One Sunny Day by Konya Watkins

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Johnny. Johnny was eight years old and he loved to go to Florida to visit with his grandparents, Mimi and Papa during summer vacations. Vacationing with them was usually the highlight of his year. When Johnny would spend his weekends with Mimi and Papa, they would have lots of fresh fruit they picked from the trees and vines in their very own back yard. Johnny could eat all of the strawberries and oranges he wanted. He also enjoyed putting the fruit on the ice cream that Mimi made just for him. Most of all, Johnny enjoyed their small swimming pool which was always waiting for him in their back yard.
One day, Mimi and Papa realized that Johnny was getting older and they wanted to do something a little different that year. When Johnny arrived, off to the beach they went. Mimi fixed a nice big picnic basket, and she also took a kite and beach ball. She had sandwiches, drinks, and all of his favorite snacks in the basket. She had even brought fruit from their backyard and some ice cream in the cooler. The sun was shining and Johnny’s hair blew in the cool breeze. “Gosh”, Johnny said aloud. “This is the biggest pool I’ve ever seen!” Johnny was very happy and this made Mimi and Papa very happy. What a day Johnny had! What a day at the beach!

After sharing your creative writing story with your students, have your students use their critical thinking skills to answer the following questions to write or dictate their story. After writing their stories, have the students draw a picture using the paint program to illustrate their story.

Critical thinking questions to ask students that would change your story to their story :
1. How would you change that main character? (Introduction)
2. Where would your story take place? (Setting)
3. What would happen to the main character in your story? (Plot)
4. How would your story end?( Ending)