Novels and Ono-Mato-What-Now?

What an exciting kick off we had to the new semester!

In the older writing class we started our novels.
The first step was to get to know our main characters. We worked on names, deciding on the kind of book we want to write and having a sleepover with our character. At the sleepover we asked him/her all sorts of questions to get to know him/her better. The homework is to finish asking those questions and then to have another sleepover with the villain, ask him/her the same questions.
We also worked on how we are going to narrate the story. Once we chose our voice then we made a diary entry in our narrator's voice- walking into the woods and finding a dead body...  This is also homework if it wasn't completed in class.

The novel itself will be at least five chapters, we will spend two weeks on each chapter. The first draft is not the final draft, we will have peer support as well as myself and parents reading the chapters to help move the story along. I expect everyone to do the homework assigned each week, if I notice a student falling behind I will call home so that we can get back on track before it becomes overwhelming.

In the younger writing class we worked on Onomatopoeia- which means sounds spelled out (whoosh, boom, hisssss, bzzzz). I brought in all sorts of things that made sounds, we had to figure out what the sound was and then how to spell it and lastly how we would use it in a story. Then we wrote a story using all of our onomatopoeia.
The story guide is-
Once upon a time...
And every day... (incorporate an action and a sound)
Until one day... (incorporate an action and a sound)
And because of that...
And because of that...
Until finally...
The homework is to finish this story if they didn't in class and to write another one using the same guide.