It’s always fun to write a story. Deciding on a plot, setting, characters, and illustrations can allow you to create a world that can be shared with others. What can be better than that? Well, how about writing stories with friends from Australia?

We paired up with our buddies from 2KM and 2KJ to write our stories. Now, we were trying to determine what the best way was to work on our stories together. We figured traveling there probably wasn’t an option but we thought we’d check it out in Google Maps anyway.

We figured a 16,351 mi (26,314 km) trip probably wasn’t our best choice. Not to mention, Google Maps said we’d have to kayak across the ocean! Although that sounds fun, it also sounds exhausting!

Then we thought maybe we could mail stories back and forth. That definitely wouldn’t work since 2KM and 2KJ finish up their school year at the end of this week. So, instead, Mrs. Morris, Miss Jordan and I decided that we’d use a website called Storybird. This was an idea that we got from two other teachers, Mrs. McKenzie and Mrs. Watson. You can read about their classes using Storybird by clicking here or here.

Storybird is a site that allows students to choose a set of illustrations. From those pictures, we can start to build a story page by page. Another great aspect of Storybird is that we’re easily able to invite someone else to write a story with us. We put students from the two classes into groups and then began our stories.

Our class started by choosing the illustrations. We created the title page and wrote the first page, giving 2KM and 2KJ a start to the story. Then, we started taking turns. 2KM and 2KJ wrote the next two pages. We wrote the next two and we continued alternating until our stories were complete.

We were so impressed by what amazing writers the students in 2KM and 2KJ were. Their use of detail and the way they kept the story flowing was incredible. Everyone did such a great job! Take a look below to read through the finished product!





You can read the rest of them by clicking here.

A giant thank you to all the students of 2KM and 2KJ for working so well with us! Enjoy your holidays!

What was your favorite part about this project?

Have you ever worked with someone in a different country before?