Monday, November 19, 2012

Lost

By: Erin and Austin

One day, an orphan boy named Ethan was wandering around the dark caves of Honga. Then he saw a fire breathing dragon and it tried to shoot him with his deadly flames! He ran to a tiny crease in the wall hoping he was alone at last, but he was wrong. He saw a sorcerer with a staff that had blue sparkling gem on top. The sorcerer jumped down from a high ledge and said, “You boy. Come closer towards my light. My eyes aren’t as good as yours you know.”

Then Ethan came closer to the sorcerer, and the sorcerer said, “What are you doing out here boy you are trespassing.”

“Well um... I’m looking for someone who I can live with.” said Ethan in reply.

“You can live with me boy if you’d like, but you must prove yourself worthy.” said the sorcerer.

“Oh thank you so much. Um... I still don’t know your name.” said Ethan.

“My name is Ember, I am a sorcerer of good magic.” said Ethan’s new guardian. “Ethan lets go back to my house for some crumpets and tea.” said Ember.

The two of them were walking along a nice long narrow path, when Ethan heard a voice, a beautiful voice singing a song of love and peace. Then out of nowhere a lovely young girl, with long blonde hair with cherry red lips said, “Hello Ethan. Come to my hut and we can have some soup.”

So then Ethan went to the hut with Melody. Melody locked the door behind her, and Ethan took a seat. Then Melody walked into the kitchen telling Ethan she was going to get the main meal of their dinner, soup. So Melody walked into the kitchen and drank her daily potion, the potion turned her into her true self. After she drank it she walked out as an evil demon of death. She had black wings, a red pitchfork tail, and bronze, metal legs. Then all of the sudden Ember smashed through the door coming to save Ethan!

“Get back you evil demon! Ethan get behind me.”

“Well, well, well. What have we here. Ember the famous sorcerer and his new apprentice.” said the demon.

“Medusa, Ethan has nothing to do with you. So you should leave him alone.” said Ember.

“I need his powers to take over the world!” she said slyly.

“Um... Ember what is she talking about. I don’t have any powers. I’m just a regular stable boy.”

“That is not true my dear boy. When you were very young, your parents got into some dangerous magic. They tried doing some of it at home not thinking it would harm you, but they were wrong. You crawled in front of them as they did a spell that would give someone powers to live forever.” explained Ember, as he looked at Ethan’s blank expression on his face.

“I thought you would do that.” said Ember. “But this is no time for games. I have to get you out of here before Medusa drains your powers. We have to leave right now.”

Ethan didn’t have to be told twice. He was running towards the door right as Medusa jumped in front of him, and kicked him to the ground. ”No one is leaving until I am more powerful than everyone in the entire universe.” said Medusa as she quickly walked to where Ethan was laying as limp as a twig.

Then Ember shot her with a ball of plasma and he grabbed hold of Ethan and transported them both back to the village. When they arrived they found out that the word had spread about Ethan’s powers. The townspeople started to surround Ethan and Ember. They started chanting that Ethan should be executed so that he wouldn’t use his powers against them. One of the townspeople got a hold of Ethan and started to drag him into the crowd of people.

“Help! Ember help me!” Ethan was crying. The people put him into the dungeon and were going to execute him the next day!

“No worries boy I’ll be right...” Suddenly a loud hissing noise filled the air.

“No Ember, you aren’t going to save the day as you always have. You will be put into a special cell that will drain your powers, just like the cell that Ethan is in, you know that little apprentice of yours.” She said with a hiss.

“You keep your bloody hands off him. You hear me don’t touch him.” Ember said as he was being locked into his cell.

“Oh don’t worry Dearest, I’ll keep him nice and weak once I drain his powers.” she said slyly. A sudden whirring sound started when Ember was locked into the super cell.

“Ahhh... Perfect the draining process works.” Medusa said as she was walking away from him.

Then one of her minions pressed a button that shot Ember up into the air while he was still in his cell. “Now everyone can see you as you grow so weak.” said Medusa with a smirk.

“Why do those people obey you? Aren’t they afraid that if they do something wrong you will execute them like you are going to do to Ethan.” Ember asked.

“No, those silly people have taken a potion that lets them only see me in my human form. That’s why when I ran for their dumb election on who would rule the land, they thought: Well she’s just a poor innocent girl. Of course I’ll vote for her, and that is how I became their leader.” she explained.

