Spot the Plot

This spring break, while many of you amazing teachers are off enjoying some much deserved R&R, I am at home celebrating with that nasty stomach bug that has been going around. WOO-HOO! While it is absolutely no fun, I figure teaching is the only profession where it is more work to call in sick than it is to stay home. In that case, I am enjoying getting better and resting...with NO SUB PLANS! (How's that for a silver lining?) ;-)

This also gives me a chance to catch up on blogging and TpT work while I binge on my latest guilty pleasure, Pretty Little Liars. That brings me to this post: All about PLOT!

I always like to test things out with my students before I ever share anything on my blog or store. Before spring break started, I taught my kids all about plot. In the past, I had been teaching plot as a 5-finger retell...remember this?

However, my bright bunch of kiddos were ready for more. As a looping teacher, I continually need to find ways to change up my lessons so they are fresh and new. I couldn't wait to teach them the 5 elements of plot using the roller coaster strategy! 

I started by making an anchor chart based off of my own ideas and a hodge-podge of ideas found on Pinterest. Here's what I came up with:

I put this poster up a couple of days before introducing this new way to look at plot. The kids were so intrigued! 

We came up with roller coaster actions for each "spot on the plot" and read several stories as a class to help model the strategy. Here are some of the books that I found to have simple, concrete examples of a plot line:

After several days, students were ready to try it on their own. I created this graphic organizer to match my anchor chart and printed it on 11x17 paper. The end result is like a plot placemat...so cute!

We used the story Dog Breath, by Dav Pilkey. It is perfect for this!

The students felt so accomplished at the end! 

All in all, I felt like this method of teaching plot worked very well with my class. Since I teach both first and second grade, I felt like I needed to make a simplified version for the younger kids that just includes Beginning-Middle-End. I can't wait to share it with you! 

You can find my Spot the Plot pack at my TpT shop HERE!