The Writing Explorers at Magellan!

As you read our first poem, imagine a land where ideas zip through the air, punctuation starts sentences, and scissors are best used for painting a poem. It’s a place where inspiration hides in the bottoms of shoes and brand new OMGI’veNeverHeardAnythingLikeThatBefore characters pop out of bags of discarded trash. If you’re having trouble understanding this nutty and fantastic place the Writing Explorers call home, you may need to take the advice that opens Adam’s story. (Note: Use your imagination.) Now follow the Post-It note path and see where it leads. Just please be sure to close the door behind you. We really wouldn’t want any of those slippery ideas to sneak out.

Tricia Hassenfeld
Badgerdog Teaching Artist

You can… Um… Toucan Do Anything You Can Write Everything Pugs!

– after Tyler Gobble’s “The Big Permission”

You can do anything
You can pick your nose
You can… sneeze slimy, green-brown pieces into pea soup
You can sneeze squishy, slimy yellow bubbles into your tea and
serve it to a table of fancy grandmas
You can make a mountain of boogers
You can eat a carpet in half and live
You cannot write a story about skunks in the middle of a poem
You can write a story about skunks and chocolate fountains!
You can play
You can eat a dirty pizza
You must write only on lined paper with a number two pencil
You can write a poem with scissors
You can make a(nother) mountain out of boogers
You can be immortal
You can catch ideas in mid air
You can have fun making poems
You can eat Doritos
You can make a poem out of smiles
You can teleport to a fantasy land
You can lie
You can demolish people
You can have fun making poems
You can make a poem out of smiles
You can write with your knee cap (it might be hard)
You can trap your teacher with marshmallows
You can draw with words
You can write incomplete sentences in any color marker
Pugs!

The Writing Explorers

Daisy Wood Witch and The Lost Hair

Once, there was a town called Daisy Wood. Fairies, ponies, and witches grew there. One day in Daisy Wood, a young lady named Rosa sat on her bed wondering, “When will the day start?” She looked out the widow lined with gold, a window I shall never forget.

Long black hair flowed from the top of Rosa’s head like a river’s steam pouring down and framing a quite pale face. Something stood out. Her eyes were a pale green, the color of most powerful creatures.

The sun rose and the day began. Then Rosa’s hair hair turned a world of color. Every color you can imagine striped her head, and energy tickled her toes. “What’s happening to me?” Rosa mumbled.

I forgot to tell you I’m Fairy Linda, Queen of Daisy Wood and an inventor. I flew in just then and said, “You are a magical witch who brings colors to Daisy Wood.”

Rosa almost fainted in surprise. “What do I do?” she stammered in a shaky voice.

“Let me braid your hair,” I said ignoring her question.

The next day Rosa awoke at 5:30. She had had a restless night. She bent over to look at her braids. One of them was missing, the pink hair. A shadow fell over Rosa and a memory shot through her mind, a memory of a figure sneaking into the room holding something shiny then slicing something off. The shiny thing she saw must have been scissors.

The Great Parade was to take place that night. The parade came every year on the 10th of May to celebrate winning the war against Kylo Land. Rosa was always bothered by the fact that everyone was dressed in black and gray. Today was the day she could recreate their style.

So, that night she went outside to the parade. Something inside her said, “Count to three, close your eyes, and say, ‘Color, color, color.'” That’s what she did, and it worked. Seconds after she did it, every outfit turned bright neon red, pink, yellow, and orange. SHE HAD USED HER POWER!!!

The next day, she brought color to every place she could think of. She is known by color now and is the most powerful person in Daisy Wood… To be continued in Book Two…

Caroline Boyle

Under the Teacher’s Desk

– after George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From”

I am from the dark
place under the teacher’s
desk. It smells of paper, glue,
and old scissors. It tastes of
dusty floors and worn wood.
It feels like cold concrete
slabs and finely cut cylinders
of branches and, last
of all, it sounds forgotten,
but come under the
teacher’s desk.