“Well Medusa you know I’m jealous of those people.”

“Why, because they’re free?” she said with a loud cackle.

“No, because they don’t have to see you like this. You are hideously ugly.” said Ember with a wide grin when he saw Medusa’s furious expression.

“Don’t you know two can play at this game she said as she hit a button. Then, a giant screen popped up out of the desk. On the screen was a cell similar to the one that Ember was currently in, but instead Ethan was inside of it with his arms and legs chained to the cell walls. He was moaning something and he looked straight at Medusa and Ember and mouthed the words: Goodbye Ember.

Ember looked at Ethan’s pale face and found himself crying for Ethan. Medusa noticed this and said, “Well, since you have feelings for him lets watch him slowly ever so slowly perish.” she said with an evil laugh. She pulled a green lever that brought Ember a chair and tightly buckled him into it. Then, she hit a red button that chained Ember in so that he couldn’t move an inch except for maybe breathing. From thence forth Ember had to watch Ethan as he slowly lost his power, but when Ethan looked like he was ready to die at that very moment a blue light exploded from the cage.

Ember was released from the chair and the chains, and he cast a spell and the glass surrounding him shattered. He searched the room, but he didn’t see a sign of Medusa she must of taken off towards the explosion. Ember soon caught up to her and beat her to the broken cell. Ethan was standing in mid-air and had some kind of force-field around him. He was still there when Medusa cast a dark spell at the hovering boy. The spell bounced off the force-field and aimed itself at Medusa. With amazing aim it hit Medusa and she was frozen right then and there. Ethan slowly came down to the ground. When he hit the ground he fell, and Ember rushed over to where Ethan was lying.

“Did we win?” asked Ethan in a soft voice almost a whisper.

“Yes we won and you unlocked a new power. You triggered a energy bomb when you were weak.” Ember said with a grin.

“Is Medusa gone, is she... dead?” Ethan said with a worried expression.

“Yes boy. She is dead. She sent a spell at your force-field and it came back and hit her and she was petrified and is now frozen in time.” said Ember. At this Ethan smiled and was surprised that he had done such a thing.

“Promise me Ember, when I die that you’ll bring my body back to my old home. Just promise me.” Ethan said feebly.

“Don’t worry Ethan you aren’t going to die. Just stay with me, you hear me stay alive.” Ember said with a hint of anger in his voice.

“Don’t be mad Ember. Everyone dies sometime. Please don’t be mad that I might leave Earth, but it doesn’t mean I’ll be gone forever. I’ll be right in here.” he said as he pointed to Ember’s heart.

“Don’t leave Ethan, please don’t leave.” he said with sorrow. It was too late, Ethan had already left Ember. That day was a day of sorrow and mourning, Ember as promised brought Ethan’s body back to his old home. He had put together a funeral the next day in memory of Ethan. Ember was the only one there at this mourning funeral.

That very day a burst of life came from the tomb. Inside the tomb was a boy, a boy that once had explored the caves of Honga, seen a fire-breathing dragon, and had fought an evil demon. This boy’s name was Ethan and he became one of the most powerful sorcerer’s in the world just because of one very powerful thing, and that thing my friend is the love that Ethan had for Ember.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Some Great Writing

Recently, our fifth grade writers collaborated on pair-and-share stories during our computer classes. Our task was to learn Google Docs together. We decided to work in pairs to create original stories. The way we did it was very simple. Each student picked a partner. One member of each pair began the story, then shared the writing document with the other. "Partner A" wrote the first sentence, "Partner B" then wrote the second; "Partner A" wrote sentence #3, and so on through the writing process. The second partner also shared the writing document with me so I could follow along on their progress.

I began this project with some fear and worry. Would the back and forth writing really work? Would the partners really come up with anything worthwhile? They wrote a few back and forth sentences in class the first day, then were given the assignment of writing a few more during the intervening days until our next class. 

What happened next took me by surprise! The following morning, students reported to me, "We wrote several paragraphs last night!" They took this assignment way beyond the required few sentences I had hoped to squeeze out of them. When we came to our final class and the students were told to wrap up their stories, several asked, "Can we keep working on these stories on our own?" I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. The students were really engaged in this process!

What follows are some samples of this work. Some students are still editing their stories, so their contributions will come later. I hope you'll take the time to comment on each of the students' stories. Real, positive, feedback from online readers is powerful in its ability to motivate young writers to write some more. There's nothing more thrilling than having someone read your work and say something nice about it.

