Week 26 – Telling a Tale (Frog and Toad in Space)

Once upon a time, Frog and Toad were in their spaceship looking for Mr. Pigeon, the Bad Guy.  His real name was Neil Armstrong, but Frog and Toad called him Pigeon because when he went on his space walks he looked like he was flying.

Frog and Toad landed in a great big rectangle with great big walls, which was Mr. Pigeon’s home.  It had sliding doors on each side, and when they landed, the doors closed and they were trapped!  And Mr. Pigeon wasn’t even home!

“Frog!” cried Toad, “Why did you lead us into this trap? I knew I should’ve been the leader!”

“Relax,” said Frog. “I’ll get us out.” He pressed a button on the control panel and immediately the front nose of the spaceship opened up and out came a big spring with a boxing glove on the end and it punched the doors down.  Soon, those doors were floating in space and Frog and Toad were back in space, looking for Mr. Pigeon.

Finally, they found Mr. Pigeon, but Mr. Pigeon saw them and got scared and flew to another galaxy. They made a plan. They decided to make their spaceship look like one of Mr. Pigeon’s. They took giant stickers that had Mr. Pigeon’s symbol on them and put them over their own spaceship’s symbols, so they looked like one of Mr. Pigeon’s spaceships.

They travelled to the galaxy that Mr. Pigeon had gone to. Mr. Pigeon wasn’t scared this time, for they had fooled him into thinking that they were on his side. Frog used his puncher (the big spring with the boxing glove) to punch Mr. Pigeon back into the Milky Way galaxy, right into the sun.  That was the end of Mr. Pigeon, and this story.

Week 22 – Character Story (Lepogogoo and Regebook’s Life)

Once upon a time there were twins, a brother and sister, who were good. Regebook (ree gee-book) was the boy, and Lepogogoo (Lee-puh-go-goo) was the girl.  They were no ordinary kids – they had super powers because they were born from the gods.  Once, when Lepogogoo was jumping, she shot fire out of her feet and she shot straight into space like a rocket.  Regebook, when he flapped his arms to pretend to be a bird, his arms turned into bird wings and he was able to fly!

As they grew up, when they were both 19 or so, they ate a sacred cattle. The cattle belonged to the god, Zeus. After they ate the cattle, they were very, very, very bad.  So they decided to destroy the whole planet that they lived in. Lepogogoo tried shooting her fire to burn up the whole earth.  She held onto a big boulder that was half-buried in the ground so that her fire wouldn’t make her go shooting away.   Regebook had discovered a new superpower – when he banged the ground very fast with his fists it drilled up the earth – and so tried to drill up the whole earth.

But Lepogogoo’s plan didn’t work, and neither did Regebook’s. So they decided to leave the world. While they were flying into space, a very big space alien, as big as the earth itself, ate them up.  And they were never seen again.

The end.

Week 22 – When I Was Sick

One time I was very sick and I puked a lot.  Every time I went to bed, I had a puke bucket (which was an old ice cream bucket that had no ice cream in it), and some kleenex right beside me, so that I didn’t need to get out of bed when I needed to puke or blow my nose. I had some medicine to help me feel better, but not too much medicine because that would make you even more sick.  I stayed in bed for a long time while the other kids got to play. That didn’t feel good. Mommy and Daddy helped me to feel good by giving me freezies and helping me to push up the freezie when I couldn’t. When it was night time and I was really hungry Dad gave me crackers. In the morning there was one cracker left, but I puked on it. It took me three nights to get better. Every night some of the sickness went away. When it was all gone I felt much better.

Week 21 – Story Elaboration

Original Story, “Bill climbed a hill. He saw a city below.”

Bill climbed Mount Everest because he saw something big and he wanted to see what it looked like from really, really up high. He climbed up Mount Everest and he slipped down from the top all the way to the bottom. He broke his bones in his left leg. The hospital truck came to fix his arm. And he felt better once he had a cast on. He tried to climbed the hill again and he slipped down again and he broke his bones in his right leg. The hospital truck came again. And they put a cast on his right arm. So he climbed up the hill doing a hand stand. And then he saw a city when he got to the top. He wanted to see the skyscrapers in the city from the mountain. The skyscrapers looked liked babies from the top of the high mountain.

Week 21 Read Aloud Summary (The Mouse and the Lion)

There was a mouse that went into a cave and then a lion caught him with his claws on the mouse’s tail. The mouse said that “some day I can be very useful to you” because the lion wanted to eat the mouse. And the lion said, “ok I will let you go but I might try and get you again.” Then the lion got trapped in a hunter’s trap. And then the mouse came by and said, “Now I can help you.” The mouse began to chew on the ropes and the lions shoulders were strong enough to break the ropes and the lion got out. And the lion liked the mouse and promised not to be mean to him anymore.

