As an added motivation, you can have the stories posted in the Publisher's Corner of the AmericaTakingAction.com National Education Network. Kids love to see their stories on-line!

We have no more than 500 students total K - 6 in our school. Usually our classes have fewer than 24 students each. I think the average class size is 18 actually. Our students' books also include a "Meet the Author" page, which looked like this:

My name is __________________________.
I am ___________years old.
I like to read about ____________________________________.
My favorite book is_________________________________________.
The time I like best for reading is _______________________________.
The place I like best for reading is ______________________________.
When I am not reading, I like to _______________________________.

and then there's a page which is blank except for this Heading:
The Following People Read My Book! (everyone who reads it, will sign there name and adds a little comment)

the last page has a class picture on it with the year it was done. I'm looking at my son's and his story was 6 pages long. Each page has a space on top for an illustration and then 5 lines for writing. I don't know if every child had to use 6 pages, or if they were different lengths, but I believe it only took about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 mins. for all the students to read and for the parents to enjoy the refreshments afterward. He had 15 in his class.

The teacher also had a couple of the students handle the welcoming announcements, there was a little skit put on by the class, the students then took their turns reading their stories and then a couple of other students thanked everyone for coming and invited them to stay for cookies and punch. It was very nicely done. I know the kids loved it and the parents were amazed at some of the creativity!

This is a wonderful activity. It encourages creative writing, penmanship, art, oral reading and public speaking. I think whatever your school ends up doing, it will be well worth any time and or money you put into it. Let us know how it goes

How many kids do you have in a class... (ImnotcrazyImaMother)??
I like the idea of having maybe 3rd graders read their story to K. and having parents come into to listen... we have over 600 kids in the school- so I think we'll have to pick best of show winners.
I found a company that sells white plain board books and I though the kids could the write and illustrate in the book including an about the author page with a picture, which school receives from their school photograph company. The books cost 1.28 each-- so it's not too bad for such a great event, and this way the kids could keep the books nice after because they are hard books. I'm thinking about doing this right after March reading month-- so the kids can finish by end of April, early May and then we could have an assembly where the top picks could read their books to the entire school. Any other ideas to make this better, please let me know.

That is great! Our school does an "Author's Tea" in first grade. Each student writes and illustrates a story during class. The teacher has all the pages laminated and binded for each student. The "authors" then read their stories to the Kindergarten students and after they get that practice, there is a special day where the parents are invited to their classroom to listen to each child read their story. The school video tapes the whole thing and sells the DVD to the parents for $10.00. You can also just tape it yourself. After all the stories are read, cookies and punch are served. It is a great afternoon. The kids really look forward to hosting it and some of the stories are quite creative! Good luck with your event!

That's great FoxMom! Glad to hear your prinicipal is supporting your idea. Keep us posted as to how you put it all together and the response you get.

Thanks....
I talked to the principal about doing this during school and she's all for it-- Looking at using white board books and having the kids type their stories up during their computer time for the 2-5th graders. I have to meet with the teaching staff and see what they would like to do. I'm glad someone else thinks it's important as well.