One day, my mom took me the store to buy a pencil. I looked at the rack of pencils for a while and finally decided I wanted the one that had pianos on it.  When we got home, I sharpened it right away. I still had to do math, so I got my math book and started writing. I got to a math problem (one that I didn’t like) and got it wrong. I was very mad, because it had taken me a long time to solve it. Then I thought of a good thing about it: I would get to use the eraser on the pencil. I always liked using an eraser for the first time, because it was so clean and new.

I turned the pencil over, and was about to erase, when I heard a little voice, so small that I could barely hear it, say, “Stop!” I looked around to see where the voice came from. I didn’t see anything, so I started to erase again. “Stop! Don’t erase!” This time it was a little louder and it scared me. I thought that it sounded like it was coming from my eraser, so I looked all over my eraser, and saw a little smiley face. It smiled at me, and suddenly an arm stuck out of the pencil and motioned for me to come closer! I was so surprised that I fell over and said, “WOW,” very loudly. The hand raised to the lips on the smiley face and motioned “sh.” I leaned closer, and it whispered, “Keep me a secret, and later, I will tell you about myself.” I quickly acted as though nothing had happened and kept doing my math. About a minute later, I remembered the problem that I had gotten wrong. I looked at the eraser, and it smiled at me.

I whispered, “How will I erase if I can’t use this eraser?” “You can use this one,” and the hand popped out of the pencil holding a regular eraser. I took it, whispered,
“Thanks,” and went on doing my math. I was very excited, and I had a lot of questions to ask the eraser.

*  *  *

“Time to go to bed,” my mother called. I usually did not want to bed, but tonight I was very excited because of the eraser. I tried not to act too excited, because then my mom would ask why I was in such a hurry to go to bed. Soon, all the goodnight hugs and kisses were over, (I usually would drag out hugs and kisses) and I shut the door. (I would always shut the door at night. Just so you don’t think that I did that because I was going to talk to my eraser!) I had smuggled the pencil into my bedroom when I put my pajamas on. I took the pencil out from under my pillow.

“Are you a person?” I asked the eraser. I felt so silly talking to a pencil!

“I do not know what I am. I guess the machines made me forget,” came the reply. “All I know is that I would like to get out of here. I suppose you wouldn’t like to tear apart your eraser though. I just might be here a while.”

“You are right that I would not want to rip my eraser, because what if my mother asked what happened to my eraser? What would I tell here? You said that you went through machines. What was it like? Do you know what you look like? I guess I could rip my eraser. I really want to get you out.” I kept talking and asking questions, giving the eraser no time to answer any of my questions.

“Please do rip your eraser!” the voice sounded very excited! “Didn’t I already tell you that I didn’t know what I looked like? Maybe I didn’t. I will tell you about the machines once I get out of here.” I had to decide if I was going to rip my eraser, which meant that I would have to tell my mother, or leave whatever was in my eraser in there. I really wanted to see what the thing looked like! I thought for a moment, and then I said, “I will rip the eraser, but how am I supposed to do it without hurting you?”

“I will shrink so I am so tiny that you won’t even be able to see me!” I had no idea how this strange, awesome, amazing thing was going to do it, but I said, “Okay.” I didn’t want eraser bits all over my bed, so I got out of bed and went over to the trash can to rip. Soon the job was done, and I saw a tiny figure that looked like a human being.

“You look like a human, but you can’t be one, because humans cannot shrink.”

“Oh well, I do not care how I look. Can I lie down on your pillow by you? If you are wondering, I can talk just as loud as you, and I can scream so loud, that once, I was about to be smashed so I screamed as loud as I could and the person the was going to smash me, became deaf. Never mind that. Let me tell you about the machines. They were so loud that I thought that my ears would blow up! No, loud couldn’t describe it. These machines were loud, roaring, deafening, earth shaking, window rattling, rapid, speedy, quick, dashing, rushing, and tearing along! Well, I didn’t enter this pencil till it was in the store, but I was at the pencil factory watching everything that happened. Here is how pencils are made. 
  First there cedar wood is cut into square blocks called pencil blocks. Then a machine cuts the blocks into slices called pencil slats. Then the pencil slats are then waxed and stained.”
 “Wow! It must have taken a while!” I said.
 “Well, the machines were very fast. They had to be because thousands of pencils are made each day! Did you know that more than 2 billion pencils are used in the United States every year! So they have to make a lot! On with the story. After they wax and stain the wood, a machine cuts groves in the slats. Writing cores, which are really lead are put in the grooves. Then they take another grooved slat and glue it onto the one with lead, and so it looks like a sandwich. Then another machine cuts the sandwiches into a whole bunch of pencil shapes and they are sanded smooth. Then each pencil is painted. As you can tell, this takes a lot of machines and a lot of blades! Then after they paint the pencil, the metal ring up by the eraser is put on, and then the eraser got put into place.” 

