PBS Kids Writers Contest

We finally did it!!! We sent it in!!! In January I came across this contest. I was excited to have the kids do it. So, instead of History and Science (which they get some on Fridays at their enrichment classes) in the afternoons I have been working with them on writing their stories. So, they are due this week, we went and sent them PRIORITY MAIL to PBS KIDS WRITERS CONTEST. The kids are so excited. There are prizes for the top three in each grade level. I have encouraged them, but also let them know there are a lot of entries! It was just a fun, although sometimes challenging project to work on. I think a lot was learned in writing and illustrating. I think that next year we will have to work more on the illustration part. One step at a time. I was quite impressed with their creativity. I am posting them on here, because we won't get the originals back. So in case I loose the written copies I have it on here for later reading. Here are the stories they submitted to the contest (I can post them because they are all sent in by now):

The Gorilla who played the Guitar by John

Once upon a time in a jungle there was a gorilla who like to play guitar and everyone loved to listen to him and everyone was happy. Mr. Tiger thought he was annoying, but the gorilla didn't think so.

One night while Mr. Tiger was sleeping he had an idea. He would go to Mr. Gorilla's house and steal his guitar. So, that night while everyone was sleeping Mr. Tiger got up and tiptoed to Mr. Gorilla's house very quietly.

The next morning the gorilla woke up and noticed that his guitar was missing and he was very sad. So, when everyone came to listen to him that day they just went back home and decided to never hear him again.

But, the gorilla said, "I can explain, my guitar is missing, but I bet we could find it if everyone works together." So they searched and searched for one week, then two weeks, and then three weeks. Finally they found it! And everyone was happy again. Except for Mr. Tiger.

Aliens by Emily

There was a princess, Lily, who was in the castle when something crashed into it. It hit the king's throne. An alien came out of the spaceship. King D said, "Eek!" Princess Lily came running. She said, "Eek, eek, eek!" The soliders almost wet their pants because they were scared.

The Queen was too busy cleaning the castle to hear the eeks! The princess ran to the Queen and said, "Have you heard the eeks? Something has crashed into the kings throne. The aliens started breaking everything in the castle. The princess was so angry she almost exploded.

They did not know how to communicate with aliens. So they just had to learn. Once the aliens were there for a week they realized that the alien was trying to tell them something. They realized that the alien wanted to be their friends. Once they knew that they started breaking things to communicate to him they wanted to be friends. So they became friends with the alien.

Mermaids by Kiley

Five girls were swimming and they saw eleven mermaids. The almost called for their moms, but they didn't because they wanted to play with the mermaids. The five girls played with the mermaids and they got too far out in the ocean. So the eleven mermaids had to hold the girls hands because it was too deep for them. And fish were swimming with them. then they saw six sharks that were the mermaids friends.

The six sharks asked the mermaids what were they holding. Then the eleven mermaids replied, "We are holding kids." The sharks said, "Well, can we be friends with the kids too?" The eleven mermaids said,"Of course, the kids would love to be with more friends." Then the five kids called for their moms to come to play, but since it was so deep in the water the moms could not hear them calling. The moms were yelling for the kids because they didn't know where the kids were. So, then the five kids asked the eleven mermaids to swim back to their moms. Then, when they go to the shore, they asked their moms if they wanted to get ice cream with the mermaids. The moms said no because they were fishing and they were glad to see their kids. The dads came to fish with the moms and the kids said good-bye to the eleven mermaids. The kdis said, "Would you like to have a playdate someday?" The eleven mermaids said, "Yes"!

Added 4/8/10: We were reading the stories the kids wrote and they were excited that they got to have the stories on the blog. Karli had written a story, but I only put the ones that I sent on here because I don't have those copies anymore. I had put hers in her box. She wanted me to add it on here, so here is her story:

Karli by Karli

Karli, the elephant was walking like a chicken. It saw another elephant named Karlockey. Karlockey said, "You need to get vitamins, I have vitamins at home. You need...and I am going to the circus today at 8:28 and I am going to be in the tractor at the circus."

Karli the elephant and the other elephant went to the grass to eat grass in the brown dirt. Karlockey's brother came and asked where she was. "I don't know," said Karli. Karli was looking for some blue and green grass. She was in the garden. She found some at the Piggy Banks house. (In here picture she had lots of smiley faces and wanted me to comment that the smiley faces were ghosts.) The End.