Toontastic App for Realistic Fiction

Writing can be fun, so long as we create opportunities to make it fun.  In our "Work on Writing," we always encourage our students to choose topics/themes that are of high interest to them, for example: bugs, Africa, the Declaration of Independence, math stories, etc.  

Our next major writing theme is realistic fiction.  To get our students psyched to write this sort of genre, we are reading as much realistic fiction as possible, in guided reading, whole group reading, and our read aloud (Freak the Mighty).  We are also encouraging students to begin trying to write realistic fiction.  We have chatted about the basics of realistic fiction, pointing out the need for character and plot development.  

One way we are practicing organizing a realistic fiction story is using the app Toontastic as a graphic organizer, practicing story development, and of course for some fun!  Toontastic is a free, educational app, which can even provide adults with lots of entertainment.  

In the app, students must develop their characters, choose the setting, and create a plot.  The plot builds all the way up to its climax, and finishes with a resolution.  Students are able to create their own characters, or use the ones provided.  They also get to choose music apporopriate to the "mood" of their story.  A final tidbit of fun, the creator does his/her own voice overs.

In the past (I don't know why) we did not introduce this app in the same way as this year.  It will be exciting to see if the app develops into a favorite this year.  As with all the apps we use in our classroom, the goal is to introduce something educational and fun.  We love hearing when our students go home and download the same apps at home as what we use at school.  Educational apps can be fun!