Stories can be boring..."YAWN"...if characters are not doing anything in your story. Characters NEED to:

-Talk..."I'm jumping off the diving board today," Jabari told his dad.

-Move...Jabari looked up. He began to climb. Up and up. And up and up. Until he got to the top. Jabari stood up straight. He walked all the way to the end of the diving board.

-Thinking...Jabari started to climb. Up and up. This ladder is very tall, he thought.

Let's use the example..."I went to gym class. We play tag. I had fun."

Last week, on Thursday, I went to gym class. The gym is the biggest room at Prince Street School. I went to gym with my friends in 3A. We walked down the long hallway and made one right turn. Then, we walked down a short hallway to get to the gym. I go to gym class every second day to learn and play new games. "Have a seat on the circle," says Mr. Toombs as we walk down the stairs. I hope we play tag today, I think to myself as I find my spot on the circle. Some of my favorite games are tag and basketball. We get to run very fast and that is great exercise for my body and heart. When I start running fast, I can feel the air moving my hair and I can hear my breathing. Mr. Toombs is a great teacher because he makes gym class fun.

Please do neat printing with letters on the lines and start with...

Dear Mrs. Joudrey,

And remember...

-people in your story need to be: talking, moving and thinking

-finger spaces between words

-punctuation and uppercase letters