Words From Our Young Authors at Grattan Elementary

This session the students worked on character and plot. They learned to make use of each of their five senses as a source of inspiration. The students did listening activities that led to poems, worked collaboratively to interpret photos, and used details from their own lives - both mundane and personal - as details to enhance character. See sa couple of the excerpts below!  

From a photograph of a Scarecrow dressed in a fine suit and hanging in a cornfield:

Ballad of the Scarecrow in a suit.

I am a scarecrow. It’s a lot harder than it seems. For one, it’s a pain in the neck to re-stuff yourself everyday. Oh and, hey, wait, please don’t leave. I’m not going to complain the entire time. Maybe ten percent, but not more. Besides, I’m getting off topic, and before I do, I should tell you about my appearance. No really, it’s essential to the story. Like I said, I’m a Scarecrow, an average Joe, straw-filled, rough, canvas skin. But it’s the outfit that really catches people’s eye. I can see you’re filled to the brim with questions, and being the Scarecrow that I am, I am happy to answer them.

-Sam

I am supposed to be scary. But not that anyone thinks I am. Everyone thinks I’m funny. It makes me sad. I hope someone will understand.

-Estella

From an exercise in collaboration called the exquisite corpse, where the kids each  wrote a line of the story, without having seen the line that came before:

Bob R. Greedy

Bob R. Greedy Planned to smuggle a bald eagle into Spain. At the top of the Empire State building. In the middle of 223 BC. Because of the atomic matter in your mother’s favorite teapot. But she became so excited that she drowned. And this caused the cow to run circles around them.

-Adam

More Words from our 2nd and 3rd grade authors at Grattan!

The following excerpts of the kids' work came from some of this session's writing activities. Some were in response to prompts, and a few are  in response to learning about Amelia Earhart's flight. In the "My Name Is..." poems, students  personified their names. "My name is... " poem

My name is Niall.

My name is made from water,

I found my name in Egypt.

My name can flow around rocks,

If I lost my name Mother Nature would stress out!

-Niall

Excerpt from "What I hate about being a kid"

What I hate about being a kid is that I can't sing when I want to. I can't cut with a really sharp knife. I can't tackle my brave cats who battle each other and both get really hurt...

-Josie

Excerpt from "If I was a pet..."

If I was a pet bat I would wake up at night. I would be a brown bat. I would sleep in the morning. I would fly all night. I would sleep upside down. I would squeak. I would eat bugs. I could see in the dark to catch bugs...

-Samantha

Dear Amelia Earhart,

My name is Zoe and I am the author of this note. I'm writing to you because I want to ask you some questions about your journey: Were you the only one on the island? How did you survive? Were there harmful sea creatures surrounding the island? Were you scared? Do you miss your family?

-Zoe

Excerpt from "If I were a pet bird..."

If I were a pet bird I would not eat, and then I would shrink and then I could fit through the bars of my cage and make a paper bird so my owner would feed the paper bird and get tricked...

-Lucie

Dear Amelia Earhart,

What did you do when you were stuck on the island? I would kill fish and eat them. Were you putting on that freckle cream that they found when they went looking for you? I'm sorry that you died.

Love, 

Roxy

-Roxie

Excerpt from "If I were a pet bird..."

If I were a bird I would sing all day long. I would love my humans and sit on branches. I would have babies and keep them warm by sitting on them. I would eat and feed my babies, and before I died I'd make sure my babies were OK.

-Anonymous

Excerpt from "If I were stuck on an island..."

If I was stuck on an island I would stay there for 100 years and no one would come to rescue me. If they did find me I would be happy, but I would have some animal friends so I would not leave them behind. I would take them with me, maybe a monkey, a panda, and even a bird. We would play animal games like animal hide-and-seek...

-Anonymous

Words from our Young Writers at Grattan Elementary!

 

Back row (left to right): Cecilia, Emma, Keegan

Middle row: Wai-Kirn, Lukas, Jackson, Sam

Front row: Leila, Bridget

This piece was based images of "Flights of Fancy". Cecilia chose a photo of a small boy standing on a rock precise overlooking a castle in through the clouds in the distance.

The flying castle is the dream that every kid has inside. But once kids forget, or give up their dreams, it will disappear. So every kid should have a night to make their own dreams come true.

