I've taken the instructions from ITESLJ, as written by Vicki Konzen.
This is an old favorite.
Give each student a sheet of blank paper. Write the following words on the board in a vertical line: WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHY.
Explain that everyone will be writing a sentence story.
Write an example on the board, explain, asking for suggestions.
- Tell them to write someone's name at the top of their paper, i.e., their own, a classmate's, the teacher's, a famous person that everyone knows; fold the paper over once so no one can see it, then pass the paper to the person on their right.
- Write on the received paper what the subject did (suggest funny or outrageous actions), fold it over and pass it on to the right.
- Continue to write one line, how they did it (adverbs), fold and pass; where-pass; when-pass; and last of all, why (because...) and pass it one more time.
- Have the students unfold their stories, and read them silently. Help anyone who cannot read what the others wrote, or doesn't understand.
- Ask one student at a time to read "their" story aloud, or turn the stories in for the teacher to read. Funny!
Something I would change is the suggestion to use a classmate's name, as it can end up being (unintentionally or intentionally) mean. I'd let them make up a name, or use a celeb or similar. You can make it more complicated by making it a paragraph rather than one sentence - this is taken from Wikipedia's explanation of the game Consequences
Each person takes a turn choosing a word or phrase for one of eleven questions, in this order.
- Adjective for man
- Man's name
- Adjective for woman
- Woman's name
- Where they met
- He wore
- She wore
- He said to her
- She said to him
- The consequence was… (a description of what happened after)
- What the world said
As an alternative, you could prepare a foldable worksheet or handout for the students to add their responses.