 “Wow! So where did you come along?” I asked.
 

“I came along when the were going to ship off the pencils. I decided to take a ride, so I jumped into that one that you bought, and then a man picked up a whole handful of pencils and wrapped us in plastic. It got super hot in there! Just when I thought I was going to die, someone else unwrapped us. But we aren’t to that part of the story. Along with a bunch of wrapped pencils we were thrown into boxes. It was so dark that I couldn’t see my own hand! After a very long ride, the box was lifted out of the truck, and I could see some light come in through the cracks of the box! Well, then we were all unwrapped and I could finally breathe! We were thrown into a plastic bin and I sat there waiting! Then you came along and bought me! That is all there is to tell!”
 

“What a story! I think that we will have lots of fun together!” I said.

 “Me too,” said the eraser.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed it!

Amy

Allthough I just posted this a few days ago, I moved it up to the top. If you would like to see part 2 and 3, scroll down.

I just finsished this story on Sunday. I will post the rest soon. Probably tomorrow.

The Answered Prayer Part 1

“Hi Daisy. Can you come to Sunday School with me tomorrow?” asked Sadie. Daisy looked at her torn and faded dress. It was the only one she had.

“I would like to Sadie, but I couldn’t go in this dress! And how could take Juliana with me? She is always crying except for when she is a sleep! That is why you don’t hear her.” Ever since Daisy’s mother and father had died, she had taken care of her baby sister Juliana. She tried so hard to get her not to cry so much, but it never worked. They both needed a mother.

“It won’t matter about your dress. I told teacher about you, and she said that she didn’t care how dirty your dress was. And there is a room for the babies so you could put Juliana in there!”

“Well, I guess I could. Can you come pick me up in the morning?” asked Daisy.

“I sure will! Here are two rolls from lunch I saved for you two,” said Sadie and hurried off.

Daisy watched her friend walk down the street. How she wished that she had a family and a nice dress like that. Then went back into the shed that they called home. She had found it a month before her parents died, and it had been her playhouse, but now it was her house. She changed into her nightgown, and washed the dress as well as she could. Then she patched the holes. It looked a little better. She dug in her box of fabric scraps, and found a little lace! This will look pretty on my pocket! She thought and quickly sewed it on, humming as she worked.

“Wahhhh, Wahhh.” Oh no! Juliana woke up. That means more crying. She went over to the baby’s bed, which was really a cardboard box with an old pillow for padding.

Daisy picked up Juliana and gave her part of one of the rolls to eat. Juliana didn’t eat it, she played with it, and stopped crying. She changed Juliana into her nightgown, and washed it too. She didn’t put Juliana back into it. She would save it till tomorrow. As she munched on a roll, she noticed that Juliana had started to eat the roll. Juliana was Daisy’s only comfort. She picked her up, and carried her out side. She sat there for a few minutes and then remembered that she was dirty! She went back inside, and washed herself, and then the baby.

“There! Now we look better don’t we Juliana,” said Daisy. Juliana only gurgled and then yawned.

“I guess we might as well go to bed because it is late, and there is nothing else to do!” said Daisy. She picked up Juliana, and put her back in the box. Then she curled up beside it, but she didn’t fall a sleep. She lay there thinking. If only I could earn some money. Then I could get some more food, and  maybe another dress! Then she thought about reading and books. I can read. It isn’t fair that I don’t even have one book to read! She lie there for a few more minutes, and then fell fast a sleep.

I hope you enjoyed, and please comment to tell me!!

Amy

Sorry that this is so long! The next part is quite short. I was having trouble splitting it up!

