December Stories

The Ocean

By Joaquin

If you visit the shore, you’ll soon notice the daily rise and fall of the water, which we call tide.

One hot summer day my friend and I were playing soccer in my back yard. It was really hot. Then we went inside for a drink of water. Then my friend asked me if I wanted to go to the ocean. I said, “OK, let’s go.” I asked my mom if I could go and if I could invite my friend. She said “OK, but only if his mom lets him.” So we went to go ask his mom and she said “OK.”

He got his stuff and we went straight to the ocean. We were happy. When we got there, my little niece went to the shallow water. We climbed the mountain and we saw a bulge on top of the mountain. It was cool up there. We lost our energy so we drank water and rested to beg back our energy. We climbed back down and went straight to the ocean. We saw a boat move to the inlet. My dad brought a boat too.

We were getting hungry so we ate some sandwiches. It was good. Then my dad said we could ride the boat. It was cool! There were lots of fish. My friend and my family had lots of fun at the ocean.


China

By Erick

China is one of the oldest known civilizations. Beginning thousands of years ago, powerful families took control and ruled this enormous region. A family that ruled for a long period of time became known as a dynasty. Influences from many of these great dynasties have survived to this day.

I am trying to convince my friends Valentin and Abraham to come join me on a trip to China because inhabitants of China are very cool. The people there eat food that I’ve never seen before like bugs, rats and other animals I can’t even think of. I guess their food is like that because they don’t have anything else to eat or they will have famine.

Many people wear elaborate clothes because that is part of their culture or civilization. In China there are many farm lands. Some people make terraces for their crops can grow better.

The governor of China is part of a large administrative group. There are thousands and thousands of people living there.


Torres Fun Land

By Daniel

Visit the shore of the Torres. Lie down and relax or get wet at the water park. It’s shallow so kids won’t drown and there is a pool for grown ups too.

We can give you a relaxing massage and we have a spa for girls and women. Men, you can go to the sports room and work out at the gym. We will give free Gatorade to give you energy.

We have a fair next to the inlet. It has a ferris wheel, bumper cars, basketball, small games, a haunted house and a big jumper. Be careful, it takes a while for it to generate the bulge.

It is fun here. Come visit us. Call us at 000-000-0000 or visit us at TorresFunLand.com. Hope you visit us soon.


The Beach Vacation

By Jesus

If you visit the shore you’ll soon notice the daily rise and fall of the water. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.

My dad told me “Well, I’m off to work now.” I said “OK, bye.” My two friends came to invite me to the pool. I went to ask my mom. She said “OK.” We went on bikes. When we got there, we put our swimming clothes on. We jumped in. It was no shallow like last year. We were there for three hours. My dad called and said, “We are going on a trip to the ocean.” I asked if my friends could go. He said “OK” and they asked their parents. We packed up and one hour later we got there. My dad said the car needs more energy to run. We were on the ocean. We put on our swimming clothes. We started to walk around. We saw the man that generated more power to make the viper go faster.

We saw an inlet. There were about 35 boats. Luis and Jorge started to swim. I didn’t because I had to fix the bulge part of the boat. Then we fixed it. I went in. The water was fresh. We left at 7:00 at night. When we got home I went to sleep. I was very tired after fixing the boat.


The Ocean

By Reyna

If you visit the shore, you soon notice the daily rise and fall of the water which we call tides. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.

One Saturday night at 6:00 my best friends Leidy and Mayte and I went to the ocean because we had a lot of things on our mind. We couldn’t get them out so we were just laying down watching the boats in the inlet.

Leidy and Mayte and I went swimming. Mayte was losing her energy so we took her out! The ocean was beautiful and the waves pitched the small boat in the inlet. Some places in the ocean it was shallow and you could barely swim or get fish. Mayte and Leidy and I were playing beach ball. The ball bulged because the air was coming out.

The wind generated high waves. Mayte was telling us that the moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides. She said, “Did you know that?” We said yes and then we went inside to go and eat some abalone with salsa and lemon.

November Stories

This week's writing guidelines required that students write a story with this week's vocabulary words while actually imagining that they were a character in the story.

