Words from Our Young Authors at Grattan Elementary

This session, our 3rd, 4th & 5th graders at Grattan Elementary have been writing about long lost twins and buried treasure, examining what it means to consider something treasure--must the thing be sparkling with gems, and dipped in gold, or could it be a small scrap of paper found in the backseat of a cab? Can a person be treasure? To answer these questions, they have been writing stories and poems and letters and even drawing maps, about vivid characters going on fantastic adventures in dangerous and beautiful places. After drawing Treasure Maps, the students wrote stories about the map itself, about the adventure taken with the map, and about the treasure at the end.

Catherine Cohen’s Exploration

Objective: Get the treasure from the island. Day 1: I started my 3 day journey to the island on the ship. We have lots of food and my bed is pretty comfortable. The only bad thing is that it creaks. I thought it would be boring on the ship, but it is huge and I look forward to exploring all of the rooms on it. I am very tired so I will go off to bed now. Goodnight. Yours, Catherine

- Lucie

The Adventures of Bobby Joe

I was running, not sure of my location or direction, just running. I heard the sound of dogs and policemen behind me. Just running. I couldn’t see everything, just running. Okay, here’s where things start getting out of hand.

- Ben

The Quest

To Lilyin, I have a new quest for you. You will need to go to the Emerald Forest with the jet. And there you will need to head to the Ominous Ocean. Cross the Ocean with a boat. Now it’s time to get real. On the way to the other side of the island you will pass a sea monster.

- Charlotte

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To get to the treasure you will have to reach the Serpent Sea by dawn. The sail to the edge of the island of danger and reach it by 7. Then you’ll have to walk an hour to reach the entrance of the Forbidden Forest. In the Forbidden Forest you will encounter lots of weird things. For example, owls with 3 eyes, puffy round animals with wings, and many more.

- Althea

The students wrote about what a cab driver might find left behind by in his or her cab, what they might do with those things, how they might get it back to their rightful owner.

In the trunk he found…

“What the?” Said the cab driver as he opened the trunk. What he saw inside was a bunny rabbit. It jumped out and gobbled him up. Several people saw this catastrophe and quickly scrambled away! The bunny lunged at them.

- Axel

The Lego

A Lego lonely in a pocket. The Lego fell out of the pocket and is in the pool, and the Lego is 4 years old today.

-Hannah

(I brought in an array of my own “treasured objects”--from a piece of ribbon, to jewelry, and figurines--and then asked the kids to choose an object and write a story about it.)

My Treasure

My treasure is a heart shaped ring. My treasure can make me invisible, it can make me fly, and many other things. It can turn into a friend who can walk, run, speak, and dance, and many other things. My ring came from a volcano. It got trapped in the volcano by a fox named Dedech. I know it got out when the volcano erupted, but I don’t really know how. I do know that it was before the dinosaurs.

- Karina

Zipper the Kitty

This is the story about THE END of the planet Paper. This is a sad story about the invasion of the Kitties. Once upon a time, Paper City was having a party, and things got out of hand.

- Uma

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Once there was a guy named Bob. He lived in an oaken log. He found some seaglass in some green grass and threw it in the sea. 20 years later, he found it in a gator and threw it on the wall. Then it shattered and got all battered, but then it started to glow. It shot a laser and turned into a blazer, and Bob went up in smoke. End.

- Wai-Kirn

The students wrote Poems beginning with "My Name Is..."

My Name Is

My name is a Tsunami. My name is made from humongous waves. I found my name in the Galapagos. My name can destroy. It reminds me of distraction.

- Tate

Words from Our Young Authors at Grattan (grades 4-5)

This term at Grattan, we focused on food writing through our curriculum “Peanut Butter & the Pen”. With the use of literary devices such as simile and metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration, students learn to avoid lazy adjectives and instead to write imaginatively: writing poems, short stories, and Odes for the foods that give them comfort, and those they cringe at...even taking a crack at writing recipes about themselves—an edible biography.

From: Odes to Food

From: Odes to Food

Ode to a Watermelon

Thank you watermelon. Your munchiness is irresistible. But your black seeds are a twisty hurricane in my watery mouth. Thank you watermelon for your coolness. Whenever I bite into you, all my problems are over. Thank you watermelon for being so polished. When I run myself through you, I fall asleep like a pillow.

-Axel

From: Odes to Food

From: Odes to Food

Ode to Food

Food, Food you are so lovely Food, Food you make me happy Food, Food it doesn’t matter if you’re deadly Food, Food Now it’s time to e-e-eat you.

Citrus Lump, Side of Cheese, Pass the honey if you please, Fiery Bulbax is a treat, Titan Dweevil has great taste, Plasma Wraith makes great sauce, Toxic Fungus bakes a lot.

-Wai-Kirn

From: Odes to Food

Ode to Dark Chocolate

Come from eggs that grew on a tree. Oh how bitter but delicious you are. I want to fill my mouth with you. Oh how I wish I could eat nothing but. The streets are filled with you. Dark chocolate you are my world.

