Fun Narrative Fiction Writing Second Grade Examples and Ideas

Published: April 1, 2022
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Fiction Writing Second Grade

Daily writing lesson plans, anchor charts, and resources to print and teach fictional writing in 2nd grade.

Fiction Writing in Writers’ Workshop

Fictional narratives is a form of narrative writing, but it takes turn away from personal narratives and even the most reluctant writers love this genre. Second-grade students absolutely LOVE to create their own fictional stories. Plus they are fun to read, too! This unit of study teaches second grade students to create their own works of fiction. As a class, you will explore various characters and gain inspiration from familiar stories.

Second Grade Writing Prompts or Topics

A common question I get is, “What writing prompts do you suggest for narrative writing?” During writers’ workshop, I never give students a topic they will write on. Instead, during our narrative fiction writing unit, students explore ideas that interest them.

Research tells us that the best way to get students engaged in their own writing is by allowing them to select the topic they have the most energy to write on. So on a daily basis, we ask students to be responsible for what they will write about.

At the launch of each writing genres units of study, we explore various topic ideas by looking at the work that other authors do.

Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing

Here are a few books that may not be necessary mentor texts, but they are a few of my favorites.

Little Critter Books by Mercer Mayer

This has always been one of my favorite series of Browse this author’s biography with your class. You will want to emphasize how he was inspired by events in his own life as he wrote these fictional stories.

Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang

Is a wonderful mentor text that allows students not only to explore a narrative piece, it also gives students a closer look. In this book, they will experience the power of punctuation and bolded text to convey meaning.

After deciding on characters and setting, students begin planning their story and the writing begins!

Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion by Alex T. Smith

Is a great example of inspiration from a familiar story structure like Little Red Riding Hood, and creating a different variation.

After deciding on characters and setting, students begin planning their story and the writing begins!

Fiction Writing Anchor Charts

As we explore narrative fiction, students will brainstorm the characters and settings they’d like to write about.

Through mini-lessons, we introduce their own brainstorming page. We also use various graphic organizers to plan out the story and the big events of the fiction piece. Students used a similar graphic organizer during the personal narrative writing unit.

Fiction Writing Mini Lessons

During our initial lessons, we revisit the narrative writing structure (stories that are told in chronological order) and invite our young writers to imagine! What sort of main character will they have in their story? Watch as students’ creativity soars and they tap into their personal experiences with stories.

Common Core Second Grade Writing and Word Choice

Although not all states are following the common core standards, many have adopted standards that are somewhat similar. Here is the standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3

Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

So many mini-lessons focus on not only making sure students write in complete sentences, but also discuss how the use of interesting word choices can change the feel of a piece. Transition words and sentence structure lessons from previous writers’ workshop lessons.

The beginning of their story with a strong lead that hooks the reader will also be taught during this unit of study. Additionally, students will explore how an interesting concluding statement will make their narrative story complete.

Using a writing folder

Students will keep their writing tools, word banks, and writing project in their writing folder. This is actually a series of folders that helps keep the students organized as they travel through the writing process.

They simply take this folder out during writing time and they have everything they need at their fingertips. These can also work well for first grade students. Click to learn more!

Writing Folder Organization

Story Writing Samples from Second Grade

Let’s take a look at a few examples of narrative fiction writing.

Here is a fictional story that was written by a second-grade student during the month of April.

The title of his story is “Castle Crashers and the 4 Crystals”.

Lesson seven of the writing unit is about using punctuation to convey meaning. We use the mentor text, Grumpy Monkey (affiliate link) to show this writing strategy and encourage students to try it in their own writing.

Lessons 8 and 9 teach students about dialogue and using quotation marks.

Throughout the writing unit, the lessons build upon each other to develop confident writers. Here are a few more examples of fictional writing in second grade.

Fiction Writing Rubric

One thing we like to do at the beginning of each unit is have students select a writing goal. The students add their name next to this kid-friendly rubric.

This rubric is revisited throughout the 4 week unit of study. Students are free to adjust their goals when they are ready to move on. This is the same rubric criteria they will see again at the end of the unit of study. In this way, there are no surprises.

With so many anchor charts, make sure to keep them organized to save your sanity! Click the link below for a blog post with some organizing tips.

Tips for Organizing your Reading and Writing Rubrics

Would you like to see more second grade writing samples?

Teaching Informational Writing In Second Grade

Writing Through the Years – Writers Workshop Print and Teach Curriculum

We know you are busy and having one more thing to plan may feel overwhelming. Don’t worry… we’ve got you covered. Our writing units are so easy to follow. We have taken the guesswork out of planning. We have multiple grade levels to meet your needs.