Our first story might be an illustration with a single sentence, telling who is in the picture and what the friends in the picture are doing. I make paper available for the kids to make as many single pages as they like about their friends, and we staple them into construction paper folders. Some of the stories are displayed on the walls. We do the first page as a group activity, with each child making their own page about anyone they like. The kinderkids and some first graders will need help filling in the blanks.
More accomplished writers can copy the sentence onto their papers and do their own writing.
We also use this writing frame to make class books based on each of the friends books we read. The kids enjoy reading these, and reading their friends' names. There are many other P.K. Hallinan titles that we read during the year. All of his books focus on self-esteem and feeling good about who you are. Many of his books are also intended to gently teach values.