Looking for a homeschool summer writing activity? How about students writing a short story for a wildlife homeschool magazine? Download this FREE guide for your student to work on their summer wildlife short-story. When they are finished, you can submit their story and any illustrations they may want to include.

The Pinecone Grove has refreshed the mini-magazine into a homeschool oriented wildlife digital magazine. This season’s theme is Ocean Tide. You can learn more about the quarterly publication in my article: Grove Dispatch: Summer 2017 Digital Magazine.

Parents, if you are also interested in writing a wildlife short story for kids, you can submit your story in this summer’s magazine issue too!

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5 Steps

to Writing a Wildlife Short Story
for the Grove Dispatch

FREE DOWNLOAD

 

Step 1: Characters

Create a character or three, give them a name, and write or draw something that describes them.

 

Step 2: Discover a Problem

Give your character(s) a goal to solve. It can be a character that needs saving, a question that needs to be answered, or a destination that needs to be reached.

 

Step 3: Try, Try, Try Again

List their failures and their final success. Everyone learns by trial an error. Let your character try to solve their problem and fail. Have them try something else a second time… Then, third time’s the charm; they solve the problem!

 

Step 4: Put it Together

Take steps 1 through 3 and compose your short story. Try to keep your story between 500 to 2,000 words.

 

Step 5: Press Send

Have a guardian look over your story. Then, with permission, send your story to ashley@thepineconegrove.com.

 

Bonus Help: Still not sure where to begin? Brainstorm with a friend or use one of these writing prompts.

• A sea turtle hatches on the beach and must figure out how to get to the ocean.
• The coral reef is in danger. A seahorse with the help of friends, works to make the reef healthy again.