On March 14th, we celebrated World Write Your Story Day with Book Creator. After reading short stories from The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, students embarked on a creative writing journey. We wrote a variety of children’s stories for pre-K to middle-grade ages. After almost two weeks of writing and rewriting, we have published our stories and are ready to share a few of them with you. We hope you enjoy them!
After reading the article, “The Curse of the Hope Diamond,” in Scholastic Scope Magazine, one of our students practiced writing a CSA response to answer the question: Is the curse of the Hope Diamond real? Keep reading to see if her evidence supports her claim.
CSA for The Curse of the Hope Diamond
Stories, as well as theories, are not always factual. Take the story of The Curse of the Hope Diamond for an example. There is
no actual evidence of the coincidences that occurred while people had it in their grasps, and it might’ve not been because of the
diamond. “There have been, over the years, even decades, numerous stories about how the Hope Diamond carried an ancient curse,”(Kurin 1). Due to this one sentence saying there are several stories on The Hope Diamond, it’s possible that it’s a hoax. There are also theories on why all these terrible events happened, theories are also not reliable or factual as well. “The first few stories of The Hope Diamond came in the financial pages of The New York Times in 1908,” (Kurin 9). The quote therefore states that this whole commotion about the diamond is just a chronicle. Which could accordingly be just a hypothesis about why these people were witnessing such horrible things while having the diamond. In summary, stories and theories are not always true.
Author visits are a great way to encourage students to read and write. Fortunately, our school is a champion at planning author visits for our middle schools students. We are eagerly awaiting Book Week from January 23rd to the 27th at Lake Highland Preparatory School. We have Jarrett J. Krosoczka visiting our middle school students, and he’s bringing books! My 7th grade students worked in small groups to create short graphic stories using Book Creator. We are sharing the digital books with Jarrett and the rest of the world on this blog. We hope you enjoy reading our stories and don’t forget to leave us feedback.
After reading, “The Red Button” by Kristin Lewis in the Scholastic Scope magazine, students were inspired to write a prequel or sequel to the story. We worked in pairs to write the stories and shared them in class. Then, we voted on our favorites to be published on our class blog page. We hope you enjoy our creative stories!
Prequel for “The Red Button” by Roan and Brock
Today is the day. The day I set up the test. The test to see who will press the button. I made this harmless button that does absolutely nothing in my secret laboratory behind the fair. Then when it was time I went looking. Where should I put this button? Then I found it. It was big and beautiful. It was a giant crate. I placed the button on the crate. I then put a trail of gum on an old path so people would follow it. Then I left.
You may be wondering why? Why do this test? Well, every few hours I have this thing called short term memory loss. Meaning I forget all about what happened before. So I am testing to see will I press it? I have set up a camera to review my test. So if you are reading this let me know did you press it Stephen? Did you?
– Sincerely, Stephen
The Red Button Sequel by Liv and Lily G.
Stephen couldn’t seem to stop himself. His feet shifted, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from moving closer and closer to the button. What would happen? Would it explode? Would nothing happen? Was this a test set up by his grandma because he could stay out of her cookie jar? Why was there a random button tempting him to press it? Stephen found himself reaching toward the button. His fingers were above it when someone came up behind him and bumped into him.
Stephen slipped and pressed the button. The ground beneath him started to shake. Other people didn’t seem to notice what was happening. The ground began to split. He couldn’t believe his eyes. What in the world was happening? This is the end of the world. Stephen started to run, but the ground finally caught up to him. He fell into the void. In an instant, he woke up and realized it was just a nightmare, a very realistic nightmare. Then only realized it wasn’t a nightmare and he had ended the world and fallen into a void and into another dimension. “Snewmens”, the world of the forbidden and forgotten Christmas.
Sequel to “The Red Button” by Max and Nico
Bang! The door slammed and the security guard rushed in he screamed don’t touch the button. But the button had put him into some sort of state in which he couldn’t hear him. Stephen said, “I don’t care anymore, I don’t care about being better than Kakarot. I don’t care about being a super Saiyan. I don’t care if I live. I don’t care about anything. Then it happened, he touched the button and became a Super Saiyan.
Then he took over the world with his superpowers and united the continents. There was no more world hunger. It took time but everyone got used to it. He became the richest and most powerful man in the universe. But there was something missing, he needed a rival then he heard the song, “John Cena Bing Chilling”. Then John Cena and Stephen had a battle. They had a gruesome battle but Stephen was no match. John Cena Bing was chilling and he was able to concur the universe.
The Big Red Button Sequel by Nicole and Ava
After Stephen presses the red button he falls into a cave. He saw Mason Thames and Cesar Mendoza in the cave. Moments later, thousands of rats start biting his ankles and one of them was carrying a disease. Stephen starts to feel dizzy and falls into Mason’s and Cesar’s arms gracefully, and realized he was hallucinating.
When he realized that he was hallucinating, four big guys come and carry him away to a secret room. In that room, there were 574 monkeys dancing in a circle singing ring-around-the-rosy. The monkeys then scratched his face and became blind. JJ appeared in the same room that Stephen was in and gave him a secret potion. When Stephen drank the potion, it fixed his eyes and he could then see. Unfortunately, he dies due to an infection from the rats.
Death Itself
By Adam
In the shadows
Cold as the winds
With an ember inside and within
Eating away all of mankind’s sins
Feeling empty as a hollow
Deaths embrace will come to follow
Depression and sadness settle in
Without a doubt on man’s whims
People cry People mourn
Over their loved ones that have been born
In this world of Despair
None can ever be repaired
O’ Death do us part
Some shall never have a heart
Broken inside and through
Such is one who has never bloomed
John was inspired to write this poem during hurricane season.
McLane wrote this rhyming poem on Canva.
Prior to our holiday break, I decided to ditch the traditional paper and pencil exam for a fun project. Students were given many choices in how they could demonstrate and apply reading and writing skills. For a little over a month, students dove deep into critical and creative thinking in an independent passion project. Below are two original poems written by Kate, and inspired by The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl and When Stars are Scattered.
Moving on for the Better
By Kate
Ever since lighting struck me
it also struck my life.
It changed.
From there I became a savant, a genius, in math
But little did I know I was drowning in loneliness
Numbers, online friends, and my alone time became my friends
Although, my grandma tells me that I’m lonely
I thought that deep down inside I had everything that I needed
It turns out that all I needed were friend
but I didn’t have what I needed.
I finally found my place.
Change is Good
By Kate
As I looked around the tents
Spread all around, my life
Stuttered as if I didn’t know its worth.
As I stared at the stars, I couldn’t help
But wonder what was really out there
Waiting for me.
Was the rumor true about my
Mother’s passing? Could I go to college in America and leave my friends behind?
But no, change is not good.
It is bad. I should stay here.
With Fatuma and my best friend.
My mother is alive and I know it.
Or should I change my perspective?
I know change will hurt, but I’ve realized here at the camp that change is good.
Do it for Fatuma, do it for my family,
do it for your friends.
do it for my brother,
but most of all do it for yourself.
Change is good.
One of our favorite digital tools to use for publishing is Book Creator. It is user-friendly and a great way to share with a larger audience. Recently, we read the graphic novel Cardboard by Doug TenNapel and were inspired to write short graphic-style stories. We had too much fun creating characters and developing a short plot using Book Creator’s features. We hope you enjoy some of our stories on Book Creator.