-Cecilia Mali

For this assignment the students were asked to personify an emotion:

My sadness was made by horror and anger melted together. I found my sadness in a house filled with dust and dirt. My sadness can blow away happiness and hope. If I lost my sadness I would not look anywhere, for I could regain my Happiness and hope.

-Jackson Cooley

For this assignment the class worked up a list of things that “fly” and the students choose one of the those to write about:

Push on the ground

Obstacles no

Light on ice

Are they crazy? No

Right on the ball

Bright maybe

Easy, not really

Another flight

Reaching, paw after paw

Sliding along

Fly somewhere

Light flying, not light walking

Yield, no way

 -Leila Hennessy

I fall through the air like a girl in a ballet dress flying off a cliff—imagine a woosh of pink, and a scream as high-pitched as a dolphin squeak!

 -Luckas Bacho

For this assignment the students used personification to present their names, and themselves:

My name is made from flowers I’m not allergic to.

I found my name floating in the sky of blue.

If I lost my name I would look in a giraffe’s throat,

Or maybe on a boat;

I might even look in a rootbeer float.

-Bridget Martin

My name is made from my history, all mixed and mashed into a stew pot. My name can be short or long, it can defeat any obstacle in its way.

-Sam Ofman

My name is Wai-Kirn as you may know. If it were lost I would know. I would search the seas from home to yonder grand. I’d find it somewhere in the sand.

 -Wai-Kirn Macaraeg

For this assignment the students were given the prompt, “This morning I packed my backpack, and instead of going to school, I hit the open road.” They were asked to complete the story:

 The Grim Tale of Me

The wind blew in my face as Marty, Thompson, and I flew down the highway on our bikes. We could see cars and giant buildings. It felt good. We peered around the all the streets, but they didn’t look normal, they looked small. It felt as if I were the king of the world, and the streets were my minions.

 -Keegan Boyd

This was a series of answers to questions about what it may be like for a bee to fly, and worked into a poem:

Like walking is to humans.

Hard winding danger.

The wind and the buzzing of my wings. 

 -Emma Bethel

After-School Student Writing: Grattan Elementary

We're proud to feature our students' work on our blog! Here are some short excerpts from Grattan Elementary's 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade after-school class:

Bridget

(Imagination: What if I had an evil twin…)

My eviel twin is so eivle…My twin even has a secret layer. Now I know I’m doing a lot of erers that’s because this is how she writes. (note: spelling errors were part of the story.)

 
Sophie

(Imagination: What if I had an evil twin…)

Her voice would be scratchy and she would be ugly. She would not be very polite. I would defeat her by turning her into a marigold…

Asher

 (Writing from Photos)

There was a bunch of balloons floating over the mountains. The balloons could feel the wind blowing them south from California to Africa.

Jackson

 (Sensory Details)

The loud hard fast rain came down. Like at the speed of light a drop hit the ground. “Plop!” like two planets crashing together.

 

 Cecilia

 (Imagination: What if I had an evil twin…)

My twin looks exactly like me, she has black hair like the night…she will wear the same thing that I wear and she will say, “did you copy me?” 

Elanor

 (Imagination: What if I had an evil twin…)

If I had an evil twin my twin would look exactly like me. She would always be turning herself into things like elephants, snakes and spiders.          

 

Julius

 (Story Starter)

Once upon a time there was mustard and ketchup and they told each other jokes and laughed all night long while governing in the white house. 

Arly

(Free Word Association Relay + Writing a Story)

It’s a clown. They call it a clown because he’s wearing all the wrong clothes in rainbow color. 

 
Zoe

(Writing Through the Senses)

Once upon a time the cafeteria was noisy…the crash sounded like BOOM! Everybody stared at the alien spaceship and then the aliens threw a pie at me.

Kaya

(Looking Closely + Story)

A long time ago there was a magical bird who loved to sing. When it sang every one became punished but when it cried for help, everyone would become scared. 

Natalie 

 (Imagination: If I had an evil twin…)

When we get home she makes me clean her room. She cooks dinner and poisons mine…one night she extra poisoned my food and when wouldn’t eat it she told me she would eat it and got sick and when she got better she not evil anymore.  

Izzy

 (Story Starter)

Harry and Cho decided to have a cute date. Cho died her hair blue and green and Harry dyed his pink and purple!

Jacqueline 

 (Writing from Photos)

I like the outside of the dress and I also like the design. I think she looks nice and she has plastic on her because she’s deaf.