-Nikan

Words from Our Young Authors at Grattan Elementary (Grades 2nd-3rd & 4th-5th)

This Winter in our "Shhh! Secrets" curriculum we focused on the worlds built up around the secrets we decide to harbor and share. We also broke down the elements of character and backstory with our activities in secret identities and secret recipes! Check out some of the excerpts below!

From various prompts on personification:

My secret is made from fur and stuffing and lots and lots of sleeping powder, the world’s largest grizzly bear, and lots of happiness.

I found it guarded in the core of the Earth. Guarded by a griffan and boa constrictor waiting for me.

My secret can fly and carry me in its arms. It can find answers for my problems and jump over danger.

If I lost this secret, the Universe would blow up and everything would be wrong.

-Zoe

My secret is made of shadows Whose darkness spreads through the Earth Like a virus Infecting the human soul.

-Wai-Kirn

My secret is born from an egg. My secret is made of feathers. I found my secret in a tree. It could kill a lion. If I lost my secret I would definitely go looking for it.

-Noe

My secret is made from the deep of my heart. I found it in the beautiful Sky, with pretty flowers and lovely animals. My secret can surprise everyone, but not Me. If I lost my secret I would die a million times, with tears all over my face.

-Cecilia

My secret is made from lots of spices, the coldest ice on earth, and the hottest sand. I found it in a museum, guarded by lasers. If I lost this secret the ancients would come together at incredible speeds and the earth would explode.

-Michael

From our exercise on secret recipes:

The Recipe for Having a Baby

1. Drink 10 cups of coca-cola a day. 2. Kiss a Gorilla on the lips and put your tongue in the Gorilla’s nose. 3. Put 1 ½ Tablespoons of baking soda in a blender with 2 drops of your favorite soap. Pour in 2 cups of water, then blend until thick. 4. Drink it! 5. It will take 2 minutes for your belly to get fat. And then 9 months for the baby to come. 6. The baby will cry. A lot.

-Karina

Friendship Cake

Get a big bowl. Put in 10 teardrops with 9 candy hearts. Blend well for 17 minutes. Add in 1 cup of sugar, and mix well for exactly 1 minute. Combine with everything sweet— cookies, cake, juice, ice cream. Bake for 1 hour. When done, add your favorite bow on top.

-Josie

From our “I remember” exercise:

I remember our first play-date. I remember when you told me of your fear of dresses. I remember the awkward silence after you stole something. I remember how it felt when you went skiing instead of coming to my birthday party. I remember your friendship guarding me like a wall.

-Madeline

I remember lying to my sister. I remember “No! That’s hot!” I remember the time my dad’s bike broke. I remember doing roly-polys down a steep hill. I remember cracking up and spitting milk all over the table. I remember my worst nightmare.

-Nial

I remember decorating my Christmas tree. I remember my chores. I remember clapping when my brother was in second-grade. I remember getting my first stuffed animal, but I don’t remember what it was.

-Charlotte

I remember falling out of my dad’s arms. I remember rain into a pool. I remember crashing into a tree. I remember when I got a dog.

-Ryan

I remember laughing with my friends. I remember trying to make water. I remember dropping an entire bowl of cake batter on the floor. I remember climbing to the top of a pyramid in Mexico. I remember tossing and turning in my bed.

-Emma

For this activity, the children were given a photo of a man dressed all in white with dark sunglasses and headphones, carrying a white case. They were asked to write about what could be in the case:

There are diamonds in the case, silver, gold, money. He just robbed a bank and is going to rob another. He has a car with jet engines, white like his outfit. He wears white so he doesn’t get hit by a car. His family kept turning him in so he had to run away. He used a jackhammer to escape. His name is Dottie, but his bank robber name is “The Impossible Robber to Catch.”

-Jakob

In the case is the Ruby of Death. And inside the Ruby is an Evil Eye. It looks for people who try to carry it away. He went to a helicopter and jumped in and told the pilot, “to China!” When he got to China he had some dim-sum, and left without paying, same as he did with the Ruby.

-Sommer

From a prompt that asked the students to create a character with a “Secret Identity”:

Her name is Wonder Girl. She wears a blue dress, blue high heels, and a headband in her blond hair. She pretends to go to the bathroom and changes by pressing a button hidden in high heels.

-Hana

Paul Kayman’s dad died when he was 6. Now he has secretly moved to the other side of the world. He is a journalist for the Daily Digest, and writes under the name John Hancock.

-Lukas

From an activity where the students chose a secret from a line and then developed a character who was keeping that secret:

Snivilus is a boy who, like many others, has a mom and dad. He lives in a mansion on an island with his mom, dad and of course his annoying sister Jane. Jane has a diary. While his sister was out he snuck into her room, six floors above his own. After one or two minutes, he found what he was looking for, her diary!

-Leila

From an activity where the students used basic decoder wheels to code and decode their own messages:

Code: YWL GML!! FG LAEW LE WPHDSF. YG. Message: GET OUT!! NO TIME TO EXPLAIN. GO

-Jackson