Home Sweet Hailstorm

About the Book

5th Grade students wrote this novel over the course of six months. Students were given an assignment to write a 25,000-word novel about a boy and a girl who need to go from their classroom to the office. Each room along the way should be a chapter that begins as the characters enter the room and ends about 1,500 words later as the characters leave the room. Our ultimate goal was to create a plot that flows from one room to the next. My goal, as the teacher, was to develop an assignment where writing concepts would be encountered as they came up in the context of a meaningful project.

I am extremely proud of my students. Their dedication to this project has more than advanced them to the next grade level; it has made them novelists before the age of twelve. Please excuse their errors and enjoy their efforts because they enjoyed writing this novel more than filling out worksheets, studying weekly spelling words, and practicing for standardized tests.

Did you ever have a crazy day at school? Read this book and your crazy day will seem like a picnic in the park.

About the Author

Missy, Brinna, Ruthie, and Ian were students in Mr. McCarthy?s 5th Grade class at Ralston Elementary in Golden, Colorado. Ian left us during the year and then came back to help finish the project. This is Missy?s first work of fiction and the second for Brinna, Ruthie, and Ian.