Mayoral Make-A-Book Part 1

Our class will be entering the Mayoral Make-a-Book Literacy Challenge for 2015. This challenge has been running since 1979 by the Charles Sturt local council. It is an extremely popular challenge particularly at Grange Primary because it allows young authors and illustrators to shine. Last year there were 830 entries with 43 lucky individuals and 7 class entries winning some terrific book prizes in the local area.

To begin with we discussed as a class what the structure of a Narrative text looks like. Here is the structure below

Orientation

who, what, when, where and why 

Complication

What problem will your character/s have in the story?

Series of Events

Normally there are 2-3 series of events and they are about different ways the character is trying to solve the problem by making decisions about their actions.

Resolution

A solution to the story has occurred. Sometimes this means the story has a happy ending, however sometimes it’s not a happy ending.

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Some of us decided to work in small groups for the challenge and some of us decided to work on our own. We then brainstormed some ideas about the setting and characters in our story.  To help us we could also include some pictures. Here are some examples.

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Next we completed a planning template that allowed us to map out our ideas and how our story would be structured. Here are some examples.

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We were given a list of adjectives that would help us describe these parts of the story. Adjectives are important as they help make the story more interesting because the reader can visualise in their mind what the characters, setting and other parts of the story look like.

We have also begun our title page which includes the title of the story, the author and illustrators name.

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Over the next week we will continue to write our draft for our stories and then edit our writing before giving it to an adult to read through. We will then begin typing our stories during the computing lessons.

The due date for our books is Friday the 28th of August. Mrs Baldwin will give another update on the blog in the next few weeks once our books are nearly completed!

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What do you enjoy most about the Mayoral Make-A-Book Challenge and why?

What do you find the most challenging with writing a Narrative?

Have you entered into the Mayoral Make-A-Book Challenge before?

12 thoughts on “Mayoral Make-A-Book Part 1

  1. Dear Mrs Baldwin,
    My favourite thing about the mayoral make a book was writing the story i don’t know why it was fun but i enjoyed it anyway. I have entered the mayoral make a book before in year two or three i think. From Kayne

  2. dear mrs b
    i funded it hard to the illastrsons because i am bad at writing
    yes i have entered a mayola make a book befor it was could the fantasic 4

    By Cooper

  3. Dear Mrs Baldwin , what i like about Mayoral Make a Book is than its fun and you draw ,talk with your firends and you all work together .I have never entered into Mayoral Make a Book this will be my first time I am entering a book in Mayoral Make a Book.

  4. Dear Mrs Baldwin,

    the thing I enjoyed most about the mayoral make a book is that we can make a book that we can read and also I think our book is really good and I think the best thing about a book I think is the front cover.

  5. Dear miss baldwin,
    I like mayoral maker book is that you can have a partner and that makes that much easier to think of stuff then by your self.No i have never done a mayoral maker book before but i think it is really fun because i love writing.

    from Jessica g

  6. Dear Miss Baldwin
    I like mayoral make a book because it is fun and you can learn new things while your making your book.
    Doing the problem.
    From Elyssa

  7. Dear mrs baldwin, my most favourite thing about mayoral make a book contest was writing our draft and coming up with ideas what we were going to write.

    Dear mrs baldwin, the thing i find most challenging about writing a narrative is what the story is about, which most the problem is the problem itself.

    Dear mrs baldwin, i have done a book contest at my school in port elliot which i didn’t win but i got a participation certificate so i might have done mayoral make a book contest before but at least have now. from Kain M

  8. Dear Mrs Baldwin,
    i enjoyed making the book because i got to do the illustrations and it was fun trying to figure out what we should do but it’s kind of sad because we won’t get ours done but i really enjoyed it.
    N0 i have not entered the meyoral make-a-Book competition before.
    :] :]:]:]:]:]

  9. Dear Mrs Baldwin
    The thing I found most / Am finding most difficult about the Mayoral-Make-a-Book challenge was/am cramming a detailed novel/story into 6 weeks and 1000 words. What was also VERY challenging was thinking up the plot, theme and genre of the story not to mention trying with so little result to make the words dance along the page ( don’t think I’ve done it unfortunately )

    The thing I find most difficult about writing a narrative is thinking of a plot, theme and characters for and of the story. Another thing challenging about writing a narrative is the personality of the characters or character should he or she be cunning or stupid become good or start good I find that all these things go through my head when I start writing not to mention word choice e.g. all in all or finally. Next, then, suddenly or later. Stupid, dumb or dim. Smart, bright or cunning

    Although ironically Finally (word choice again) no I have not entered before in the Mayoral-Make-A-Book although I would have liked to from yr 2 up.

    From David

  10. Dear Mrs Baldwin,

    What I loved about mayoral make a book was that you get to work with your friends which is fun and I love illustrating and using your imagination to write a story and if your stuck your friend can help and you can read your own book when you are finished.The only thing I don’t really like is that you have to type on a computer and I don’t like computers.

    The only challenging thing when you print out your page and its got a spelling mistake and sometimes your partner doesn’t do much but my partner Kayne.H was helpful.

    Yes I have entered a book well not really I had the idea did the draft then went on a holiday in Canada and then Cooper partner with Jude and they finished it off and didn’t win but that didn’t matter it is mostly just for fun.

  11. Dear Mrs Baldwin,

    I enjoyed the illustration because I am good at drawing.
    I have not entered this challenge before

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