Week 20 – Favorite Story Narration (St. George and the Dragon)

St. George was a strong and brave knight that lived in a castle. He was a good ruler that cared about his people. He liked to save them from bad things like dragons and wild beasts, so that the people could live happily and without fear.  One day he decided that his people were safe and no longer needed his help. So he left to see if there was any more danger far away. He went far away and found lots of fields of burnt grass. He thought, “Maybe there is some danger here!” So he looked for some danger in that place.  He found a maiden.  St. George asked the maiden if she had seen any danger. And what was she doing out there where the burnt grass was? She said, “The king asked me to go out here so that the dragon can get me instead of killing lots of people.” St. George said, “But you don’t have to stay out here! I will fight the dragon and get the danger away!” So he asked her, “Where does the dragon live?” And the maiden told him that he comes out of that big lake. So St. George waited for the dragon to come out of the lake. And then he saw the dragon come out and he took out his sword and got in a fight with the dragon. He stuck his sword in the dragon’s neck, then the dragon died. All of the people were safe now. St. George and the maiden went back to the king and told him that he had killed the dragon. The king was happy that St. George killed the dragon and saved his daughter, the maiden. The king was old and after he died St. George became their king and people were happy.

Week 20 – Goats and Mountain Goats

Topic: Goats and Mountains Goats are very close but different.

Mountains Goats are very hairy while goats aren’t as hairy. Goats can live in fields or farms. Can you guess where mountain goats live? That’s right! They live in the mountains! Did you know that they are found in no other mountain ranges but the Rocky Mountains?  Mountain goats are humungous compared to regular goats. But only regular goats can be used for meat and milk.

I’m hungry. I’m going to have goat meat and goat milk for lunch! What are you going to have for lunch?

Week 19 – Illustrations (The Flying Adventure)

Grade 2 LA - Week 19One spring afternoon in April 2007, Rachel Estabrooks was going for a walk in the woods. She spotted a car in a small clearing. It was a Ford Model-T! She was wondering how the car got into the woods.  She decided to take a peek and was happy that the car door was unlocked. She looked in the back seat, the front seats, and the trunk… and the trunk had a key in it!

“I wonder if this key will turn on the car” she mumbled to herself. She picked up the key and walked back to the driver’s seat, and stuck the key into the key hole. It fit! She turned the key and vrmm-brmmm-brmmm! The car turned on!  She sat down in the driver’s seat and started driving the car.

All of a sudden, the muffler started shooting fire! She started going faster and faster and then she started going up like an airplane.  She began to worry, “How am I going to get down? All I did was start the engine! I didn’t think this would happen!”

As she flew over Calgary, she spotted her brother Stephen riding his bike down the street.

“Stephen! Look at me!” He looked all around him but couldn’t find her. He finally looked up and was surprised to see Rachel in a flying car! He yelled at her, “Rachel! Get down here! I want to ride in the flying Model-T, too!”  “I can’t!” she shouted back.

Stephen rode home as fast as he could. He grabbed a super long rope, about 90ft long, and made a lasso with it. He went back to the streets to look for Rachel in the sky. When he finally found her again he used the lasso to catch the car. He pulled the car down, bringing Rachel to safety, and turned off the car.

“You ruined all my fun!” she shouted angrily at Stephen.

“You shouldn’t have been up there. It’s not safe,” he answered kindly.

As the two tired siblings went home they had dinner and Rachel said sorry to Stephen for yelling at him and thanked him for rescuing her. Stephen forgave her. Uncle John and Auntie Jen asked them what they were talking about. Stephen answered, “It’s a long story!”

The end.

Week 18 – Journal Adventure (St. George and the Egyptian’s Worst Battle)

Wednesday, August 25, 1333 BC

Yesterday I was slaying a dragon and told the dragon, “You’re not going to get away with the princess, mean dragon!” and then plllllp!! I was in Egypt! I didn’t know where I was. I had never seen such a hot and sandy place before.  For a moment, I thought that I was at the beach on a vacation! But I looked around and saw on my right were three great pyramids and realized that I was in Egypt. Where did I put my ice packs? I’m sweaty.  I joked. On my left, there was a battle going on with fleets of arrows and spears in the air. There was a lot of screaming and shouting. I wondered if I could help the Egyptians in their battle. As I rode towards them, I thought, “They don’t have any armor.” And then I thought, “Now I get it, they don’t have any armor because it’s so hot!” Then I saw another thing, there are no catapults because they aren’t even invented yet! After a lot of battling and fighting the Egyptians won. So I said, “Yay, I can go home. Wait a second. I can’t go home, I don’t know how.”

I started to look around for a way to go home. Finally I found a red button in the sand and I pressed it. And then, vrmmm vrmmm rummm, I went home.

The end.