Vivian Chatterjee

Dave and the Purple Pimple

Dave was a alien that lived on Mars. He was bright pink with three eyes and had octopus arms, a bird foot, a pig foot, a frog foot, a rat tail, and a big fat nose. He lived with his dog named Pluto, who was made of Pluto’s craters. His friends were named Unicorn and Mermaid. (Unicorn is a mermaid and Mermaid is a unicorn.) And the thing that Dave is basically addicted to is purpleberries, which are basically blueberries but they’re purple.

One day, Dave was listening to his favorite Justin Timberlake song (for the thirteenth time) while eating purpleberries and Unicorn flopped into his spaceship and screamed, “I HAVE A GREEN PIMPLE!”

“How?” asked Dave.

“I don’t know. I came here because you’re the smart one,” said Unicorn.

“Well,” Dave said, “maybe you dyed your hair green and it rubbed off onto your skin.”

“Or maybe I ate too much seaweed. You know, they say that if you eat too much of one thing, you can slowly turn into that thing by eating more!”

“That’s a saying?” asked Dave while chewing his fifty-third purpleberry of the day (but who’s counting?).

“I read it in a book,” Unicorn said. “You should really read more.”

“I read a LOT!” Dave said.

“Whatever,” she said and left. Then, one minute later, she came back and reminded him, “If you don’t want to turn into a purpleberry, you should lay off them for a while like two months.”

“Well, I don’t take advice from a book, even if it is fiction,” Dave said.

“You mean nonfiction,” she corrected.

“Whatever,” he said. Then, when she left, he slammed the door shut and to prove he wouldn’t turn into a purple berry, he ate a whole year’s savings of purpleberrys.

One month later, Mermaid and Unicorn came to Dave’s house and knocked while screaming with joy. “Dave, my pimple is gone!”

“Don’t come in,” he said. “I don’t want you to see me.” But Mermaid ignored him and shot lightning out of his horn and made the door fall down. That’s when they saw Dave with a giant purple pimple.

“I told you not to eat those purpleberries, Dave!” Unicorn sassed.

“That is the biggest purpleberry I have ever seen planted right on the tip of your nose,” mermaid said. Then Pluto came and saw Dave’s pimple and then he fainted. He looked like the dead emoji.

One hour later, once Pluto woke up, they found a solution.

“Why don’t we just do what Unicorn did?” Mermaid said.

“Good solution,” said Dave. (Did I mention they weren’t the smartest creatures?)

“First, let’s go to the gym and try to pump some iron!” Unicorn said. Two hours later, once Dave did twenty pushups, fifty squats, and six jumping jacks, he created four more pimples by sweating so much!

“I’m sorry,” Unicorn said. “Now I remember that was the thing that made me have more green pimples. Let’s try the spa now!”

So they went to the spa, where they tried to give Dave a foot massage and were able to pop one pimple. They were down to four more pimples. Then Dave had to take a nap, and while he took a nap they threw away all of his purpleberries because they didn’t want him eating any more purpleberries.

Once he woke up and found out the purpleberries were gone, he screamed and screamed and let it all out and then looked at his face and saw he was down to three pimples!

“How did this happen?!” he asked.

Mermaid answered, “I forgot to tell you that when you were sleeping, I stomped all over your face till a pimple popped.”

“And I did some research that acne cream can help pimples, whatever acne is,” said Unicorn. “So, I went and bought some! Fetch, Pluto!”

Pluto slowly walked over to mermaid with the acne cream, gave it to her, turned around, saw Dave, and fainted again. Then they applied the whole bottle of acne cream, and one day later there were no more pimples!

Pluto slowly approached Dave, saw him, and his face turned into a kissy face emoji!

“I’ve decided to never eat purpleberries ever again!” Dave said.

“Yay!” they cheered. “Now, I have a new favorite fruit–blue tomatoes!”

“Oh, no,” they said.

Emma Fiebig

Mr. Elephant

Benjamin Goodman

Adventure

Note: use your imagination

One day, at 10:00 a.m., a boy named Bob woke up. He realized he was late for basketball, so he got dressed, brushed his teeth, ate breakfast, and ran to the court.

Halfway there, at 620 Bowie St., a portal appeared. Bob got sucked up right in front of the Houston gym and civic center. All the players asked, “Where is Bob?”

