Explode the Moment!

In second grade, we have been hard at work on narrative writing these past few weeks. We already know a LOT about the narrative writing diamond, but it was time to take our writing to the next level!

The Narrative Writing Diamond

We chose to focus on the main event because this is the largest part of our story and it's where all the ACTION takes place. We knew that small moments should be something that we had a good deal of emotion about because this would help us to really tune into our senses and add some great specific detail. We began to explore the idea of a roller coaster ride since that was something that could bring out a whole array of emotions: fear, anxiety, excitement to name a few. Everyone in our class knew what a roller coaster was and what it looked like, but not everyone had ridden on a roller coaster. We read the book Roller Coaster! by Marla Frazee because this book does a great job of focusing on the small moment of a roller coaster ride, instead of telling about the entire day at an amusement park.

After reading this book, we brainstormed the actions, observations, thoughts and feelings, sounds, and dialogue we had noticed in the book, adding these ideas to a class chart. Next, we watched a fun video clip of a two minute roller coaster ride. This gave those of us who hadn't ridden on a roller coaster a bit of a taste about what that ride would look like.

Click here to watch the roller coaster video!

We watched the video twice and used the information we learned there to add to the brainstorm list we started after reading the book. Now we were ready to write!  We began by writing a class small moment about a roller coaster ride together, using the ideas we had brainstormed.

Our class idea list!

We worked as a team to explode this moment! We call it "exploding the moment" because we take one tiny idea and blow it up by adding lots and lots of specific detail. Our goal is to make our reader see a movie in their mind and really be able to picture our story as they read it. You can see our class writing piece below. After our initial write, we went back and made edits as necessary until we were happy with the result!

Roller Coaster Small Moment

By: The Richard Class

Slowly, we inched our way to the front of the line. My stomach flip-flopped nervously as the metal tracks rumbled overhead. I was scared. Would I be tall enough to go on the ride? I sort of hoped I wasn’t tall enough! It was noisy all around me. The sounds of people screaming filled my ears. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go. Just then, I noticed that it was our turn to get on the roller coaster. The man operating the ride yelled, “Load ‘em up! Two to a seat!” My parents were holding my hand tightly. I felt myself being pushed forward into a seat on the roller coaster. The bar came down across my lap. My hands felt sweaty on the metal surface. The car lurched forward. Clickety-clackity, clickety-clackity went the roller coaster as it inched slowly up the hill. Up-up-up went the roller coaster. “Are you scared?” my dad asked me.  The car slowed down a bit as it neared the top of the hill. Suddenly, it seemed to pause. Then….WHOOSH! ZOOM! We sped down the hill. The tracks twisted and turned. Everyone started to scream. Whee! Whoo! People were yelling. We were going so fast, I closed my eyes. The tracks dipped and dived. They loop de looped. I felt like I was floating in the air. In a moment, I noticed the car slowing down until it slowly stopped moving. I felt excited. I could remember when I didn’t want to go on the ride, but now I wanted to go again! I thought back to when the ride twisted and turned and it felt like I was on my side. I had been so worried I would fall off! As I stepped off of the stopped ride, my legs felt wobbly. I felt like I just woke up from a

dream. That was pretty fun. I think I should definitely go again, I thought to myself.

We were pretty proud of our small moment and felt ready to try our hand at writing our own small moments. You should have seen how everyone jumped right into this writing! The only sound to be heard in the classroom was that of pencils scratching across the page. Everyone did an AMAZING job writing their own roller coaster small moment! We spent the latter part of this week editing and revising our writing and students will be bringing these home next week. Be sure to ask your child to read his or her small moment to you once they come home! I think you'll be amazed at the details your child included in their writing!