Colorful Fire Personal Narrative

What made the author decide to melt crayons on the stove?

• she wanted to make special pictures for her aunt who was in the hospital

• she wanted to prove to her parents that she was old enough to use the stove

• her little brother double dog dared her to melt crayons on the stove.

• she was bored on a summer day and saw crayons melting on the driveway.

• she remembered seeing her art teacher melting crayons on the portable stove in the classroom.

The author was the....

• oldest child

• youngest child

• middle child

• only child

What is the author's name?

• Chari

• Jenny

• Terri

• She is unnamed

What was their mom most angry about?

• they hadn't made a picture for their father

• they had left their grandmother's house without permission

• they had ruined a new pack of crayons

• they had played with the stove

The children's punishment was to...

• scrape the wax from the walls and floor

• mow the lawn to earn enough for new crayons

• babysit the youngest children for free all summer

• no television for a month

What did the author learn about herself that day?

• she wasn't old enough to use the stove without supervision

• she deserved her parents' trust and respect

• she's the kind of person who will run towards a fire and protect others by putting it out

• she's smarter than her younger brother

• she is more responsible than most young children her age

Match the following parts of the narrative to Freytag's pyramid. Be careful, this author has placed some of the events out of Freytag's order!

• resolution

• I must have left my crayons on the driveway because, when we got home, there they were. All the colors were melted and sticking to the ground. It looked like a rainbow had exploded on the cement.

• climax

• We went to the kitchen and took out a pan. I was the oldest, so I took charge. Toby and Chari began to argue, so I told them to get their papers ready in the living room. As they left the kitchen, I turned on the stove and waited for the pan to get hot.

• exposition

• The pan was on fire. Orange flames licked up about a foot from the surface and touched my hand. I pulled back, but

  not before hissing droplets of purple and red and blue landed on my arm.

• rising action

• She scolded me and made all three of us scrape every bit of crayon wax off the floor, walls, and stove. It was a mild punishment. I deserved much worse.

• inciting incident

• It was one of those lazy summer afternoons, when nothing else filled the mind of a bored third grader. I decided we would take a fresh batch of crayons, melt them in a frying pan, pour them over paper, and make neat pictures for our parents.

What elements of a personal narrative does this story follow?

• heightened vocabulary

• takes place over a long span of time

• takes place over a short amount of time

• personal pronouns like I, me, and we

Reorder the following elements of the story into the correct sequence.

• Jenny and her friend and little brother see a pack of crayons melting on the driveway.

• The children decide to make their own rainbow pictures by putting crayons on the stove.

• Jenny puts the pan on the stove and sets it to high.

• Jenny puts the fire out and protects the younger children.

• The crayons bubble and wax sputters into the wall and floor.

What other elements of a personal narrative does this passage have?

• it takes place over several years

• it ends in a lesson learned from the author or a moral for the reader.

• it contains elements of mythology or allusions to the Bible

• there is always a female protagonist