Making connections between children's existing means of expression (play, art, and movement) and the intricacies of print is a necessary and time-honored approach to writing instruction in the early years of school, yet, after kindergarten, one that is easily overlooked. In this article, we examine an approach to writing instruction for first-grade children that brings together play and written composition. Story Workshop can be a highly accessible, scaffolded means for developing young children's writing practices and skills. However, it is not an approach that is widely adopted in first-grade classrooms. The authors consider why this might be by examining the structure of Story Workshop as set out by the Opal School and offering examples of two classroom educators who have fruitfully adapted the approach for their first-grade learners.