Murray Language Academy

What our students did:
Over the past few weeks, our 4th grade students have been working hard in fine arts class. In groups of four or five, they took pictures around our school, chose the 6 pictures they liked the best and put them in a specific order, and then wrote a story based on the pictures. They have finished their stories, but they want to know how other people view their pictures and to see what kinds of stories they can come up with.

What story would you like to tell:
On the right are the 17 groups of students. If you click on the name of a group of students, you will see the pictures they chose. Then, just put your name in the “Name” box at the bottom of the page. You don’t need to enter anything in the other two smaller boxes. In the larger box that says “Leave A Reply”, please write a story based on the pictures. It does not have to be very long, but it should use all of the pictures in the order they are on the screen. I know the students would definitely appreciate what you have to offer. They will be reading your stories to see how other people viewed the pictures they took.

Thanks!

Still confused? Check out the example below from one of our 4th graders. Certain sentences are highlighted to show how the pictures were used to create the story.

1) Garfield 2) Golden Grass

3) Skeleton 4) Shadow in Snow
5) Puddle of Mud 6) Blue Sky

Hi, I’m Ann just plain, Ann. At first my life was just boring, or sometimes just plain crazy. I have no parents, so I live in an orphanage with different, I mean different kids. But my boring and crazy life– well maybe not the crazy part, but the boring part was about to change.

I love Garfield! I practically worship him, (I have a poster to do so). One day when I was drawing, Garfield spoke to me! “Ann you must get out of here! You have a mission to do!” The thing about Garfield was that he had a French accent, so it was sometimes hard to understand him. After all, the poster was made in France. “You must egzit out of zee back door. Take me with zyou!” “Should I pack a bag?” I asked. “Of course!” I packed a bag and included a picture of my parents and we exited out my room.

“Ann?” said a voice, it was my best friend Mary. She is kind of shy, but is a great friend. “Ann, why do you have a sack with that poster of Garfield?” “I’m sorry to say, but I’m leaving.” “Why?” “For some kind of mission.” “Are you coming back?” “I’m not sure.” “Well, I hope you do.” “Bye.” I said. “Bye!” and her voice faded away while we entered the nighttime air.

“It’s so dark I can’t really see.” I complained. “Zust try to find zee school.” “What school?” I asked. “Um…I thought zyou might know. But if zyou don’t know it’s about a block away.” “Okay.–Aahhh!” I screamed. “Why did zyou do zat!” “I just tripped over a pile of some golden grass.” “Keep a look-out it could be worse.”

My eyes adjusted to the darkness, “Garfield I think I can see the school.” “Yes, I think I see it too. We must enter zee school as quietly as we can.”

We entered the school into this room of science and math (I”m guessing). There was a skeleton, I just kept on staring at it. “What are you looking at?” it asked. I was speechless. “Can you hear me?…Intruder! Intruder! Intruder!” “Psst!” said the poster, it was Garfield, “Unroll zee poster.” When I did he jumped out of it and did not look 2D anymore. “We are here for zee mission!” he said proudly. “…Intruders for zee mission! Intrud–Mmm! Mmm!” Garfield had covered his mouth. “You dumb bonehead! Don’t ever make fun of my accent!” And he slapped that skeleton and all of his bones scattered. “Get his skull!” he yelled, and we ran outside.

It was January so we entered a more snowy part outside. “Garfield look at this! There’s a shadow of nobody!” “Run!” said Garfield. We ran tree-to-tree in the slush from the shadow, it was chasing us.

“He is getting closer!” the skull said. I don’t know how, but the shadow had punched Garfield and he landed in a puddle of mud. I ran to him with the skull in my hand. “Your finger is in my eye socket!” I looked back and the shadow was far behind. “Are you okay?” I asked Garfield. “Yes, I am fine.” Zust zit on me.” I spat on him. “Blech! Not zpit on me! Zit on me!” So I did.

Garfield was 2D again, and grabbed onto me and the skull. “Hurry! The shadow is catching up!” yelled the skull. Garfield had now ran almost as fast as the speed of light since I zat– I mean sat on him. I had no idea where the shadow was, but it was out of sight.

“Garfield, what’s my mission?” I asked. “Zyou must go to zee underworld and save someone.” “Who?” “Eat zis, and you’ll find out.” I ate something that looked like a cherry but tasted like mangoes, and soon the 3 of us were flying into the clear blue winter sky.