Kookaburras are found in trees and in forests and when they are found, they make a laughing noise to call their mates. Kookaburras have feathery wings and long beaks which help them catch their food. If you are having a picnic, be careful of kookaburras as they sometimes steal your food when you don’t expect it. They lay their eggs in a nest and the dad keeps them warm while the mother goes to look for food for the babies. The mates all meet in trees.
Bethany (aged 11)
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Dardo aged 7
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Once an ant was in his nest for the winter but then some snow fell in and it was very cold. The little fire ant was frightened that an avalanche was coming down the hill to his nest. He ran away to Mount Everest which was up high. He built a gigantic new nest where he went to sleep for the winter.
Dardo (aged 7)
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Early one scorching summer day, on a narrow mountain path, two travellers were in search of extra money. Their names were Dean and Major Walnut.
Dean asked “Why are we out here?” and in response Major Walnut said ‘Because money’s the main thing.”
On their journey up the mountain, they came across a village in trouble. They asked what was going on. “The woman elder has been taken by ruffians” they were told.
Apparently the ruffians were green with envy and told the villagers that they were going to treat the elder cruelly if they were not given the village treasures.
A year later, after the rescue had been successful, the woman elder was so grateful she sighed and said “I will reward you for the rest of your life”
Jacko (aged 10)
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A boy named Dean was walking in the morning on a steep mountain because he was trying to get away from thinking about money. While he walked, he met Major Walnut.
Dean asked Major Walnut ‘Is money good or bad?’
Major Walnut said ‘Money is the main thing.’
Dean and major Walnut saw a pretty girl who was in trouble. She was in danger. Dean said to Major Walnut “What is going on around here? I just met you and now a pretty girl is in trouble and now the bad men are holding on to her?”
The girl was smiling. She had pink cheeks which were very bright. Silently she said “Thank you very much.” She hugged the two blokes, Dean and Major Walnut.
‘We are a pair of heroes!’ laughed the two friends as they said ‘good bye’ to the girl.
Oscar (aged 8)
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Georgina rushed into the veterinary surgery when the sun was rising. The grand-daughter of Uncle Tom, she was a pretty girl but she was always into mischief. Uncle Tom was a good old man who loved his grand-daughter but he had many secrets that he never told people.
With a wild yell, Uncle Tom rushed into the veterinary surgery but he could not see Georgina anywhere. He got out his blue phone and started to call her but he couldn’t get hold of her.
“Thump! Thump! Thump” heard Uncle Tom. He looked behind him and ‘Bang!” he was gone! A little while later he found himself in a black dark room where he found Georgina.
“How did you find me?” said Georgina.
“Well, I heard you scream because I was next door at the sports shop,” he replied. Uncle Tom had something secret in his mind.
Two hours later…
“Who were those people who made me scream?” asked Georgina.
“My boss, the man I work for,” said Uncle Tom.
‘So you knew all along and you did not tell me,” said Georgina in surprise.
“Well I saw you running along the fields and I rang up my boss and said that we should frighten you so I did,” said Uncle Tom, being proud of himself. Just then ‘bang!” Uncle Tom was hit by a frying pan. The person who threw it was Georgina’s mother! Georgina was so proud to see her. Her mother put down the pan and they all went home to bed.
Abbie (aged 10)
This story was the result of a creative writing game played at our tuition room during the school holidays. The process for the game may be located under Creative Writing Game on our Study Tools page. Our maths Tutor participated with Abbie on this exercise. You can read his story – Caught!
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This was the result of a creative writing game we ran at our tuition room. You can see how the game was run on the Study Tools page under Creative Writing Game. The following result was the final product of our maths tutor, Peter.
Neither Uncle Tom nor Georgina were ever able to explain how they got themselves locked in the Veterinary Surgery overnight.
Uncle Tom was a confusing old man who wore round spectacles on a round face on top of a round body. A lot of him moved when he laughed at his own jokes. Georgina had known him all her life and at five years old that was a long time. Her short fuzzy red hair and chubby pink cheeks made them look like a pair of clowns when they walked down the street.
In total terror she now clung to her uncle’s large leg while all around dogs howled, cats hissed and parrots screeched. The room was totally black and smelled of anti-septic. The noise was deafening and would surely wake the dead thought Georgina. Now she had something else to worry about. She squeezed tighter on her uncle’s leg.
‘This is going to be a long night’ thought Uncle Tom, holding Georgina close to him as they huddled under the Vet’s table. This adventure was not going as he had planned. All night long they huddled and shivered and the animals screeched and cried. Not once did they or the animals sleep. Georgina kept vigilant in case any of the dead were also awake.
From somewhere outside the safety of the vet’s table came a loud thump, and the darkness disappeared. Victor the Vet stood in the doorway, ‘That should teach you a lesson not to sneak into the animals sleeping room again Tom!’
‘So you knew all the time!’ cried Tom in amazement.
‘Yes we did.’ Bellowed Margaret, Tom’s wife and Georgina’s aunt. ‘That should cure both of you of sneaking out at night. How do you feel now Thomas?’
‘You better get out a bottle of your parsnip wine mother, I’m going to need it.’
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At school in my play time I caught a lizard in the garden. Today I caught a lizard that was as big as a goanna with a blue tongue and a giant brown tail. He bit me on the thumb as I was holding him tightly. I jumped and dropped him and he got away. In time I will become a better lizard wrangler.
Dardo (aged 7); (art work by Dardo)
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“Does handwriting matter? Not very much according to educators. The Common Core standards, which we have adopted in most states, call for teaching legible handwriting, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.”
“What’s Lost As Handwriting Fades” – by Maria Konnikova
I have just finished reading this article and you can follow the above link to access it. The article suggests evidence is emerging of a greater link between handwriting and learning. It appears children learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand.
A 2012 study by Karin James at the Indiana University supported the association between handwriting and learning. Children who had not learned to read were presented with index cards with a letter or shape they were to reproduce. They could either:
A study of their brain waves as they reproduced the shape or letter showed an area of the brain, active when an adult reads and writes, was highly stimulated when the child drew the letter on a blank sheet of paper. The activation was significantly weaker through the other two processes.
Learning is a complicated process. When we reproduce letters, or anything else, by hand a plan is required before executing the action. The end result is highly variable in that it will not exactly represent the original. Learning to identify variable representations is important to decoding letters when reading.
The research by Virginia Berninger, a psychologist at University of Washington, indicated that when a child who composed text by hand (either printing or cursive) “They not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on the keyboard, but expressed more ideas.”
There is also a suggestion of different neuro-pathways being developed in the brain when a child progresses on from printing to cursive writing.
Research at the University of California have reported laboratory and real-world studies of students learning better when they take notes by hand than when they type on a keyboard.
So is it time to throw away the pen and paper and adopt the technology and the keyboard? Was it time to give up walking when we invented the car?
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Late one dark and dingy night soaring high through the clouds above the Indian Ocean was a China baby on a magical carpet with an owl called whisper. The magical carpet worshipped the China baby because this young child was definitely no ordinary child. He was the son of a king and the richest man alive. The baby travelled once a year on the magical a carpet to a land called Neverland. The baby was so happy and could not wait to reach the land. Sparks of joy hit his heart as he reached the island in hope for hours of joy. After he plays he and whisper are back in the sky soaring high through the clouds over the Indian Ocean.
Jacko (aged 10)
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