Meanwhile, the portal sent Bob to the death star. Luckily, there weren’t any storm troopers around. Bob started to run. He hid in a room so the stormtroopers wouldn’t spot him. To his surprise, he ended up in a room with C-3PO, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and R2-D2.

“Who are you?” asked Luke.

“I’m Bob.” said Bob. “Can you help me?”

“Sure, kid,” said Han Solo, “But first, can you help us escape?”

“Okay. I saw a ship in the hanger.”

“That’s useful information,” said Luke. So they ran to the hanger, and Luke and Han made cover for the others. Then they climbed inside the Millenium Falcon. Then the entrance accidentally opened into hyperspace, and Bob was sucked in. “… Can somebody close the door?” asked Luke.

After an hour, Bob landed in the forbidden forest. He was surprised to see Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and Fang there.

“Oi, who are you!?” asked Draco.

“I’m Bob. Who are You?”

“I’m Harry,” said Harry Potter. “And that’s Draco and Fang.” They adventured off, then Harry spotted a cloaked figure drinking unicorn blood.

“Aaaahhhh!” said Draco. Fang went with him. Harry and Bob, who were scared, ran into a log. Luckily, a centaur saved them.

“Are you okay?” the centaur asked.

“Yes,” Harry and Bob said.

“Harry!” said Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” said Harry.

“And who is this young fellow?”

“I’m Bob.” Just then a portal appeared, and Bob got sucked in…

Bob ended up back at his house, and his mom said, “Where were you? Go outside and practice!”

But Bob didn’t care about being late because he felt good!

Adam Hyink

The Happy Princess

Once, there was a princess. She lived in a castle. She lived with her mother and father. She was also very, very curious. Each time she got out of the castle, she felt so happy. When she returned, her mother and father were waiting for her at the castle doors. The princess was so embarrassed she turned candy apple  red.

One year later… Her parents thought they needed to come up with a plan to keep their daughter from seeing the outside world. They tried to lock the princess in her room, but she had a rope and climbed out the window. The king and queen tried a few other things, but none of them would work.

One denim blue morning when the fluorescent yellow sun was up in the sky, the princess walked alone to a place called The Never-Ending Valley. There were many pathways in the valley, and the air smelled like emeralds and sapphires.

But when the princess went halfway through the valley, the rest of the sky in the valley was plum purple with lots of ebony black clouds. Just then, two robbers kidnapped her. When she woke up, she found herself in a cage.

The two robbers took the princess out of the cage and made her a slave by putting handcuffs on her hands. They made her work day and night until she was tired and exhausted. She cried, “Please let me go. I have been working for five years. Let me go!”

Then the robbers boomed, “FINE,” and the princess disappeared out the door.

Back at the castle, the king and queen had been desperate to find their precious daughter. When the princess returned, she saw her parents. They were so happy. After they hugged, they had a tea party and lived happily ever after.

Leah Lukose

Ms. Kerloobi & the Blue Tomato

Ms. Kerloobi was a witch in the Black Forest. She was very short and fat and had big feet and frizzy hair. She lived with her cat, Sylvia, who only had one eye, and Cedric (a rat made out of grapes).

The witch had a garden. In the garden, she grew hundreds and hundreds of different plants and fungi. For example, morning mushrooms were mushrooms that made you wake up at 12:01 a.m. every day for nine years.

The witch was 565 years old. She grew her plants and fungi and gave them to villagers or other people passing by to help them with their needs. But the next day, there were three brothers passing by–one short, one tall, and one stubborn. They all came in on three horses.

The first two brothers asked for easy plants, like a plant that would give you the ability to breathe fire or eat any thing. But the stubborn one asked for the most complicated plant, one that could make him into a dog. Ms. Kerloobi was growing a plant for this, but it hadn’t worked in 500 years!

The witch tired to tell the stubborn brother that it wasn’t perfect yet, but the stubborn brother just would’t listen! The stubborn brother took the plant (the blue tomato) and ate it all up and yelled in the old witch’s face. “I told you so! I told you so!”

