Here it is! The end of summer! But don’t fret just yet; here are some wild and amazing stories, plays, and poems from my Badgerdog kiddos during the July session at the Khabele School. These eleven young writers are true connoisseurs of play, preferring games and activity-based writing prompts, such as drawing characters first or mistranslating poems from other languages, to more school-like lessons. What a joy to work with them! What pleasure to read these fine pieces!
Tyler Gobble
Badgerdog Teaching Artist
The True Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Characters: Goldilocks, Mom Bear, Dad Bear, Baby Bear, Narrator, Wolf
Setting: House
[Bears, Mom, and Dad cooking food.]
Mom Bear: Let’s go for a walk.
Dad Bear: Great idea!
[They walk out the door with Baby Bear and forget to turn off the stove.]
Wolf: I’ll knock down this door and steal all their stuff!
[Wolf knocks down door and goes inside. Goldilocks smells smoke from outside and rushes inside.]
Goldilocks (worriedly): Is that smoke?! Hope it’s not a fire!
Wolf (panicking): Oh, no! Someone’s coming!
[Wolf hides behind a curtain.]
Goldilocks: Oh, it’s just the stove.
[As she turns off the stove, she hears wolf breath and runs upstairs.]
Goldilocks (fearfully): I heard a wolf!
[Goldilocks faints on Baby Bear’s bed. Wolf picks up stuff and puts it in a black bag.]
Wolf (fearfully): She heard me. I’ve got to get out of here fast.
[Wolf dashes toward the door, but trips over Baby Bear’s chair and breaks it.]
Wolf (painfully): Ow!
[Meanwhile, the bears are walking home and hear screams.]
Mom Bear (worried): That came from our house. Do you think everything is okay?
Dad Bear (panicking): I don’t know. Let’s check!
[The bears rush home and find Goldilocks laying on Baby Bear’s bed.]
Baby Bear (angrily): Someone’s on my bed!
[Goldilocks wakes up and finds the bears looking at her.]
Dad Bear: Who are you?
Goldilocks (frightened): I’m Goldilocks.
[Goldilocks explains what happened and gets out of the bed.]
Mom Bear: Let’s go look for that wolf!
[They go downstairs, split up, and look for the wolf.]
Mom Bear: Where can that wolf be?
Goldilocks (excitedly): Look what I found!
[Goldilocks picks up a piece of wolf fur and follows the trail. They find the wolf trying to sneak out of the window and Dad Bear calls 9-1-1.]
Joy Zhou
How To Avoid Getting A New House
- Fight It: Before you go to the next step, try to talk your parents into not getting a new house.
- Start Moving: Print a four-by-two inch sticker that says SOLD, then run to the house your parents want to move to and put the sticker on the sign that may say FOR LEASE.
- Rip Up the Contract: If your parents have signed the contract already, ask if you can see the contract then take it out of their hands, go to your room, and rip it up.
Sudeep Tatineni
I’m Twenty Feet Tall!
So, I wake up, and I’m twenty feet tall. I have to build a huge house, so I do not have to duck all the time. I have to make super-huge clothes, cars, planes, etc. I got this way because I had a dream and it came true. I fly to Africa with lots of resources, so I can help build homeless people some houses. Then I build a lot more huge houses and invite all the other homeless people to live in them. One problem is the food, so I have to make something that will make the food really big instead of small. Finally, I go home and relax on my big bed.
Kai Benton
Chipmunks
– after Nicanor Parra’s “Mummies”
One chipmunk nibbles
on nuts.
Another chipmunk does
cartwheels.
One chipmunk scurries
everywhere.
A few chipmunks fly
in the air.
One chipmunk hides
in the corner.
A couple chipmunks
roast marshmallows.
Almost all climb trees.
One plays in the snow.
Julia Klima
Friends Are There to Help: Chapter 2
I just remembered: It’s Maya’s Birthday. I got her a present. When I get there, she finds berries and nuts. I, on the other hand, can only find, well, you can guess, grass. I need to move in with Maya. She has a tiny hut made out of bamboo and straw.
I don’t know if Prickles and Chunky (her squirrel) are going to get along. I so have to move in with Maya. I ask Maya and she says yes. I am like OMG right now. Oh… She made her den three times bigger.
Anais Moreno-John
The Ring Box Fairy
– after Matthew Harvey’s “Backyard Mermaid”
The ring box fairy waits to be fed. Just as she thinks she is going to die of hunger, the strange giant fairy that doesn’t have wings comes and feeds her candy. When the ring box fairy is about to thank her, the giant wingless fairy disappears. The ring box fairy sighs and starts to eat. Then she hears a click and the wingless fairy is gone.