Adventure in the Everglades
By Luis

There was a man called Juan Manuel Marquez. People call him the “Adventurer” because he likes adventures. The only adventure place he loves is Lake Everglades. There is no day that he forgets about the Everglades.

He always wrote a multitude of poems, books, and he also makes “Figurative Language” about it. He especially uses “Hyperbole” because he also likes to exaggerate. He never loses time there in the Everglades.

Since he was little he was always in his little canoe. Now that he is an adult and he has a wife, he spends more time with his wife that in the Everglades. When he was little, he made a promise to himself that he will be in the Everglades for eons. Now he told his wife, “Let’s move to Baja, California because I want to know another peninsula. I got tired of this one.”

They moved to Baja, California and then they had kids. The kids heard about the Everglades and one of the kids said, “Dad, could we go to the Everglades please?” Juan pondered and said, “Let’s go then.” When they got there the kids scurried to the lake. Juan still had the canoe and they barely fit. They took a little tour and on the way they saw a plentitude of white egrets. The kids were amazed. Their eyes almost popped out and their couth was as big as a hippo’s mouth. They saw all kinds of animals. Now those kids will pass to their kids and those kids will pass on the experience.









The Island
By Jose Carlos

In the 1860’s a girl named Karina and her brother named Carlos lived on an Island named Island LYR. They lived in a lair. Carlos ate a lot of abalone and gorged carbs and Karina felt forlorn because they did not have any family. Karina was overcome by the sharks.

One day a lot of people came to the island and asked if we wanted to go to another place. We said yes. So we went aboard. I took my equipment. Carlos did too. I knew he forgot something. I thought he was just going to leave it there so I did not worry about it.

When we left the Island, the boat started pitching and it pitched and it pitched. Carlos said, “How come you have more stuff?” Carlos didn’t understand. He jumped to the land and got his spear and some clothes. The boat started going fast and he tried swimming but there were sharks.

He returned to the Island and we never saw him again.









Trapped by the Ice
By Hillary

It all started in 1874. I was going to see the penguins with my family and my friends. We realized there was a hole under the ship and we were sinking. We had to jump out because the ship was hurting the penguins. It was perilous. If we jump with lots of stuff, we will maybe not make it to the ice and fall in the water and freeze to death.

The penguins were getting hurt so we bailed out and made it. One of the penguins got hurt so we took care of it. It was a good thing that we tool everything out. It was impossible to walk the ice because it might. We had to start walking because we were standing next to rancid things and it was freezing cold.

I was starting to get dehydration from not drinking anything or eating. I was starting to catch a fever and the ice was melting. We had to get to a safe place because we could drown. We saw a ship but it was so grueling to get on so we started lunging each other into the ship. We were safe and the penguin was happy with his family. It was the most grueling adventure I had ever had!

9/11 Stories

On the six year anniversary of 9-11 we did a writing assignment in the form of a Personal Narrative. Students were to imagine that they were there the day it happened and describe what they felt and what they did while using this weeks vocabulary words.


9/11

By Rosa

I am a volunteer in New York City. It was a Tuesday morning when I was playing with the children that I heard a big sound. Then the other volunteers called me and said, “Hurry, hurry.” I didn’t have a clue of what was happening. Then they told me the Twin Towers fell. I couldn’t believe them.

I rushed where they were. I couldn’t believe it. Those people had done so many violations. I got in but I couldn’t be in there too much so I went outside and helped some people with all the injuries they have. Some even threw themselves out of the windows. It was so sad seeing all the family crying.

When we were finished, everything was destroyed. Although that happened a long time ago, people have an issue why they did that. Now people are funding money to rebuild it but bigger. I wish they didn’t postpone this for later and rebuild buildings on ground zero. I hope people don’t come with a plan to destroy them again. If I would have a job to help, I would do effective work. I don’t have in my agenda for this to happen again. I hope they make an ordinance saying that if this happens again, it would be safer.


September 11, 2001 (9/11)

By Sophia

9/11 was a very sad time. I don’t remember it very well, but as I get older I hear more and more about it. When it happened, I was only 5 years old. For every person that died there is a flag and this year for every child that died they will get a pink rose.