When Daisy woke up, she peeked out the shed door. The sun was up. She looked at her watch she had gotten for sweeping someone’s path. It said 7:13. Daisy got out of bed and knelt on the floor.
“Dear Jesus, please give us a family, Amen.”
She got up and changed into her dress. Then she looked around the shed for some food. She found a bag of stale pretzels that she had found unopened outside the shed. She ate a few. Most people would think that this is a strange breakfast, but I am used to it! She heard Juliana moving around, and then saw a little hand stretch out of the box. Daisy went over and got Juliana out and changed her. She had found a little lace to put on Juliana’s dress too, so they both looked the best they had looked in a long time.
Juliana started to cry because she was hungry. Daisy put on her shoes, picked up Juliana and walked to the closest house. Every morning they would give her some fresh milk. That was one of the things she looked forward to everyday.
“Thank you! I love the milk you give us, and it makes Juliana stop crying, so I like it even better!” said Daisy taking the milk.
“I am glad that it makes Juliana stop crying! Here is some bread that I had left over from breakfast.”
“Thank you again,” said Daisy, and went back to the shed. They both ate and drank the breakfast, and then went out side to watch for Sadie. It didn’t take long for her to get there, and they set off together.
“Do you want me to carry Juliana for you?” volunteered Sadie. She knew that Juliana was heavy and Daisy wasn’t used to walking very far.
“No, I can carry her. I like to keep her safe in my arms because she is one of the only things I own,” replied Daisy and they walked on. After a few minutes Daisy asked, “Do you think that the teacher will give me a book? She gave you one.”
“I don’t know. She might, but she might not. See that building that has the tall steeple? That is the church.” The girls walked a little faster and then, they were finally there. When they got inside, Daisy stopped and put Juliana down so she could rest. Sadie waited for her.
“Hi Sadie. Is this Daisy?” asked a pretty lady.
“Oh hi Mrs. Garret. Yes, this is Daisy, and that is her little sister Juliana.”
“Hello,” said Daisy timidly. There were so many people!
“I am going to be your Sunday school teacher.  Follow me and we will leave Juliana at the nursery,” said the pretty lady. Daisy didn’t want to leave Juliana with a stranger so she said, “Can’t she come with me? I don’t want to lose her.”
“Don’t worry, she will be waiting for you right in this room,” said Mrs. Garret pointing to a room.
“Nursery!” Daisy proudly read. “Ages 0-3.” She peeked inside and saw a lot of babies. There was also a nice plump lady who came and took Juliana. “Don’t worry about her. She will be in good care.” Mrs. Garret led the way to another room that had a lot of little girls her size. Daisy started to panic when she saw that Sadie wasn’t with them, and she wasn’t with the little girls either!
“Hello girls. This is Daisy. She is Sadie’s guest,” said Mrs. Garret. All the girls turned and went back to talking with their friends except one. She smiled and said, “ Hi! Come here and sit by me. Sadie can sit on the other side of you. My name is Kristy.”
“Hi Kristy. I like your dress. Do you get a book when you go to Sunday school?”
“A book? Yes. You will get a book from Mrs. Garret after we are done. She gives everyone one.” Just then Sadie walked in, and they started.
Daisy sat perfectly still at the start as they sang songs, and said bible verses. She knew a few of them, so she said them too but in a quiet voice that only Sadie and Kristy could hear. After that, Mrs. Garret taught a lesson. Daisy said spellbound as the teacher told them about a man that walked on the water, and then started to sink, but then Jesus saved him. Mrs. Garret told them how Jesus could save them, and that was when Daisy listened the most. Then they took a small break. Daisy ran as fast as she could to the nursery. She had to see if Juliana was all right. When she knocked on the door, the plump lady answered. She was holding Juliana who was smiling and laughing! Daisy was glad that she had had fun. Juliana held out her arms towards Daisy and the plump lady let her take her but only for a second. Then it was time to go back to class. On her way there, Daisy decided she like this place. Everyone was smiling, and happy, and they liked children! Best of all, Juliana was happy.
“Hurry up Daisy! We are about to start!” said Kristy popping her head out of the classroom. Daisy watched Mrs. Garret as she got out a few flannel things and then pulled a black flannel piece from her box. She set it all on a big board.
“Lets see. Julia, you did it last time, so it is Kristy’s turn to help me!” said Mrs. Garret. Daisy smiled at her friend as she walked to the front of the classroom. Kristy got a fun job. She would put up the flannels when it was time. Daisy loved the flannel people and animals. This lesson was about a guy named Noah who was told by God to build an ark. It was all over to soon, and Sadie told Daisy that they had to go home.
“Thank you Mrs. Garret. I want to come next week too!” said Daisy as she got up to leave.
“Wait! I forgot to give you your book!” She took a book that said “Bible ABC’s” on the front cover, and handed it to Daisy, who proudly took it and promised that she would take good care of it.

Daisy did come the next week, and the week after that! Everyone was very excited when she asked Jesus to come into her heart and be her savior. The girls in her class paid more attention to her and didn’t just call her the “poor shed girl”.