Right as he started turning into a dog, the little body of the a dog turned into a taco instead of a normal puppy shape! Ms. Kerloobi had never told anyone about her love for tacos. If she saw a taco she’d eat it! So, you can imagine what she did when she saw the taco “dog.” She went and ate the stubborn brother without really trying to. There was no way to make him live again Unil one day… To be continued…

Gabriella Oettinger

Garfield in the Summer

On a super duper sunny day, Garfield the stuffed animal woke up and ate some pancakes. Then he went back to bed, but he could not sleep because it was too hot, so he went to the freezer and got a ice pack. But on the way to his comfy bed, the ice pack melted. Then he noticed a fan near his comfy bed, turned it on, and went to sleep. But it was just the beginning. Zzzzzzzzzzzz!

Emily Piper

Pluto vs. Mars

Dear Readers,

Have you ever heard the story of Pluto the Warrior? (Gasp!) You haven’t? Well, if you want to find out, I guess I will tell you. I’ll start with the basics. Her name is Pluto, she’s a girl, she lives on Pluto, she likes to go to war, all of her friends are girls except one boy, she’s won 9,999,999,999 (9 billion+) wars, she has curly hair, yellow skin, and rocket boots, she’s smart, playful, calm, and kind. Then End! Just kidding.

Now, let me tell you a story about one of the wars she fought. One day in England (the one on Pluto), Pluto noticed a sign hanging from a rocket house. It said: Dear all strong warriors, There will be a war held on December 1 – ??? If you want to join, please call (512)-914-5505. We will exept anyone. What are you waiting for? Hurry up & join! Pluto was so exited! She called the number on the flier. Five months later…

Crash, bang! “Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad. I’m leaving. I’m going to the war.”

One hour later… Pluto was getting in her spaceship. “Love you, honey. We will miss you!” said Pluto’s mom.

One hour later… “San Antonio, here I come” Pluto landed in San Antonio (the one on Pluto). She walked into the Alamo, joined her team, and started the war. She blasted everyone, except one alien. Five minutes later…

“Stop, stop, stop!” said the other team. “We quit, you win.” Pluto’s team won!

One hour later… “Mom, Dad? Mom, Dad? I won! Mars was too scared, and it was to cold for them!” Pluto yelled.

“You’re alive!” said Pluto’s mom. Everything was nice and calm. Until…

Lily Ruth Poland

Rinkles Tells the People

“Yay! Who loves parties?” asked Rinkles.
“We do,” said the people.
“We’re all going to die in a plane crash,” someone said.
“I’m so bored. What am I going to do, Pugzo?”
“We could have more parties.”
“No.”
“I’m going to tell the people,” said Rinkles.
“People, I have met a person who has told me of something. Here he is,” said Rinkles.
“Hello! We’re all going to die,” said the same person.
“No, we’re not,” said Rinkles.
“But he is a giant muffin. I’m scared of muffins.”
“He’s not a muffin. He’s a puggle,” said Rinkles.
“Let’s make a water slide. Look at my dance moves!”
“Water slide is done.”
“Okay,” said Rinkles.
“The water slide was awesome.”

Brandon Sharp

How to Use the U.W.O.G.P.

Hello! Sup? Where is Mars? Well, anyway, where is Mars? Just kidding. Now, the real question is: How do you use the U.W.O.G.P.? Well, here is how you use it. I am Bob, fly wonky professer of sadly nothing. Here is how you use the U.W.–aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!-O.G.P. (The aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! was just random letters that I finally got to use.) So, now how to really use the U.W.O.G.P. First, fill it with… Um… Oh, yeah! Fill it with… No… Yeah! Oxygen. Then throw it in the other thing’s face. If the other thing doesn’t have a face, just throw it at some other part of the other thing’s surface. This weapon was used by Bo-bo once to win the war of Jupiter. It went like this: The cold surface of the planet had killed Wo-wo, and the other men were determined to win the war, so they appointed a new officer and deputy of the army, Bo-bo, and created the two U.W.O.G.P.’s (Ultamite Weapons of Green Popping). Each looks like a green balloon. The two armies met in the Alamo 2.0, and every time Bo-bo’s army lost one man, the other army lost two. But when the other army called in reinforcements, Bo-bo’s army had to use the two U.W.O.G.P.s. Ka-kapow! The first U.W.O.G.P. covered half of the other army in flames. Boom! There went the other half. And now the two U.W.O.G.P.s have reformed to be used again another day. Now, where is Mars?

