Puppy Kisses Short Story Builders

The Puppy Kisses Short Story Builders are seven free printable writing guides, one for each grade from 1st through 7th, that walk a child through planning and writing a short story of their own. They come from Puppy Kisses, a California publisher of free illustrated school stories built around six puppy characters called the Puppy Pack: Cora, Scarlett, Jacob, Tess, Zach and Emily.

Each builder is a PDF of about nine to thirteen pages (the 1st grade guide has 9, the 4th grade guide 11 and the 7th grade guide 13). It opens with notes for parents and teachers, lists the Common Core narrative writing standards for that grade, and introduces the six characters. The child then works through numbered steps, each with an example and space to write. The 1st grade steps are simple: choose a character, write what they do with an action verb, add order words like first and next, say how they feel, introduce a problem, solve it, end with a word like "finally", then put the sentences together and add a title. The 7th grade guide asks for much more: choosing a point of view, listing physical and personality adjectives for the main and supporting characters, planning a problem, suspense and solution, and describing the setting with sensory detail, showing rather than telling.

The guides are meant to be done together. The notes ask the adult to read instructions aloud to younger children and to talk ideas through with older ones, which makes them a good fit for a homeschool writing lesson or a small classroom group. The main character is always one of the six Puppy Pack puppies at school, so a child who wants to invent a story from scratch may find that limiting. The site also hosts a free Short Story Library of Puppy Pack stories at three reading levels, which can serve as model stories before a child starts writing.

All seven PDFs are free direct downloads from the builder page, with no email signup or account needed. The site also links to a Puppy Kisses Etsy shop, but the guides themselves cost nothing.