Scribbles to Stories®

This unit guides students from the very first pencil grip to illustrating a complete three-part story. Before learning to write words, students step into the role of an illustrator. Using rich examples from Caldecott-winning books and thoughtfully crafted lesson prompts, children develop confidence in drawing.

They'll practice creating a variety of characters and settings, explore emotion, movement, and detail, and craft illustrations that tell a story from beginning to end—including a problem and solution. Along the way, students will learn about growth mindset, how to handle mistakes, give and receive feedback, identify the parts of a book cover, and celebrate their work with a book launch party!

Building on the visual storytelling skills from Unit 1, this unit marks the beginning of phonetic spelling through labeling. Students learn to hear, isolate, and record initial and final phonemes by labeling parts of their drawings with one or two letters.

With high-quality mentor texts and targeted lessons, students grow in their identity as young writers. They'll refine their illustrations, label important elements of their stories, retell events in sequence, ask and answer questions about their work, and use an editing checklist to revise and improve. The unit culminates in a published piece and a joyful book launch party to honor their efforts!

This unit helps young writers take the leap from labeling to writing whole words. Students will strengthen their phonetic spelling skills and begin incorporating high-frequency words into their writing. They'll describe their drawings with written words, use tools like alphabet charts and color word cards, and begin writing on lines.

With vivid literature examples and scaffolded lesson prompts, children continue to grow as authors. They’ll revisit essential skills from Units 1 and 2, add in tools for independent writing, and move toward writing a full story—complete with planning, revising, editing, publishing, and of course, celebrating with a launch party.

This unit transitions students from labeling and word writing into composing full sentences. Writers will build multi-page stories using phonetic spelling, high-frequency words, and emotion-rich vocabulary. They'll learn essential conventions of sentence writing—like capitalization, spacing, and punctuation—and explore tools such as speech bubbles and story maps to support structure and flow.

Students will continue drawing from earlier units while learning how to build sentences that tell detailed, chronological stories. With support for revision and editing, this unit culminates in the creation of a published book and a launch party to celebrate their sentence-writing success!

In this exciting storytelling unit, students move from writing sentences to crafting fully developed stories. Using characters, settings, and a clear narrative arc, young authors will write engaging tales that include rising action, a problem, and a resolution. Students will learn how to include sensory details, write across multiple pages, and structure their stories using planning tools like graphic organizers and rubrics.

Drawing on everything learned in Units 1–4, children will draft, revise, and publish their original stories, with special attention to grammar, punctuation, and storytelling structure. The unit ends with a celebration and book launch that honors their creative accomplishments.

Introduce nonfiction writing in a way that’s simple, purposeful, and student-centered. In this unit, young writers will learn how to craft how-to books that teach readers through clear steps and detailed illustrations.

With support from graphic organizers, rubrics, and checklists, students will explore the structure of informational writing—including how to sequence instructions, use precise vocabulary, and include visual details to support understanding. They'll also be introduced to writing an introduction, conclusion, and dedication page. Building on everything learned in Units 1–5, this unit wraps up with students publishing 2–3 books and celebrating their work with a teaching-themed book launch party!

This unit takes students deeper into nonfiction writing through engaging report-style texts. Writers will explore how to research a topic, organize facts into related categories, and present what they’ve learned using key nonfiction text features.

With scaffolded lesson prompts and powerful mentor texts, students will develop skills in using tables of contents, headings, and glossary pages to support their writing. Graphic organizers, rubrics, and checklists guide their process as they write a 14-page informational book. The unit culminates in a nonfiction publishing celebration that showcases each student’s growing ability to inform, explain, and share knowledge.

Empower students to write for a cause with this high-engagement persuasive writing unit. Learners will explore how to use emotion, voice, and strong reasoning to influence others—writing persuasive letters, petitions, posters, speeches, and a persuasive book.

With support from organizers, rubrics, and sample texts, students learn how to communicate a problem, propose a solution, and move their audience to action. This unit builds on the skills from Units 1–7 and provides real-world writing opportunities with a purpose. The final celebration gives students a platform to mail their letters, give speeches, distribute posters, and share their published books.

Bring a touch of magic to your writing block with this unit focused on storytelling through fairytales and fables. Students will plan and write imaginative stories that entertain readers and leave them with a clear lesson or moral. They'll explore elements like make-believe characters, dialogue, rising and falling action, and story structure.

With tools like graphic organizers, checklists, and mentor texts, students build the skills of an engaging storyteller. By the end of the unit, each child will publish their own fairytale or fable and participate in a storytelling celebration to share their work with others.

This final unit invites students to take a stand and express their point of view. Through letters and opinion books, students will learn to support their ideas with facts, reasons, and persuasive language. Using rubrics, graphic organizers, and text examples, they’ll explore how to state their opinion clearly, back it up with supporting details, and engage their reader.

Writers will build on everything they've learned in Units 1–9, applying sentence structure, phonetic spelling, and text features to convince others and spark thought. The unit concludes with a celebration where students share their published opinion pieces with an audience.