Bea and her rocking horse.

I had a wonderful time looking after Bea while Daddy worked in the garage. At first we played with her play dough. Just after eleven Daddy came in to have a cup of coffee. Bea took Daddies hand and led him to the bedroom. She wanted to ride on the rocking horse.

Bea helped Daddy to carry the horse to the lounge.

Then it was time for the ride.

Bea loved the soft hairy mane of the horse. She kept on touching the mane forgetting that she was riding the horse.

Then she got tired, turned the horse on its side and curled up next to it. I covered them with her blanket.

Sweet little girl!

School stories: Art and a mouse

Before School Care had an artist in the form of an always busy(mischievous) six year old boy. He was so into building the octopus and shark that he didn’t want to pack up to go to his classroom.

OCTOPUS

SHARK

The afternoon I had a chat with one of the teachers. I asked her about the behavior of two girls from her class. After the discussion the teacher told me that she wanted to release a tiny field mouse that she caught in her classroom that morning. It was drizzling outside and she went just around the corner of her classroom, into some foliage. She opened the box and the mouse jumped out. Ran along the wall; sniffed at the corner; crossed the footpath; straight onto the veranda and into another classroom! We stood giggling because the teacher in that classroom is afraid of mice.

This morning the teacher came to before school classroom. She told me that she caught the mouse in a trap last night and set it free far away from the classroom. We couldn’t help laughing and giving a sigh of relieve for the catch again.

School Stories: Term one 2019

Fancy Feet Friday

Flowers:

Tracing around tiny hands, cut out and stick it onto pipe cleaners.

Free drawing

School Stories: Completed books with own stories

After six weeks of writing stories during the school’s Enrichment periods, each child had a book as an end product. The ages of the writers ranged between eight and ten.

The students thoroughly enjoyed writing the stories.

Hard at work, writing stories.

Eleven manuscripts.

Proud writers.( The twins were absent)

Children writing Stories 2: Elisa’s two stories

 

A boring day out.

You know, these days when my Mum says:“We’re on a day out!”

Well, the places we visit are past boring. We go to parks or KMart to get some new clothes for Mum. It’s not like other kids. They go to water parks or hangdog. They are very fortunate.

Today was different.

Once again Mum said:”We’re going on a day out!”

“More like a boring day again,” I mumbled.

We jumped into Mum’s car and off we went. “Where are we going?”

“Surprise, surprise,” Mum answered with a grin on her face.

I crossed my arms over my chest and gave my sad face.

“Don’t feel sad about it,” Mum said seeing my face in the mirror.

“You’ll know where we are as soon as we get there.” She smiled from ear to ear.

I wasn’t sad about that, though. The last time Mum said it was a ‘surprise’ we went to  Grandmother to play scrabble.

Soon we reached the town. I expected Mum to stop at the local playground. We didn’t!

I was shocked. “Why aren’t we going to the park, Mum? We usually go there on a bor… I mean a day out?”

“Well, that’s the point. We go there too often. I decided we should go somewhere else for a change.” came Mums explanation. “We are going to the -”  POP interrupted Mum. She went white as a ghost.

“Oh dear,” she whispered. The car stopped with a jolt. Mum jumped out and looked at the tires.”Oh my, oh my” Mum kept on saying.

I opened the car door and joined Mum. A popped tyre means only one thing.

The most boring day of my life, history. Mum gave a big sigh again: “Sorry Frank, I was going to take you to ‘hangdog’.”

I looked like a codfish. We were heading for ‘hangdog’! Now the chances of having a fun day out, crushed.

“I better call the tyre fitters or whatever they are called.” I could hardly hear my Mum’s words. That’s how our day started, with our car being towed to be fixed.

I sighed. This was going to be so dull.

Then, a MIRACLE!

 

“Mum, Mum, can I please go to the Water Park across the road?”

“Sure,” Mum said, not paying any attention.

“YIPPY!” I screamed as I ran towards the Water Park.

It was the best day out after all.

 

The stolen toy

I am a toy. I do not have a proper name; I’m just called Toy. At the moment I’m a stolen toy. I’m in Luna’s little sisters’ bedroom.