Amy

Then, a few days later, the short plump lady, who worked in the nursery, came and visited the shed!
“Hi Daisy. Where is Juliana?” asked the lady who was Mrs. Brown.
“She is napping. Why did you come?” asked Daisy who was very glad to see someone from church.
“Well, I wanted to tell you that I have decided to adopt you. You will come and live with me. What do you think of it?” asked Mrs. Brown. Daisy ran over to Mrs. Brown and gave her a huge hug!
“Yes! Yes! Yes!!! Juliana would have a mother, and she would get plenty of food! I would love that. I love you!” Daisy started hopping around.
“What about yourself? Don’t you want anything for yourself? You mentioned a lot for Juliana but nothing for you!”
“Well in Sunday school class, Mrs. Garret told us that we are supposed to think of others and that we shouldn’t be selfish. I would like a lot of stuff, but Juliana needs it more.”
“Well, I don’t like to say this, but since it is too late to move you, and I don’t have the car with me, you will have to stay here one more night. Here is some food for your breakfast,” said Mrs. Brown. She was so glad that Daisy liked the plan, and now her house wouldn’t be so quiet!
After the girls had lived with the Browns for a while, Daisy came down the stairs from her bedroom and saw Mrs. Brown playing with Juliana. Thank you Jesus for answering my prayer and giving us a family. Daisy thought. She stood there for a few more seconds and then went to play with her sister.

 Amy

This story was written a while ago, but it was this year, I entered it into a contest, and it was supposed to be on the topic of something coming up. Enjoy!

Dough in the Oven

One spring day, my mother was making bread. Soon she had the dough made and put it in the oven to rise. I decided too watch the bread rise, and see if the rising was visible. Soon I decided it was taking too long so I got a book and came back. Every once in a while I looked at the dough until finally, I saw that it was three inches above the pan!
“Mom!” I yelled. “Come look at the dough.” My mom came and looked into the oven through the window in the door.
“It’s almost done,” she said. Soon the timer went off, and we took it out of the oven, and turned the oven on too preheat. In s few minutes, the oven went beep beep which meant that the oven was preheated. My mom put the bread in the oven and set the timer. When the bread was done, I could now wait for supper to come when we could eat it.

Amy

My work is in red.

1) Without looking back, name the 5 elements of a good story.
Character, setting, problem, plot, and a solution.

2) Choose a book and pick out the 5 elements of the story. (Don't forget to name the book. And you can't use the one you've already done!)
Charlotte’s Web:
Character: Charlotte and Wilbur
Setting: Barnyard
Problem: Wilbur is going to be killed for christmas dinner.
Plot: Charlotte has to come up with a plan to save Wilbur’s life.
Solution: Charlotte saves Wilbur’s life by making him looking magnificent and smart.
 
3) OK. I'm going to list some physical and personality traits of a character (I won't say if it's a girl or a boy. That's your decision). You take those traits and turn them into a nicely written paragraph (a character sketch). You decide if it's a hero or bad guy. Name the character and give him/her some life! Don't just put the traits in a long, boring sentence.

Physical: hazel eyes; thin lips and sparkling teeth; ears stick out a little bit; short, curly red hair that sticks up all over the place; sunburns easily.

Personality: loyal; patient with friends, but unforgiving with enemies; truthful most of the time but afraid of getting in trouble so an occasional lie slips out; insecure and wants friends; talks too much; very creative.

Olivia Oregno is extremely bossy! If she doesn’t get her way, you can be sure that she will find her mom and tell. She is big tattletale too, so she doesn’t have many friends. Another reason she doesn’t have many friends is because she often lies when she is in trouble because she doesn’t want to be punished, and her family says that trouble follows her around. She is also a big gossiper.
Though I have lots of bad things to tell you about Olivia, there are a few good things.
She works hard at her school, and when she is asked to do something, it is done very well. Olivia is very creative and she is often coming up with inventions that help make her chores easier! Such as the remote control for the vacuum. And, a robot that she could program to do her chores for her. The only problem with the robot is that her mom wasn’t too happy with it because Olivia wasn’t doing anything except learning how to be lazy!
Olivia’s only friend that she is loyal to is the girl across the street who helps her with the inventions.

4) Now I'm going to write some little scenes and you have to guess what feeling my character is showing. You may use your chart of character feelings if you need to. I'll be taking all my examples from that chart. Good luck!

4A) When Andrew opened the door, his mouth dropped open. His eyes opened wide and he gasped. What in the world? He thought. A spider the size of his hand skittered toward him. Andrew jumped back and clapped a hand over his mouth. Shocked and scared.

4B) Not another one, Sarah said to herself as the teacher passed out the test. It's so easy. She yawned and propped her head in her hand. Why can't he give me a test that challenges me? Sarah rubbed her eyes and slouched. With a sigh, she picked up her pencil and began scribbling in her answers. Bored.

