Finding the elements of story

Hi, Future Ticia 2023 here, I’m updating this old reading lesson to share again, and so expect me to pop in from time to time with my comments on this elements of story lesson.

I remember when I taught public school, one of the big lessons we worked on with my first and second graders was learning the elements of story. It was a lesson we worked on over and over again. So, when we sat down and were looking at the classic tale of Tom Sawyer, I knew it was a great time to give my kids an elements of story lesson to enhance their reading skills (Future Ticia 2023 says I really need to make a learn to read landing page, adds this to my to-do list).

(there are affiliate links in here)

Elements of Story lesson supplies

elements of story printable (on the subscriber page, join my newsletter to gain access), a nice strong picture book (we used: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer #2: The Best Fence Painter (Easy Reader Classics because we were studying Missouri and this was a great Mark Twain book to read, Future Ticia would like to point out we read the entire Tom Sawyer book in 7th grade)

Quick note about Tom Sawyer before diving into the elements of story

I’ve always enjoyed his story, but then I always enjoy stories with young scamps in them or not-so-young scamps.  I like trickster characters………

This may explain the man I married and that awesome grin he has. It probably also explains why I’m amused by my boys’ crazy antics sometimes.

Well, it’s a cute story that takes that portion of Huck Finn and makes it into an easy reader.

Elements of Story Lesson

Good lessons to learn about stories don’t have to be complicated.

In this case, it’s as simple as drawing a picture.

In particular:

Yes, that was the requirement. My kindergartener drew a picture of the house where they were painting the fence.

Now, if I were to do this activity with a first grader I would require them to write the word with it. Making it a bit more difficult for second grade, I would require a full sentence.

If I was also doing this with upper elementary, I would require a full paragraph with some details about the setting.

But, I was completing this with children in kindergarten in preschool, so…

pictures. Future Ticia 2023 really wishes past Ticia saved pictures in a bigger size, because these pictures are so incredibly small.

What else could you do with the elements of story?

Well, in the printable we are only looking for characters, setting, and problem. However, if you want to make it a bit more complicated, you could very easily expand the problem into beginning, middle, and end. Or you could look at conflict and resolution.

This is the beginning steps to literary analysis. It’s not like you are going to dump a first-grader deep into looking at the themes of Tom Sawyer.

No, that’s what you do in middle school, which prepares you for looking at Huckleberry Finn and the moral conflicts Huck Finn goes through as he realizes Jim is a person, and how harmful slavery is.

As you can see the activity doesn’t have to be complicated. This was completed by kindergarten and preschool kids. It as as simple as reading the story and drawing the elements. We could have added in solution, but this time I opted not to (partially the quick printable I made didn’t have space).

Huh, says future Ticia 2023 as she finishes up some final details, I already have a learn-to-read tag.

More great ideas for learning to read

Learning to read is more than just sounding out words (though that is part of it). It’s some soft skills like:

• Circle books with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Danny and the Dinosaur lesson
• Very Hungry Caterpillar