The Squiggle

This is a lesson of which I'm particularly proud. I did it with first grade, but it could be done with any elementary grade.
We've been working hard on adding specific details to our stories. I wanted to drive the point home that you can have a GREAT idea for a story, but without your details, your reader doesn't get the full impact of what you're trying to say.
I started my lesson with the kids coming into my classroom finding me at the easel in an artists' smock, acting as if I were painting a masterpiece. When I turned away from my work, they saw I had only painted a "squiggle." I acted like I was super offended that they didn't just looooooooooove my work. Then I asked what was wrong with it. They informed me they had no idea what my squiggle was because I didn't have any details. BAAAAM you little knuckleheads! Gotcha.
Then we read the wonderful book The Squiggle by Carole Lexa Schaefer.

In it, a little girl is on a walk with her classmates when she comes across a piece of ribbon ... a squiggle. She imagines it into all sorts of amazing things but when her peers look, they only see a piece of ribbon. The wonderful illustrations in the book show the ribbon as the girl imagines it.
Then I send the kids to paint ONLY a squiggle on their papers. I model a few ideas - drawing just a circle if they want to draw a car, a line if they want to draw a tree - and send them to do their thing. I tell them to keep secret what their complete project is going to be.
We do this and usually make a text to text connection with the book (or I play the video) Harold and the Purple Crayon. (One of my GENIUS third graders came in the room after I had all the first graders' "squiggles" on the carpet to dry and made that connection. Thanks little dude! I'll work that into a lesson plan!)
The next day (remember, I have one group of first graders for 5 days, 45 minutes a day then send the little cherubs to the next specials teacher in our rotation and I get a whole new crew) when they come in, I'm again in my smock at the easel, this time with crayons, finishing my squiggle. Now I'm adding details and they like my work. Booyah. Now I model how I can make my squiggle into a real picture AND I can make my squiggle, which has become a bird, into a bird in a park with kids playing et al ... A LOT of detail. I remind them that the sign outside the door says "Ms. Green, Writing Specials," and that the next day, they're going to write a story WITH DETAILS to go with their story. They are sent on their way to work their magic.

Now we share our finished work so everyone can see what our "squiggles" have become.
As promised, the third day of fun finds us writing our story to go with our project. Again, I model adding detail to my story. They go write, I conference and assist.
Fast forward to when we get everything matted and put together and THIS is our finished product.

The part you see that's black was done in paint ... that's her "squiggle." The rest were the details she added after.

Here are some more ... yup, that's a first grader's Lightning McQueen. I couldn't draw like that if my life depended on it. The little dude who wrote the volcano story is a prodigy.