If you don't have a book to rely on from your school, then it's story time!

Like you've already had them do, write stories. They can do this at home, but during the week, the assignment will get pushed to the back burner of things to do. And having them spend class time writing a story to read later is a bit wasteful. What you can do is write a story using the vocab they already know, plus a little to challenge them and read it to them one sentence or phrase at a time. Each time you stop, ask if they've understood what you've read to them. At the end of the story ask for a recap. Them read it again all the way through. Then take out pieces of paper that have parts of the story written on them, then give them the task of trying to reassemble the pieces into the correct order. When they finally have what they think is the right order, have them read it out loud.

Try to keep it organized, though. Ask which kid has the first sentence, who has the second, who has the third, etc. You may need to reread the story at times to prompt them.

With this, they get some reading, some comprehension, and some speech. But it'll take a couple of tries for them to learn how to make it work.