I felt like I was flying. By the time we finished it was time for me to practice rolla bolla, which is a small sphere with a platform on top. I got the rolla bolla and started juggling.

“Great job” the teacher told me. “It’s time to practice comedy.”

“Ok” I said. 

30 minutes later “ok everyone, the parents will be arriving soon. So let’s get backstage” said the teacher.

I ran backstage. It was dark and there were a lot of curtains and stairs. I can do this, I thought to myself. 

I heard the parents coming in. 

“Globe people get in your place.” I got in my place and the curtains opened and we started. Before I knew it the show was over.

“We did it” Gaia screamed.

“I can’t believe we did perfect,” I told her. 

 I ran down to the audience. My mom was already there to greet me. “You did amazing” my mom said and my whole family cheered.