Jackson Shouba

The Deathley King

Palion Kun Sulion was a really fat king of the aliens. He ate aliens and made aliens. There was something called the Alien Source that created aliens, but it had to be put into a machine to make it active.

Palion’s secret wish was for everybody to like him. One day, he came up with a plan to make everybody like him. His plan was to eat aliens until everybody liked him. He made an anouncement the next day that he would eat aliens until everybody liked him. Everybody started whispering, except one alien named Nasha. Nasha was staring at Palion.

The next day, Palion was eating more aliens than usual. Mr. Pas, the server alien that catches aliens and gives them to Palion, was chasing Nasha. Nasha jumped into a pit and Mr. Pas gave up on Nasha.

Out of his hole, Nasha saw a rocket ship. Nasha walked up to it, looking around nervously. It opened and a human stepped out. The human said, “Come here, alien, and you will be safe from that useless king.”

So, Nasha got in the rocket shop and headed towards earth.

“I NEED MORE ALIENS!” screamed Palion.

“Oh! I just remembered! I have an alien!” said Mr. Pas. He pulled out a human and gave it to Palion. Palion ate the human and Mr. Pas ran back out to catch more aliens.

Back in the spaceship… They landed on earth and Nasha looked around

“Let’s go to my house,” said the human, and they did. Nasha spent two days on earth before Palion arrived, looking for Nasha. He finally found him and told him to come back to his planet, so they went back to Nasha’s Planet.

The weird thing was that Palion didn’t try to kill Nasha and eat him. When they got back to Nasha’s Planet, Palion told Nasha he’d been thinking about it and he wasn’t going to eat anybody ever again. After that, everybody liked him. The king fulfilled his wish.

Gregory Spradling

A Land Far Away

– after George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From”

I am from a land far away,
with pink fluffy unicorns
dancing on rainbows
and fairies that make mushrooms
home. With waterfalls and
herbs glistening with raindrops,
making the air hazy. Plus
steaming feasts at the dinner
table. And phoenixes
squawking in the distance.

Gayatri Srinivasan

Everest!

Once, there were five men who wanted to climb Mount Everest. They were all sad because they had to leave their families. But they all met up at the airport. Their names were Jay, Charlie, Gungh, Tom, and James. When they got to the mountain, they started climbing. They came to a bridge. They each hung a flag for good luck, except for James who didn’t believe in luck. When they were a quarter of the way up the mountain, someone shouted “Avalanche!” Big, small, and medium ice chunks rolled down the mountain. The men dodged the chunks of ice and ran to safety. The next day, they were half way there. They had to put on masks because they couldn’t breath because the air was so thin at that altitude. As they got closer and closer, they were almost shaking. They saw a snow monster. All of a sudden, the monster grabbed James and threw him off the mountain. Charlie threw a lantern. It blew up the snow monster. They made it! They were all sad. The End.

P.S. One out of five people die. What, you really thought it was over? Think again!

Colin Thompson

Take-ing Over

One Monday, Dr. ClipCow woke up and heard something fall and shatter. He got out of his bed and went to the lab area, where he saw a lime green chemical that had exploded and fallen to the ground! The exploding liquid filled the room and, out in the hall, patients screamed and yelled as they fled the building. Dr. ClipCow parachuted out of the building. It knocked down three buildings as it fell! Dr. ClipCow’s two servants jumped out the window as the building was falling! Meanwhile, Dr. ClipCow was scared, just drifting down. He was so scared that he screamed! He worried his whole plan might fail, but he was not going to give up yet. He thought for a minute and then he knew what to do. He would climb through the president’s vents and take over the world! Just then, he landed on the ground! He ran, got into his car, and drove to the computer lab. Then he looked up a map of the president’s house, printed it out, and looked at it. He thought it was magnificent. Then he stole the computer and left with out a word! To be continued…

Madeleine Vollmer

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