Creative Writing

The boys have brought home some of their schoolwork over the past few days and I made sure to flip through it all to find the creative writing. I found some interesting things. (I won't be using spell check on this post, due to the developing skills of my budding authors. So, I apologize now for any spelling errors I make!)

This first one is from Nathan. It's even illustrated!


In case you can't enlarge the picture, here is what he wrote:

My snowman is really naughty at night, he quiety climbs over the fence around my yard, goes across the bumpy street and across the long field. Finaly he gets to the park and believe me its wild.

A Night in Monsterville
I ran after my naughty dog into the old and deserted house. "Midnight," I yelled, but there was no one there. then I herd a bark at the far end of the hous. I ran in the diretion of the bark and I was in what must be the living room. "Midnight," I called again. Then I saw the fire come on and then of again. I looked around and saw chairs covered in cloth, suits of armor, and a piano playing by itself. I walked to the end of the room and and opened a creaking door that lead into the kichen. I opened a cupboard and there were half a dozen skeleton shaped cups. Then I herd a noise behind me. I turnned around and saw something walk into another door. I followed it into room after room. It started to walk down the steps but I could keep hearing my dog walking upstairs. Then I remembered, I was looking for my dog not what was downstairs. When I looked back at the stairs, the door had shut. I open the door and instead of seeing it going down the stairs went up. This must lead to the room I heard my dog in. I went up, but there was a dead end. Just then the ground collapsed, and down, down, down I went and hit his bed. "Crazy knightmares" I said in disgust.

My Morning
When I wake up I see the faint shadow of my dad standing over me. Every morning I wake up and get dressed. If I'm lucky, the heater will be on. Once I'm dressed, I go downstairs to the laundry room put on my coat, gloves, hat and maybe a head light By the time I'm ready to go outside, my dad is already pumping water into a bucket. He opeans the gate and I say, "water." It seems that breakd Ice is easier the giving hay to the animals. Now that I have my stick I start the process of breacking ice. "Thud, thud, thud, crack, thud, thud, thud, crack", the sound of hitting the inch-thick ice rings in my ears. Well there goes the first one, Next its time for the other one. Finally, now that the buckets all contain ice water and the hay is given to all the animals, I can go back inside to a nice, cozy, warm, house.

The Day of Snow
The news report said there would be snow in the moring. As soon as I could, I ran downstairs. Then I found my boots, gloves, and hat. Before you knew it, I was running back upstairs to tell my little sisters the good news. After I told them, I told my brothers the wonderful news to. They were pretty excited about the possibility of having a day off from school. My mom was the only one who didn't think that a snow day would be fun. She said that weekdays were the time for her to relax and for us to think. We told her that we would just outside and play, and it would be like we weren't even there.


At the very least, the boys keep me entertained. And who knows, maybe one day they'll break through the mechanics and grammar rules of writing to earn lots of money and make me a mother to an author(s)!

Compositions

Nathan has been cleaning out his desk and has a few funny things he's written. Here are several from one notebook.

How I Help at Home is helping out in the kitchen. I set the table, wipe the table, do the dishes, or sweep. But sometimes I forget to do my job.

(I can vouch for that last statement.)

I made someone feel better when my little sister, Sarah was crying. Sometimes I help my little brother. Sometimes I can't help them because I have to do other stuff.

(Other stuff, like sitting on the couch, I'm guessing.)

My favorite thing about trees is that I can climb them. At my house there is four trees that I can climb. Except I don't like the ants.

(I don't like the ants, either.)

My home is big, but not too big. My room is mostly clean but sometimes it isn't. I wish my attic was one that I could go in. Sometimes my home annoys me.

(Sometimes it annoys me, too. Anyone know anyone who wants to buy it? And I'd like to argue that comment about his room being mostly clean.)

I could teach someone to ride their bike. I teach three people. But one of them are not old enough yet.

(Bike riding lessons anyone?)

A Person I Admire is my Brother. Because he gets gets to have everything that I want to have. But sometimes he is really rude.

(I'm not sure he understands the fine line between admiration and jealousy. But he's right about that rude stuff.)