You'll find plenty of small mistakes in this writing. It represents the work of 10-year-olds in the first quarter of their fifth grade year. However, I am very proud of this work and amazed at how well the teams worked together to create original stories in this way. This is hard enough to do on your own, but to write in pairs and create a coherent, smooth-flowing story is amazing. Please, add your positive feedback at the end of every story you read. These comments are "moderated", so they'll appear as soon as I read and approve them. Please, keep me busy approving your comments!


Our Pair-and-Share Writing

by McKenna and Riley

by Brogan and Nicky

by Sean and Michael

by Rachel and Samantha

by Kaylee and Olivia

by Beth and Madison

by Analise and Carly 

by David and Matthew

by Jesse and Hannah

by Adam and Michael

Lost
by Erin and Austin


Sailing

by McKenna and Riley

Here are some things about sailing that you may not know. To be able to sail you need to have strong wind. But not too strong of a wind that you flip over. Most fifth graders would sail and opti, and when you flip and opti they fill up like a bathtub.

Opti are the slowest boats and the smallest boat. The idea is to catch the wind in the sail. When you point into the wind you want to have the sail pulled into the corner of the boat, you pull the sail in by a thing called the main sheet. Sailing takes concentration and skill. There are little ribbons on your sail and you need to concentrate on them to have maximum boat speed.

When you are going upwind (into the wind) you want to have your ribbons going back not forward. When you go downwind (when you go downwind you are not going upwind.) You want to have your boat heeling over (tipped over a little bit). The less drag you have going downwind the faster you will go. Downwind is faster than upwind because you don't need to have your sail pulled in really tight.

When you go downwind you can not sit too far forward in your boat because the bow (the front) of your boat will dig down into the water and make you flip, and you go really slow when you sail is in the water. To get your boat to flop back up you swim around the other side of the boat and pull down on the daggerboard (the thing that sticks out into the water so that you do not drift) and the weight of you pulling on it will make your boat flip back over. After you flip it back over you bail and bail and bail, bailing is when you scoop water out of your boat.

Sailing is a very unique sport, and I hope this project encourages you to sail. This is McKenna and Riley signing off. Have a great day!!!

My First Magic Trick

By: Brogan & Nicky

Magic is a subject that still fascinates me today. There are many cool magic tricks to learn. I am very interested in magic and I would like to learn it. One trick I would like to learn is how to make a rabbit appear out of a hat. So I got one of those do it yourself magic books and decided to try it. When I opened the book I saw many other tricks that were cool. Then I said to myself, ”Focus on the rabbit trick first.” So then I went and found a top hat and I borrowed my friends white rabbit. I stuck the rabbit in the hat and then I covered it with a black blanket to make it look like there was nothing in the hat. After I had practiced the trick I went downstairs to show my mom and dad.

I was showing them and then I got to the part when I was about to take the rabbit out of the hat and something weird happened. All of a sudden there was a fly on my shoulder so I tried to swat at it but when I tried I dropped the hat and the rabbit got lost in the house. I was about to go after it and I accidentally tripped and fell into my hat. I was embarrassed but then my mom and dad started to laugh. I started laughing too when the rabbit started hopping towards me. So I picked it up and then I put it back in its cage and fed it. My parents said “Hey that was one good magic show you put on for us.”

Africa Run


by Sean and Michael

There was a tiger in the tree eating a snake. It’s a tiger, watch out, it is ferocious. We carefully walked toward it through the trees. We crouched behind a bush while preparing my camera. Quickly we both snapped a photo of him and we ran, he started to chase us. The tiger was soon at our heels as we ran for the car where our friend John was waiting. So we jumped in the orange Honda Fit and drove away at a speed of 110 MPH. We looked back and saw the tiger stop in its tracks. “It must have seen a antilope,” said Eddie! We all laughed at Eddie’s joke as we took a look at the photo.

Then we saw a log blocking our path and John said, “Oh no”. We closely examined the blocked path until we found we would have to walk back to the village and come back for the car later.

“We're at the part where the tiger stopped”, John said. “Look out”! The tiger was racing towards us at full speed!  

“It’s so scary that I think I wet myself,”  I said, pointed towards a small opening in the forest.

