Looking For a Friend:
A Snowman Story

Once upon a time, two little children made a snowman in the park. They played with him until it was time for supper. The snowman was lonely because no one was there to play with him. He decided to go and make friends somewhere else. He walked to the station and got a train that was going to New York City.

The snowman was delighted about his trip. Once he arrived in New York he walked around the city looking at all of the lights. He then went to the freezer section of the Acme because he was a little soft from his trip. At the Acme he saw 2 friendly children. He decided to follow them home.

On the way, they stopped at the skating rink in Rockefeller Center. The children were happy to play hockey with the Snowman. He didn't skate very well, but he laughed every time he fell down. They all went home to Long Island. On the way, the Snowman saw an airport and wanted to take a plane ride. He liked getting a first-class seat in the plane's icebox. He slept all the way to Philadelphia!

When he woke up he found himself in the middle of the Philadelphia Airport. It was very crowded and very noisy. He knew he had to leave there at once. He walked out of the airport and took a taxi. He asked the driver to take him to the park. He just knew he would find children there. When he got to the park he saw a lot of children but he went to where the 2 children were building a snowman.

"Maybe they are making a friend for me!" thought the Snowman. The children and the two snowmen had fun playing in the snow. They even had a little snowball fight. When it got dark, the children had to go home. This time our Snowman had a friend and was not alone. They took a boat back to New Jersey.

When they got off the boat he looked for a bus stop. He wanted to find the park where he was created. He was hoping to find his 2 friends again. It took a while to find the park but they did. Once at the park our Snowman ran to the spot where the children had built him. The two children were there and they were so happy to see the snowman and meet his new friend. They played together until it got dark and the children had to go home. “Will you be here tomorrow?” the children asked. “Yes,” they both answered. “We will be here until the spring.” And they all lived happily ever after!!

Our Collaborative Writing:   How we did it

The class was divided into 4 groups, with each group responsible for writing one page and Mrs. Schmidt;s class writing the other 4 pages.

Objectives:  students engaged in a cooperative activity with  classmates and other first graders and demonstrated ability to revise writing by rereading written passages.

I sat with my students and had the role of scribe and facilitator.  I asked leading questions, suggested times to reread what was written and modeled this several times, asked for any changes - basically guided the group, making sure everyone had opportunity to contribute. 

After their passage was completed, the students alternated reading parts to the group until everyone had a chance to read all the sentences.  While this was going on, our classmates were becoming very interested in the story and looking forward to having "their turn" to write together.

Our first "page" was posted on our class website for our partners in Willinboro to see.

The next day, the first passage written by Mrs. S's class and was posted on her website and we all read it together.  Our second group gathered to create the "next installment".  This continued until the whole story was written.

The snowman developed a "problem" in the story and eventually the writers found a solution.  By the time our last group was ready to do their part, they were expecting to reread to make it better and had the most success with this strategy for revision.

Good job !