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Fourth-graders create own stories
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The fourth-graders of Jan Zorman's Robinwood Lane classroom smiled with their "Indian in the Cupboard" projects on Nov. 18.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Fourth-grader Will Linker (left) took a peek into his cupboard project to see if his character had come alive, like the Indian figurine in "The Indian in the Cupboard" story.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .On Nov. 18, the fourth-graders of Jan Zorman's Robinwood Lane classroom presented their "Indian in the Cupboard" projects, where they wrote their own version of the cupboard story with their own character. Fourth-grader Sarah Varga (right) wrote the story "Mrs. Tam in the Cupboard" about Robinwood fourth-grade teacher Jeanette Tamulonis (left), who stopped in to see the project and share a smile with Varga.
By SARAH FOOR
To explore fiction writing, the Robinwood Lane students in Jan Zorman’s fourth-grade class read “The Indian in the Cupboard” by Lynne Reid Banks.
The tale follows an American Indian figurine brought to life by a magical cupboard. Much like the figurine in the tale, Zorman wanted to bring the story to life for her students.
“Our ‘Indian in the Cupboard’ project is all about understanding a story, thinking beyond it and then creating their own,” Zorman said.
As the fourth-graders read their book, they were asked to draw conclusions and make predictions about what would happen next. After better understanding how a story worked, the students carried over their lessons into their own “Cupboard” story, with a character of their choosing entering the magical place.
“I stressed the importance of sentence structure, topic sentences, proofreading and building a story around a main idea. The students had to be organized writers and link their sentences with details throughout the story,” Zorman explained.
“Our project helped teach me that you can make a story out of anything,” shared fourth-grader Christyna Reagan.
“It was a lot of fun to make an idea come alive,” said classmate Will Linker.
After Zorman edited and approved their stories, the students created cupboards out of shoe boxes and decorated the inside with their story and the main character of their tale.
The magic cupboard of Lynne Reid Banks’ tale opens with a special key. After the Robinwood fourth-graders finished their projects, Zorman presented each student with their own special key for their cupboards.