I would do the running part. Because I like running and I couldn't do anything else. But I would only do it if I HAD to be in a talent show.

(I have my own aversion to talent shows.)

I didn't think I could ever ride a bike. At first I was a little wobbly. When I was finally better I still had a problem. I couldn't control my brakes, I kept running into my dad's truck. But now I can.

(Yes, that is a problem!)

My favorite season is Summer, because I don't have to go to school. I kind of like Fall, but I get to play outside more in the Summer. I like Summer because I get to eat ice cream.

(Ice cream is often the final decision maker for me, too!)

The most important person I konw is my dad, because he is the one that fixes the bathroom. Sometimes I help him.

(The bathroom is very important in our house!)


I hope you got a little chuckle. Nathan is a funny kid. Here is how he described himself, using the letters of his name:
Nice
Artistic
Tiny
Happy
Awsome
Noisy

Compositions

Another one from Daniel. He has more writing activities in 5th grade than Nathan does in 3rd.

This was a "space crew prompt".

If I was to be chosen to be part of the space crew. I would play Uno. I think if I did that it would become catch the cards. I found out that you can't throw rocks as far as you can on earth. I would play eat the jelly bean. When I was walking on the moon I looked inside a crater I saw a baby dragon. I wanted to take it home to my family, but it started scratching me. I decided to leave it there so it wouldn't cut my air tube. I don't want that to happen because I would like a proper funeral.

Is it normal for a healthy nearly-eleven-year-old to be considering his funeral?

I'm itching to get out my red pen on this one!

Compositions

This is another one of Daniel's. The subject was "volunteer". It is so "Daniel".

If I could volunteer in my community I would clean up garbage for $5 a week. I would use that money to get all the stuff that I couldn't get before. I would get a better hex bug than Nathan. I would get night vision goggles so that I could sneak into my sisters' room and take down all of her horse pictures.

It looks like his teacher wrote Meany! at the end of the paragraph but then thought through that a little better because it's heavily scribbled out. I'm glad to know that his teacher considers his comments. (He usually says them out loud and those can't be scribbled out!)

Upon reading through Daniel's writing, I can see several things that jump out at me. The fact that he doesn't understand what it means to volunteer is only one. ;)

Compositions

I have one of Daniel's writing prompts this time. It's always an interesting probe into Daniel's mind to read these things. At least this one doesn't talk about beating up on his siblings.

Life hundreds of miles away from civilization would be hot and dry. There would be snakes and lizards. I would have to use a tent and get water from my canteen. I would have to bring some dried fruit and meat to eat and when I ran out I would eat the snakes and lizards. I might even to have to lick myself to keep cool. I would have to learn how to treat myself if I got sick. It would be really hard trying to survive with all the wild animals after me. I don't think I will ever have the disier to be out there.

I love that licking himself idea! I hope he doesn't get that hot around here this summer.

Compositions

I've been saving several papers from Nathan and Daniel's school work. Because I saved, but didn't share, my stack is now pretty big. I'll share them with over the next little while, starting now with one from Nathan. When I first read this one, I asked him if he wrote it himself or only copied for handwriting practice.

He assured me he wrote it himself, with guidelines/required elements from his teacher.



My Favorite Place
by Nathan Collett

I like the forest.
I like the forest, because I like to see the tall trees towering over me, and the long branches stretching over the sky.
I like to lay in the soft, brown, warm dirt and see the green leaves, and the colorful birds soaring through the sky.
I like to see the yummy fruits on the big plants.
I try to find out what kinds of strange animal trackes I can see.
(if there are any)
Except there's one thing that I don't like: SPIDERS!! They freak me out when they crawl on me!
Sometimes when I'm walking through the forest I hope I'll see a monkey, but I know I won't.
Sometimes when I'm walking through the forest I get very thirsty, and I just have to go get a drink.
So, I get a drink and go back to walking.

I love getting things like this crammed into the bottom of the boys' backpacks. :) What funny kids I have. And what makes this even more humorous is that we rarely make it to the "forest." Nathan has quite an imagination!