Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The Tale of the Late Bloomer
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
The Tale of the Bad Tale
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Illustration by Emerson Age: 4 Paris, TN Mrs. Natalie's Childcare |
He
sighed, “My life is so slow and boring.
I wish my life was more exciting.”
Just
then Audra the duck came into the clearing. “Good morning, Hayden,” she said. “Where is everyone?”
“I
don’t know,” Hayden replied.
“Maybe
they will be here in a minute,” Audra said. “I want to tell them about the rock I found in the pond this
morning.”
Hayden
was tired of all his friends having stories to tell about things that happened
to them. He felt left out.
“Hey,
you know, Audra,” started Hayden, “once I found a diamond on the bottom of the
pond.”
“Really!”
exclaimed Audra. “What did you do
with it?”
Before
he could answer, Emerson the dragonfly flew into the clearing and landed beside
them. “Hey guys,” Emerson said,
“what you doing?”
“Hayden’s
telling about when he found a diamond in the pond,” said Audra.
Emerson
leaned in close to Audra to listen.
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Illustration by Talan Age: 3 Paris, TN Mrs. Natalie's Childcare |
At
this point Xavier the frog hopped into the clearing. “What you doing?” he asked.
“Hayden’s
telling us about his stolen diamond that he found in the pond,” explained
Emerson.
With
big eyes, Xavier settled in next to his friends to listen.
Now
Hayden was not an experienced storyteller. He had done okay up until this point, but he was running out
of ideas of what could happen next.
“When
they stole it they made a horrible mess in my room,” Hayden continued starting to
squirm a little, “and I cried because they stole my diamond.”
At
this point Audra became suspicious because Hayden was starting to act a little
funny. “Did you really find a
diamond or are you just making that up?” asked Audra.
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Illustration by Hayden Age: 2 McKenzie, TN Mrs. Natalie's Childcare |
Now
his other two friends were getting suspicious. “Hayden, it’s not cool to lie to your friends,” said
Emerson.
Hayden
could tell that his friends did not believe him, and that made his face get
even redder. Finally, he broke
down in tears and confessed, “Okay, I didn’t find a diamond in the pond. Happy?”
“Why would you tell us that?” asked Audra. “You’ve never told us stories before.”
“I’m tired of always being the boring one,” said
Hayden.
“We don’t think you’re boring,” said
Xavier. “You do lots of things.”
“You really don’t think I’m boring?” Hayden
asked as he looked at his friends.
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Illustration by Audra Age: Almost 2 Paris, TN Mrs. Natalie's Childcare |
“You
are our friend and we’ve done lots of cool things together,” added Audra.
“Sorry
I lied to you,” said Hayden as he hung his head.
“It’s
okay,” Emerson replied. “Just
don’t do it again.”
For
the rest of the afternoon the four friends pretended to be pirates. The rock Audra had found became a valuable
diamond. They buried it and drew a
treasure map intending to find their way back to it on another afternoon.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
The Tale of the Flying Frog
The afternoon sun shone brightly on
Polliwog Pond. Four friends sat on
the bank of the pond talking.
Audra the duck, Emerson the dragonfly, and Hayden the turtle were
listening to Xavier the frog brag about how far he could jump. He had been bragging all day long.
Finally, his
friends had had enough. Emerson
the dragonfly said, “Instead of telling us about how far you can jump, why
don’t you show us?”
“Yeah, Xavier,
show us,” said Audra. “Can you
jump to that lily pad out there next to the big log?”
Xavier looked out
at the lily pad next to the big log.
It was a LONG way from where they were. Truthfully, he had never jumped that far before, but he didn’t
want to look bad in front of his friends.
Hayden looked out
at the lily pad as well and gave Audra a nasty look. “Audra, there’s no way Xavier can jump that far and you know
it.”
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Illustration by Audra Age: Almost 2 Paris, TN Mrs. Natalie's Childcare |
“We all do,” said
Audra. “So put up or shut up.”
That did it. Xavier was going to jump to that lily
pad or die trying. He backed
away from the bank of the pond to get a running start. Then he took off with all his might and
leaped as hard as he could. He
sailed through the air and landed in the water two feet from the lily pad. Splash!!!
He came up to the
surface of the water and swam back to shore. He didn’t even look at his friends because he could hear
them giggling. He backed farther
away from the shore and tried again.
This time he fell just one foot shy of the lily pad. Splash!!!
Hitting the water
that hard really hurt, but he didn’t even say a word. He climbed back out of the water and decided to use a
different strategy. He grabbed a
long cattail that was next to the shore and bent it back. When his friends saw what he was doing,
they got nervous.
“Hey, Xavier, you
don’t have to kill yourself trying to make it to that lily pad,” said Hayden
nervously. “Audra, was just being
mean suggesting something that was that far away.”
“Yeah, Xavier,
this is not a good idea,” said Audra.
“I just wanted you to stop bragging.”
Xavier looked at
his friends defiantly and hopped onto the bent cattail. It shot him into the air. This time he flew past the lily pad and
landed on the big log with a thud.
He slid off the log into the water and didn’t immediately come to the
surface.
Audra
panicked. She swam as fast as she
could to where Xavier had gone under and dipped her head under the water. She saw him sinking to the bottom and
grabbed him with her bill. She
pulled him to the surface and dragged him back to shore.
Xavier lay there
coughing up water and moaning.
“He’s alive!” shouted Audra.
Then she turned on him angrily and said, “Don’t you ever do something
that stupid ever again!”
Xavier hurt too
bad to argue with her. Then Audra
calmed down and said, “I’m sorry I told you to try for that lily pad. That was mean. You scared me when you hit that log.”
Xavier looked up
at his friends and said, “I’m sorry guys.
I didn’t mean to scare you.
That was probably the most stupid thing I have ever done.”
His friends didn’t
argue. For the rest of that day
the friends talked about Xavier’s crazy flight through the air and how scary it
was. From that day on if Xavier ever
decided he wanted to brag, his friends would just look at him and say, “flying
frog.” That was all it took.
Lily's Rainbow Adventure
Lily sat on the welcome mat on her
front porch looking across her wet yard.
The rain had just stopped, and a beautiful rainbow had appeared in the
sky.
“I
wonder what it would be like to walk over a rainbow,” Lily said to herself.
She
closed her eyes and pretended she was walking on top of the rainbow. It was made out of colored bricks. From the top of the rainbow she could
see for miles. She could see her
house and her grandma’s house. She
could see the store and the park where she loved to play.
In the park she
spied something behind a tree.
Could it be? It was a
dragon. Lily spread her arms and
flew through the air to the park.
She landed next to the tree where the dragon was hiding.
“Hello,” Lily
called to the dragon. The dragon
did not come out. “I won’t hurt
you.”
The dragon
carefully stepped toward Lily while she held out her hand. When the dragon came close enough, Lily
rubbed its scaly nose.
“Would you like to
fly with me to the rainbow?” Lily asked the dragon. The dragon nodded and the two friends flew together until
they landed on the top of the brick rainbow. They sat together and watched the world beneath them.
Lily woke up from
her lovely daydream and sighed. “I
wish I really could sit on top of a brick rainbow,” she said as she went back
into her house.
The Adventures of Polliwog Pond: Teaching Tips for These Stories
The Adventures of Polliwog Pond: Teaching Tips for These Stories: Hi, my name is Natalie Wade. I have a master's degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with an emphasis in Child and Family Studies from...
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