On this Story Time Tuesday, I share with you a story I wrote way back in second grade. Last year, I did a school visit at my elementary school and my amazing second grade teacher presented me with this surprise which she had held onto for all of those years. As far as I'm aware, the earliest surviving story I ever wrote.
The Giraffe
There was a giraffe that everyone laughed at because he didn't have spots and a long neck. Then he went to the jungle. Then he felt a hand and WAMO he was gone. And when he came out he had brown spots and a long neck. The man said, "All you needed was a fire."
Besides the obvious masterpiece that this is, I found the WAMO bit especially interesting. It's a device I still use often in writing chapter books. Both Pirate School and CatKid are filled with CRASHes and BLAMs. It's funny how our sense of storytelling develops at such an early age. I read this to the kids during the visit. They reacted with slightly less enthiusiam than when my reading of CatKid.
What a wonderful teacher to still have your story and to still be teaching second grade. Hats off to both of you.
ReplyDeleteConnie