How to Teach Fantasy Writing in Kindergarten

Children grow up hearing stories. Their parents put them to bed with tales of silly characters and big adventures. They read stories filled with heroes and villains. They watch movies that inspire creativity and make-believe. Children are the most imaginative people we have, and stories help build that imagination. Once in kindergarten, it is time to harness that creativity and help them become authors of their own adventures. 

This two-week Fantasy Unit is jam-packed with everything you need to help your students become confident, strong, storytellers! 

What does this look like in the classroom? 

The unit starts by covering the basics. Students must know where they are headed and what they are trying to accomplish, so you’ll start with a lesson on make-believe stories. You will read a mentor text exemplifying how writers can write make-believe stories. Then, you’ll move on to the components of a fantasy story. Students will discuss heroes, villains, and magical settings. Then they will use a graphic organizer to plan out their stories. This is an important step for developing writers! 

As they continue to plan out their story you will prompt them with sentence starters and discuss problem and solution. Your students will also need to include a beginning, middle, and end. This is something discussed and practiced in my Narrative Unit and, hopefully, something your students are familiar with. 

Finally, students will complete their stories and make revisions using a writer's checklist. Then, of course, you will need to celebrate their very hard work with an author's celebration! 

It is important to note that this unit is condensed. Most of my units are about 4 weeks long and include lessons on drawing illustrations one day, and then writing corresponding sentences on the next. Instead, time for writing and drawing is embedded within the other daily lessons. This is because many districts do not allow for a full 4 weeks to teach fantasy writing. If you do have the luxury of time, I would suggest slowing down and doing that. After all, I always say, teach it slow!! 

What is included in this unit? 

When you grab this unit you will find 10 scripted lesson plans that allow for easy print and go prep. Within these plans, you will see a list of materials needed including the mentor texts used throughout the unit. You will also have access to 8 different anchor charts. This includes charts on problem and solution, settings, a fantasy writing checklist, and much more. 

Along with the anchor charts and lessons you will find graphic organizers for problem and solution as well as beginning, middle, and end. Making it easy for your students to think through and plan their writing. 

There are 2 options for a rough draft and 3 options for final books, all created so that you can differentiate and meet students where they are at. If your students still struggle with independent drawing, I’ve included several directed drawings so that students can confidently illustrate their heroes, villains, and settings. 

And finally, to make things a bit simpler for you, I have added parent letters so that you can communicate with families and include them in their child’s learning! 

You can see the full list of what’s included here!

This might move a little too fast for my students, what could I do instead?

If you are looking at this unit and thinking, “Two weeks?!? How will we manage that? My students need much more support”. Then I would highly suggest backtracking a bit and looking at my other kindergarten writing units. 

If you are thinking that illustrations will be the most difficult for your students, start with my Illustration Unit, where you will discuss how to draw people, places, and objects using shapes. If you need to take it back to sounding out words and labeling pictures, my Labeling Unit is the place to start! If you think you have the bases covered but your students could use a slower, more structured, and review-based introduction to writing stories, I would highly suggest my Narrative Writing Unit. Here you will discuss writing stories using beginning, middle, and end as well. However, unlike this Fantasy Unit, it is a 4-week unit that takes students through story writing in a slower-paced way. 

If you love the sound of all these units, you can grab the full Kindergarten Writing Bundle here or see a full list of my developmentally appropriate writer’s workshop resources here!