Why does there have to be war and how can somebody just kill other people including themselves and believe they will go up to their God and be OK with it. I could never do anything like that. So many people died including children. So many families, friends, husbands, and wives died.

I am just so happy no one in my family died. I feel very sad though for those whose families did die. I just wish that one day there will be no wars, but my wish probably will never come true. I only think this because there has been war since the beginning of time, even just small fights just over who’s right and who is wrong. People fight over religion, skin colors, and even who is the strongest town, country, city, and state.

I am sure that when it came down, everyone glared and ran away. Many mementos were found. Fire fighters rummaged through the building after it had fallen and miraculously they found a man still alive and breathing. By the end of the day everyone was exhausted I’m sure from flexing their muscles while picking up heavy things and fumed that someone did this to these families or friends. Policemen and firemen effectively cared about what happened. We knew this was an issue that needed to be fixed somehow.

The Terror of 9/11

By Perla

I would like to be a volunteer in on 9/11 because I want to help clean all of the damages. The volunteers have an agenda full of things to do. I feel real sad because many people died because the Twin Towers fell down. We won’t be so effective picking up heavy things.

We are getting funding to build a building called “Freedom Towers” where the Twin Towers used to be.

An issue we talk about is about the funding. It is not an ordinance to do it, but we want to do it as a memento of the Twin Towers. We will not postpone any meetings. We hope there will be no more violations.

9/11

By Aracely

I remember I saw the territory fall down. It was a disaster. I had to make people go away from near there.

I glared at how the territory fell down. I’m sad for those people who died.
The families were crying because family members had died and I consoled those families.

My favored people to console were the ones who need it the most.

I felt guilty when the airplane fell because we could have stopped them.

Everyone trotted when the fire got closer and closer. I couldn’t even run for how scared I was.

The last thing that I have for a memento is to remember how people died for us, and to be thankful that we have life.

Student Writing Samples--August

During the month of August I noticed and read about all of the flooding in the Midwest. I used the SMART Board to show the students the devastation which was occurring.

The Assignment was to imagine that you were a volunteer sent to help out these people and tell your story using this week's vocabulary words.

Here are some of the student's stories:

The Flood

By Vanessa

Being a volunteer was exhausting. The reason that I was tired was because I really needed to flex when I was trying to get a little boy who was trapped in the river.

I saw that people were fumed because the flood destroyed their homes. We were rummaging in the river because we were looking for people that were trapped so we moved every object that was in the river.

We were reluctant at first, but when we rescued we were happy. Everyone helping to help realized that helping people was their instinct.

Volunteering

By Alexandria

I was in Iowa with a group of volunteers. We were on a boat pulling people out. Then I saw a little kid drowning. I was trying to pull him out. I flexed my muscles because I wanted to get a better grip. I was so exhausted. The little boy rummaged through us looking for his mom. He started to cry. We didn’t know why, but then he grabbed my hand and asked “Did you save my mom.” I told him “I don’t know who your mom is.”

He fumed at me and wanted to jump off. The little boy had instinct. We reluctantly went to a safer place.

I was happy I helped save people’s lives from the flood.

Volunteer

By Alejandro

When I reached Ohio, the flood was horrible and the worst thing was there is alligators everywhere you look. Some people couldn’t make it others were exhausted and got eaten. The chief said to rummage the houses if no one comes.

The people had an instinct to grab paddles to scare the alligators away and wait for me and my backup, Steve’s alligator team. I went and saw a family nearly died with no food but plenty of water.

The whole family flexed their hand and reluctantly yelled “help.” But before I grabbed them and alligator tried to bite them and the family was so fumed they used a paddle to scare the alligators away.

I had saved the family and the weird thing was they were the only family who didn’t leave and so my team and we all got an award for doing so.

The Flood

By Roberto

Being a volunteer is not an instinct because you have to learn how to swim and do other stuff to save people. When they told me people had died I fumed because we couldn’t save them.

When I went inside a house I rummaged through the house looking for people. I flexed my muscles so I could carry a kid in the bed that I saw and three other people.

After that I was full of exhaustion but I was reluctant to stop working because there are people drowning in their houses. I didn’t stop working. I kept working for days then the flooded areas went back down. I volunteered to help them build the houses again.