I am so lucky not being her toy. The craziest thing happened while I was there.

She came through the door muttering something:”Luna is a big fat…. Mumble.” I could not hear clearly. She sat on her bed, heaved a big sigh. That’s when I got terrified. She grabbed Big Brown Teddy by the neck and threw him into the wall. I heard him whimpering as he crumpled to the floor like a paper being scrunched. Next, she kicked Fairy who sat on the ground into the warm heater. Fairy howled loud and long.

Her eyes flashed with fury. She stamped on her tiger and sat on her lion. Screaming.

Luckily Luna came in.

“You stole her again!”Luna growled. She grabbed me and took me back to her room.

I’m so glad I’m back where I belong.

Children writing stories 1: Two stories from Daisy

 

LOST, AND FINDING HOME AGAIN.

Pepper woke up at 3 am bright and ready for a new adventure. She gave herself a good clean and darted out the cat flap.

She ran through the bush out on the neighbour’s driveway. Practices some stalking the chickens. She won’t hurt them!

After this fun, she spent so time running around smelling everything.

Suddenly Pepper stopped. She smelled something dangerous. Some warm breath brushed against her face. Pepper took off in a flash. A bark echoed behind her. “A dog! I’ve got to run faster!” She kept on running. The dog gave up, and Pepper headed home.

“Where am I?” she could see nothing familiar. She knew that she ran straight. “Think Pepper!” she told herself. “I just need to run in the opposite direction.”She sped for home. After running for a long time, she passed a well-known tree. She smelled a familiar smell. She heard biscuits being poured into her bowl. Pepper followed the scent and the sound and padded down the driveway. She looked up and saw her home.

Hurriedly she ran inside. A welcome smile and beaming face looked at her.

That was an unforgettable adventure.

Pepper enjoyed the rest of the day resting and cuddled up in her owner’s arms.

Second Story

AROUND THE WORLD

Hi, I’m a colourful leaf. I live in Willow Woods. Very boring just hanging here unless the wind blows. It has been my dream to travel around the world.

One day a storm was brewing overhead. My hopes got up:

Maybe my luck is in today!

The storm could go on for days, and I could travel around the world! Jippie yey.

Now, wait for the moment! I got prepared for the journey by packing a lot of nutrients and a protective dirt suit so that I won’t get ripped apart.

The wind began to pick up speed. I whisked around. After some hours I was out of the country.

I flew over the sea. The sea was more beautiful than I imagined. My first stop was Italy. Finally, my dream came true.

 

To be continued.

Children writing stories. Introduction.

 

Each year Plateau School has for six weeks, one hour per week, an Enrichment period.

The sessions stretch from knitting, building robots, web pages, photography, painting, bush walks, designing, reading maps and whatever is different from the real school periods. Volunteers(mostly parents) show or help children to do things they have never tried before. Each child had to decide which session they would attend.

The sessions are the last hour of the day, on Mondays this year.

I volunteered to help them to write their own stories.

Eleven children are attending my sessions. Two boys and nine girls. They are in year four and five.

We started two weeks ago.

The first period was just an introduction to what they could expect.

I want them to write at least three stories. Then I’m going to help them to put it in a book with a cover, front page, content and maybe an introduction.

1. We started off by brainstorming the ideas what they are going to write about
2. Then the first sentence or paragraph to hook the reader into the story.
3. Next is the body or what happened.
4. Last paragraph, the ending where the story is rounded off.

The second period was the past week. I explained to them that writing a story is like making a sandwich. They had to tell me what they would need for the sandwich.

The top slice is the sentence in which they explain who is in the story and also to hook the reader in by just giving away a little bit of the story

The yummy middle part is where all the deliciousness lies. All the action of the story and then the bottom slice is where the main character wins the battle or is saved.

I am going to edit the stories just a little bit so that the pieces make sense. I received my first stories and am astounded by how good they are.  I’m also going to put some stories on my blog to show how good they are.

At the end of the six weeks, I want to publish a book with all their stories in it. It could be a good Christmas present at the end of the year.