Story Mountain

We have finished our school year, and are heading into Summer fun, but I wanted to share what we have been working on for the past couple of weeks. We used an idea a friend gave us called "story mountain" to work on a creative writing project. If you do an Internet search for it, you will see various images. The basic one we used showed how to start at the base of the mountain by introducing your characters and the setting of the story. Then, you move halfway up the mountain where something happens to get the story started (the build-up). At the top of the mountain, there is a problem that comes up. Then, going halfway down the other side, the problem is resolved. Back down at the bottom of the mountain, the story is finally finished.

JJ writing out his story

The kids worked on developing their stories on paper. Then, I had them type the stories on the computer. They learned how to type this school year by using Typing Instructor for Kids. It worked really well for both of them. JJ flew through it and loved playing the games. EL wasn't thrilled with it, but has learned to type well, she just can't seem to pick up her speed past 5 words per minute. So, we will continue to work on that.

EL typing her story

JJ has still not finished his story. He has a lot of ideas that he wants to get down on paper, so that might be a good Summer project. But, EL finished a short story about some animals who live on a farm. Most of the words are her own words. I just helped her develop the story by giving her some ideas, then I helped her edit it to get the proper punctuation and spelling. Here is her story and artwork to match:

Molly On the Farm

By:  EL Stankus

On the farm there was a pretty blue bird named Molly. There was a worm named Hans.  One day, there was a mean and hungry orange and white cat named Nellie who came into the yard to eat Molly. And there was a chocolate lab named Nick. He was very nice.

Molly flew down from a tree to get Hans the worm. “Hi Hans,” says Molly.

“Hi Molly,” says  Hans.

Molly pulled Hans out of the hole, and put Hans inside her mouth. Then, Molly saw Nellie. “Please don’t eat me.” said molly the bird. “Nellie you are a mean cat.” Nellie opened her mouth. Then Molly heard a sound. It was Nick the dog barking. Nick growled and barked at Nellie. Molly flapped her wings and started to fly. The worm dropped out of Molly’s mouth, and Nellie ran away. Molly flew back down and said, “Thanks, Nick, the cat is gone.”

“You’re welcome,” said Nick. “But are you going to eat Hans the worm like Nellie wanted to eat you?”

“Yes, I’m going to eat Hans the worm, said Molly, “because birds eat worms, and I need to eat.

Nick said,  “Nellie the cat needs to eat, too,  like she wants to eat you.”

“She could eat cat food,” said Molly, “I don’t have an owner who could feed me bird food. Nellie is so mean to me.”

“You should pray for Nellie,” said Nick.

“Yes,” said Molly, “because God wants us to pray for our enemies.”

Luke 6:27-28  “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Molly closed  her eyes and prayed.

No body got eaten that day. Hans didn’t get eaten and Molly didn’t get eaten. Nick saved the day.

The End.