Rufus the Writer

Rufus the Writer written by Elizabeth Bram and illustrated by Chuck Groenink (2015)

Rufus decided to have a story stand one summer instead of a lemonade stand. On his very first day he traded four stories for four payments from his friends. He wrote a story about his favorite color for his friend Walter who traded him a shell for the story. He wrote a story about cats for his friend Sandy in exchange for one of his kittens. He wrote a story about buttons for his friend Sara in payment for a bouquet of flowers. And he wrote a story about a dancing teapot for his little sister Annie’s birthday. Everyone loved their stories and Rufus loved his new things.

Teachers! Teachers! Teachers! (and Parents too) Do you need a great story starter for your students? This is it! Rufus is a writer, and your kids can be too. All it takes is a prompt and a little imagination.

To help your little ones get started you might want to set up a Story Stand like Rufus did. Have plenty of paper and pencils on hand as well as a good supply of crayons, staples, etc.

There are lots of sample lemonade stands on pinterest, but I like this one best for this purpose because there are bins to hold writing supplies as well as that storefront appearance. In the classroom, this could even be used as the backdrop for the ‘Author’s Chair’ for sharing finished stories. 

Here are a few other traditional writing centers for classrooms.