The ring box fairy flutters out from her “home” and searches for the twentieth time for a pair of pliers. She searches each room for two hours until she sees a door she has not noticed before. She flies through the keyhole and almost faints when she smells the room. It is very dark and smells of car oil and dust. Dust bunnies, she thinks and shudders, zipping back to her box. She takes out her wand. Then she flies back to the room. When she finds the switch, she nudges it with the wand. The lights turn on.
The room, she learns, is not a room at all. It is more like the car’s medical room and home. Car guts are scattered everywhere. The ring box fairy scans the room. Tools! She looks carefully and finds pliers. They are too heavy for her. She drags them towards the door. Then she gives the door a shove with her wand. Knowing she cannot use the pliers, she considers how to get her plan to work. Then an idea forms. She drags the pliers onto the table. She leaves the parts of her necklace nearby, hoping the wingless fairy will understand.
Later that night, the fairy returns. Startled, the ring box fairy wakes up with a jolt when she hears the door slam. Then she hears several sighs and then something hits the table. The fairy remembers her plan. Hiding in the keyhole, she watches as the wingless fairy discovers her necklace and the pliers. The wingless fairy suddenly laughs. She fixes the necklace and leaves it on the table.
In the morning, she finds her necklace laid casually on the table. She touches the necklace to make sure it’s real. The necklace was golden with a blue diamond gem. She put it on and tapped it with her wand. Then she tried to open the door.
Hannah Kim
Inside My Heart
– after Zoie Ryder White’s “Inside My Heart”
There is…
One smelly potato
Two rotten bananas
Three hopping fish
Four talking waves
Five people blabbering
Six pouncing humans
Seven hundred peculiar sharks dancing to music
Eight hundred great white sharks
Nine hundred pizza stands
One thousand suns talking to the hot dog stand
Two thousand off-pitch singers
Three thousand crazy birds talking about going poo on everyone
Four thousand birds going poo
Five thousand smelly people farting
Six thousand hot dog stands running
Seven thousand sharks bugging me like bad guys
Eight thousand birds die
Nine thousand yummy pizza slices
Ten thousand weird people screaming
Ten million people surfing
One hundred million people slipping
One billion people getting pizza
Ten billion people eating sharks
Shrey Jha
The Daily Lives of Lions
– after Nicanor Parra’s “Mummies”
One lion protects her baby cub
Some lions cook birds
A couple lions hunt for giant zebras
All lions roar loudly to scare leopards
Most lions rest in tall dry grass
Many lions eat big zebras
Almost all lions wear fancy ties
Nearly
Cody Chang
A Tiring Day
On a nice summer day, I went to the candy store and bought some candy. I hated the sight outside the window. I got out of the candy shop. I quickly ran to my house, not to eat my candy but to not see such a horrible sight. Instead of doing nothing in the house, I decided to watch a movie right away in the theater and drive there in my car. Before the movie, I bought soda and, of course, popcorn. The movie took four hours and thirty-five minutes. It was named “The Rainbow of Heart.” It was about a girl who lost her parents. It was rated PG-13. I loved it. After I watch a movie, I usually go to another one, but I wasn’t in a mood for that. I just wanted to go home and sleep. Okay, so that’s it. I drove back home. I immediately went to my bedroom. I didn’t even stop for a drink of water. I rolled on the bed. I thought of plans for the next day, but I was too tired. I slept for five hours. It was a tiring day. Just a tiring day. Exactly a tiring day.
Samriddhi Garlanka
The Three Little Sea Otters
Characters: Sea Otter 1, Sea Otter 2, Sea Otter 3, Farm Boy, Narrator
Narrator: It was a sunny day.
Otter 1: Well, now let’s build a house, guys!
Otter 2: Yes, all together.
Otter 3: Okay, I want a brick home.
Otter 2: No, straw!
Otter 1: No, We all know twigs are good.
All (except Otter 1): No!
Otter 3: Let’s do all our ideas.
[They swam to the surface and asked someone for supplies, like wood and hay and bricks.]
Otter 3: Can we have some bricks?
Otter 1: Also, some hay?
Otter 2: And twigs?
Farm Boy: You guys are in luck! Take this whole bucket.
Otter 2: Thanks. Just leave.
Otter 3: Sorry. She’s rude. Yay! We got more supplies.
Otter 1: Well, we should all start building.
Narrator: When they were done, there was a wood room, a hay room, and a brick room.
All: We’re done!
Otter 2: Well, let’s move our stuff.
Narrator: They all moved their stuff.
Allison Mehl
unbound 