My Long Lost Twin: After listening to a story about twin sisters separated for years, the students write about their own (fictional) long lost twin
When I first met my twin sister, I first thought she was my twin because I saw a picture of someone who looked exactly like me. Then when I looked up her last name, I found that it was the same as mine. I sent her an email saying “Can we skype sometime tomorrow at 6?” and sent her a picture of myself. She responded in the next hour, saying “yes we can skype but only because you look exactly like me and you have the same last name as me.” It was great when we met over skype. I asked her “Where do you live?” and she said “Tyland. Where do you live?” “I live in Austin, Texas.”
We skyped back and forth for the next two weeks. It was so much fun talking to someone who looked like me and had the same last name but lived in a different place. So one day, we decided to visit each other. First I went to see her in Tyland. We went everywhere and she showed me her home. When she came and saw me in Texas, we went to a store but got split up. Not to worry because we had a plan: we had planned to meet up at the same big tree outside in the parking lot.
When she came to Texas, she got to meet my brother, father, and mom. It was great. We all decided to go on a cruise together and we decided to meet up with each other once every single year. It is great meeting your long lost twin.
- Katie, age 9
I have a twin but one ago I didn’t know that she existed. A year ago, she was 11-years-old and lived in India all her life. I was also 11-years-old and lived in California. Last year, I went to summer camp at Lake Tahoe, and that’s where I met her, Dipika. On the first day, she looked at me and I stared back at her. Then we immediately started to talk to each other. Everything about us looked the same! Like we did gymnastics and we have both have the same birthmark shape and placement on our bodies. We even have the same birthdays! Maybe we weren’t really twins but we both thought we were. I would write her letters like this one:
Dear Dipika,
I am simply begging you to come here so we can go to the museums together! Oh and by the way, California is simply breath-taking! I believe we will have great adventures and lots of get souvenirs.
We can see amazing buildings. Speaking of which, the dog next door had 15 babies! We can go to Virginia Beach because it is burning out there. My mom said that we can make raisin filled sandwiches to take with us on this trip! It will be so much fun!
Your Twin, Meher
We really wanted to live together. So we told our parents and they agreed that we should be living in the same house. So they ripped apart our baby pictures and then put them back together again. Poof! Magic! Somehow when they ripped our baby pictures and stuck the pieces together again, we ended up in showing up at the same house. We decided to live together in India because we both were born there. Now we’re all in the same house and my life has become less lonely.
- Meher, age 9
Newspaper Word Hunt: Students read through newspapers to choose words that they then spin into a story
The Festival
The Festival is one of the most top fun contests. You can win up to $50 thousand. The food there is the best kind in the world because every single country is there at the festival. You can tour the world in what kind of food they have at the Festival. You can go on a tour around the temple that the Festival is held at. Once a 38-year-old man named Luke won the $50 thousand dollar prize. He played all the games at the Festival and he read all the information about the different countries there at the Festival. He became the most important man at the Festival. He even got to go inside the Temple, where the Festival was held around, and the Wizards in there made him high king of the Festival. He also got another $10thousand dollars for going to the Temple of the Festival.
- Katie, age 9
iPad Landia
My museum is dedicated to iPads. There is an iPad mini as tiles in a special chamber. Every iPad ever made in the world would have its own section of the chamber. I call this museum iPad-Landia. Here in the museum, there will be a special section for the broken iPads, as they are going to be made into art.
In front of the museum, there is a “me” statue standing on a tower with an iPad in my hand. This statue of Me will be made out of iPads. It is full of high technology. If anyone tried to steal it, they would electrically shocked because there is a laser pointer aimed at the statue all day. The laser would shock anyone who would go near it. But one day, the laser fails because the thief used nitrogen peroxide that broke into the laser’s operating system.
So then the owner of the museum found a fingerprint. He ran it through the system and it turned out to be his daughter! She said that she needed the iPad to light up the night, so she got a thief to steal it for her. The owner forgave her and the iPad was safe!
- Meher, age 9
I Reached into my Pocket…: Students are given this prompt, then are free to finish the sentence as they choose to begin a free-range story!
I reached into my pocket and found a crumpled piece of paper. I took it out and uncrumpled it. It was neon green and had strange markings on it. I couldn’t recognize it so I took it to my brother, who is good at word puzzles. He didn’t know what it said. So I took it over to my mom, who knows 7 different languages besides English. But it wasn’t in a language that she knew. I took it to my dad, who has works with secret codes. It wasn’t one of his. Finally I took it to my teacher, who knew everything.
“Thank you,” she said. “You almost turned this in late.”
I looked at her, confused.
“But next time, please write it neater.”
- Gillian, age 11
The Taxi Cab Ride: Students explore what happens to things that could be lost in a taxi
One day I was riding in a taxi on the way to the airport. It was midnight. I was with my family and we were trying to catch the 12:30am flight to California. Mom woke us up at 1am in the morning. She rushed us out and made us breakfast. I didn’t know why we were up so early. The sky was still pitch black, and the stars and moon still shone. Meanwhile, Dad had called for the taxi. In no time, it arrived and before we could pack up all our stuff, we had jumped in and drove away.
I started to get frightened. When Dad asked the driver to speed up, I got more terrified. The driver kept glaring in the rear view mirror. I noticed there something about his eyes. But before I could determine what it was, he looked away. If you can imagine how scared I was before I saw his eyes, no its’ eyes, well you wouldn’t be able to imagine how scary that is. Let’s just say I was 10 times more scared than you are listening to this story.
“Mom? Dad?” I asked, my voice trembling. “Where are we going?”
They didn’t answer. I sank down in my seat. Then I realized I was still clutching my beloved stuffed whale to my chest. How embarrassing!
Then all of a sudden, the cab lurched to a stop. Mom grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the car. We rushed on to the sidewalk. I realized that everything was still dark; all the streetlight and stoplights were out. What was going on?
- Gillian, age 11
Found-wordplay: Students write a letter to friend whose name starts with a T
Dear Trent,
I was climbing a tree and fell into a tar pit. I was thinking of a rap name for you. I was think of you and time. But back to this tree thing. I threw my phone and it is kinda broken now at the tar pit! So yeah, oh and the temperature is really high! I want you to know this because I want you to buy me a new phone. Thanks for listening to my tales.
Bye,
Abbey
- Abbey, age 11