“Let’s go that way ,” said John. “Look there is a village right there”. We ran towards the forest but the tiger jumped right in our path roaring.   

“Were trapped!” I  cried. We heard a gunshot and a voice said “No you're not!”. Some tribal warriors with shotguns stepped out of the brush firing another warning shot before the tiger pounced on one of them, slashing its claws at him and roaring. We all said,  “Thank you a million times”. They took us back to their tribe while some of the warriors battled the tiger. At the village we found a man named Tok to escort us back to our car.

          Tok escorted us to our car where we drove to the docks to sail back to America. “So we're back at the boat,” said Eddie. We scrambled onto the boat called the Drifter walking across the bow.

“Finally, it is nice to be on the water again, is isn’t it?” When we left the bay the motor in full throttle when suddenly the engine stopped. “We are stranded” yelled John. Then I heard a helicopter. We got picked up and went home.

The Dumbest Spies


by Rachel and Samantha


There were 2 spies and there names were Rachel and Samantha and together they were the dumbest spies in the country. One day they were asked to do a job for the world which was to stop the suspect from robbing the most secret bank in America. 

We accepted and grabbed two green cucumbers and some rotten bananas and were off to stop the crime. As soon as we were there, we took out our green cucumbers. “Whiplash! I went. Oh! Its my cucumber! Chomp!” 

I don’t know why Rachel used her green cucumber instead of her rotten banana. I saw Sammy with the rotten banana and ate her rotten banana. It tasted gross, but I did it so she could use my leftover smushed green cucumber and “feel the power of the mighty green smashed cucumber!” 

So when Sammy and I went to do our job we ran into the possible suspect and we said put your hands in the air. We pointed our squishy green cucumbers at the possible suspect. It turned out that it was not the right suspect. So we continued to do our job. 

We went down the next block and saw a man wearing black clothing took a lady’s purse and we went after him, but we found out that he was her husband and we got the penalty of him eating Sammy’s cucumber. 

I think Sammy wanted to hit him with a heavy butter sock because she was so mad. Rachel took over and hit him with his wife’s fancy purse, then we walked crazily and all psyched up we went to search at a nearby cafe for the crazy robber. We were walking to the cafe, when we found a crazy drunk dude. We finally realised that the crazy drunk dude was the real suspect. We took the drunk dude and made him put his hands in the air and we took him to the most heavily guarded jail. That was “the hardest work!” for both of us and at that very moment we found out that the crazy robber dude was actually a woman that looked like a man! I never suspected that! 

Now we know that using the yummy delicious fruit as our “yummy, delicious weapons” is not making us any cooler than we are. We were the “dumbest spies” in the whole country! 

Chloe the Singer


By: Kaylee and Olivia

Once upon a time there was a girl. She was only 10 and her name was Chloe. Chloe loved to sing, and she was great at it. Her mom  was a professional singer. Chloe did not have a dad because her dad had died in the army. One day Chloe decided to give up school and join a punk rock band. She loved playing in the rock band so much that she moved to sunny Jamaica with her band. Her mom was so mad, but Chloe loved Jamaica and her rock band so she wasn’t coming back. One evening while Chloe was playing in her rock band at a concert a famous person started yelling at her about how good she was. When Chloe got off the stage she realized the famous person yelling at her was Selena Gomez! She was so happy to see that it was Selena Gomez! Selena Gomez loved her so much they exchanged numbers and became great best friends.

Two years later Chloe received a call from Selena Gomez asking to make a huge record with her. Chloe forgot about the record with Selena Gomez. By the time Chloe was 80 she was very famous, wrinkly, and old. When she was cooking in the kitchen someone came in her house with a big black gun but Chloe was too old to hear them so she just kept cooking. By the time the guy hurt her the yummy banana bread was done. Before the robber left he sat down and ate banana bread. Everyone was so sad Chloe had gotten hurt and Selena Gomez was the most sad that she wrote a beautiful song for her and sang it at the MTV awards. Her mom was watching the MTV awards. After the song Selena Gomez wrote was over Chloe’s mom was mad and sad that Chloe had gone to Jamaica. So Chloe’s mom was so sad that she cryed all day and night. After Chloe’s mom cried all day and all night she never stopped crying.  Everyone who was mad cried. There was only one person who was not crying in the whole world and that one person was Bob. It turned out that Bob was the person who hurt Chloe and who ate her banana bread.