4C) Tina's heart pounded against the inside of her chest as she balanced on the edge of the cliff. Eyes wide, she glanced down at the turquoise water 40 feet below. Her whole body trembled. Her breath came in small gasps. I can do this! She told herself. Hands shaking, she closed her eyes, plugged her nose, and leaped from the cliff. Really scared and nervous.

5) Here are 3 pictures to choose from. Choose one, copy it onto your blog, and take a "word picture" of it with your writing camera. Don't just list describing words but put some thought into it. Be creative! Most of all, I want to be able to "see" this picture when I read your paragraph.

I picked this one:

Lesson 7:

Before: It rained all week during our camping trip.
After: All week, we had to sit in our tents with nothing to do and listen to the patter of the rain on the tent roof continually! It was so bad that I never want to go camping again!

Before: Katie saw a scary sea creature at the aquarium.
After: Katie went to the aquarium and saw this sea creature that gave her the shivers! It was dark red with orange spots on its back. It was about five feet long, and it had triangular bumps on it face. It made a low-pitched moan when it was mad. Katie had to plug her nose because it smelled horrid! Katie would describe it as the smell of rotten eggs.

Before: As I entered the cave, I found the object of my search-the lost treasure chest of the Ancients!
After:  When I stepped into the cave, my eyes had to adjust to the dark but when they did, I saw the treasure chest that I had labored so hard to find! It was rusty brown, but when I opened it, I was blinded by the color of the gold! Inside there was diamonds and jewels, gold, silver that gleaned so bright it was blinding! When I got to the bottom, I found a map to another treasure on the island! I was so excited that I ran out of the cave and called to my team to help me sort through it all.

Amy

The pictures that we drew don’t all look alike because we all have our own ideas and we get different pictures in our mind.

Here are my "dead" words:

Ugly, mad, windy, cloudy, clean.

Lesson 5:

Character: Madeline Brown
Emotion: Nervous

Wringing her hands, she walked up to the stage. She couldn't get up in front of all those people! She bit her lip, shuffling her feet so it would take along time to get there. Her stomach felt like it had butterflies flying all around inside. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would jump out. She swallowed hard, bit her lip, stumbled up the stairs, and then clenched her fist, and pretended to be brave. All the people were looking right at her! She took a deep breath, tried to start her speech, and then, she fainted!

Lesson 4:

Madeline Brown is a ten-year-old girl who lives in the Montana country side. With her long dark brown hair, and bright blue eyes, when sitting on her horse Firedance, she makes a beautiful picture. Maddie loves to ride Firedance around the ranch, and sometimes she even rides to the lake that borders their property, and paints pictures of Firedance.
Since Maddie has chores to do around the farm, she often braids her hair down her back, and then she is free to go.
She loves to cook, and so she often helps the maid Joy in the kitchen.
When sent off to school she gets to ride Firedance. In school, she doesn’t do her best in anything except math. In science, Maddie can hardly keep her mind on the lesson. She claims that science bores her to death.
When she grows up, Maddie wants to be a chef, an author, and a horse breeder.
The only sibling that Maddie has is a five-year-old girl named Sofia. Sofia likes to tag along with Maddie everywhere! Sometimes it annoys Maddie, and she loses her temper but she tries hard to spend a lot of time with her sister and set a good example.

Lesson 3:

Character:  Madeline Brown
Physical traits: Waist long brown hair, freckled face, bright blue eyes, glasses, white shining teeth
Personality Traits: Bold, honest, doesn’t always put a lot of effort into everything, honest, adventurous,
Likes/Dislikes: Likes to read, likes to play the flute and piano, likes math, doesn’t like to bike, doesn’t like science, doesn’t like sewing

Lesson 2:
Misty’s Twilight, by Margurite Henry

My favorite character is Kathy Daley, because she is kind to Misty, and she tries to help Sandy find something for Misty to

learn.

My least favorite character is Chris, because he doesn’t seem to like horses, and is more interested in his boas that anything

else.

I hadn't been doing the assinments, and now since I started, I am going to post the first three all at once, and then I will catch up on the others later:

Lesson 1:
Tip Lewis and His Lamp

Character: Tip Lewis
Setting:  1800 Eastern USA
Problem: He wants to do right, but all the kids at school bully him, and tease him making it hard to do what is right.
Plot: Tip came from an ungodly home, and finds his way with light from his lamp, the Bible.
Solution: He stood up for what he believed, and then the kids at school quit teasing him because they realized he was serious.

Well, That is all for now!!! Oh, also if you are going to do this, go to www.homeschoolblogger.com/writingworkshop

Amy