Stormy Story Starters
LANGUAGE ARTS

Materials

(for the whole class)

• empty box or can
• index cards or slips of paper

Storms are exciting. That's probably why so many books and movies center around storms! Your students will find that writing about storms gets their imaginations swirling faster than the winds of a hurricane.

Directions

1. Decorate an empty box or can with stormy symbols, such as lightning bolts or snowflakes.
2. On small slips of paper or index cards, write story starters having to do with stormy weather, such as:
   
   I'll never forget the blizzard we had last winter.
   
   We were sailing a boat on the lake when the hurricane warning came through on the radio.
   
   I looked out the window and saw the swirling tornado in the distance.
   
   I knew the storm was bad when the wind picked up the garbage can and sent it flying down the street.
    
3. Put the story starters in your decorated box. Make an instruction sheet or label that reads, “Stormy Story Starters. Pick a story starter. Write a short story. Try to include at least three real facts about storms in your story.”
4. If you wish, save the finished stories for a rainy day. Then sit in a circle and take turns reading stories aloud.

Book Break

In the book Hurricane by David Wiesner (Houghton Mifflin, 1992), two brothers weather a storm safely inside their home. The hurricane leaves a fallen tree in their backyard that sparks the boys' imagination in countless ways. Use this book as a springboard to discuss students' personal experiences during a storm. Encourage students to write or draw about a storm they remember. What did they see? hear? How did they feel?