To encourage children's creative writing in a classroom setting, student teachers used two types of children's books as models: (1) a traditionally structured picture book in which the story maintains strong development of plot, setting, and characters as in "Peter Rabbit"; and (2) a predictable pattern book that develops a repetitive pattern as in "In a Dark Dark Wood." In both cases, the teacher read the book aloud, discussed the book with the class, and drew a chart on the board illustrating the story grammar. The undergraduates who taught both lessons self-evaluated the pattern book lesson as being more positive and effective than the lesson using a traditionally structured book. The student teachers' preference for the pattern book was the result of positive reactions from the children in terms of creativity and independence in easily writing their own pattern stories. The pattern stories written by the primary children reflected more creative and critical thinking in terms of story development than the stories they wrote in a traditional format. (Examples of the children's stories are appended.) (SRT)