After reading Peter H. Reynold's fabulous book The Dot, we put together a fun "Connect the Dots" writing project with our blogging buddies. We hope to get some fun stories!
Here are the steps we took to set up our "Connect the Dots" stories!
Step 1: Each team made a collection of words from the story or words used in our classroom.
The collection could be five to six words.
Step 2: Each person on the team wrote one word on a dot and then cut it out.
Step 3: Each person on the team decorated their dot.
Step 4: This is where YOU come in! Please select a team and write a clever story or poem using all of their words. We can wait to read your story in the comments!
TEAM WILBUR:
Wilbur the pig, swirly, surfboard, taco, discovered
TEAM BARNABY BONES:
Barnaby Bones, painted, gazing, carefully, dot
TEAM BEVERLY:
Beverly, swirly, taco, tomato, gold
TEAM ARNOLD:
Arnold, jab, dot, blue, gold, swirly
TEAM PANDA:
Panda, dot, painted, gold, squiggly
We invite you to connect our word dots into a story or poem!
Good luck!
This post is also available over on the collaborative blog called
Have fun connecting the dots!
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI am Faith’s brother, Nolan. I saw you had this dot thing going on, so I decided to blog. I picked Team Arnold’s word collection because my sister is in that group. Here is my story…
Arnold Fisherson was a fish-detective and everyone knew him. His friend, Linda, was a computer whiz. She knew a lot about them. She always told Arnold where to find the treasures the world had to give.
One day, Arnold woke to Linda speaking on his walkie-talkie.
“Arnold! I just found out that there is a vault full of gold under Buck’s Grocery store! You have got to go!”
“Okay…” Arnold said groggily. He jumped out of bed, and raced to the kitchen. He slept with his detective clothes on, just for good measure. He wolfed down some toast, then headed toward his car. His undercover detective car looked like any old Toyota, but he made some upgrades with it. He zoomed to Buck’s Grocery Store, but he didn’t go too fast that he looked suspicious. Once he arrived, he parked, and walked inside.
“There should be a secret entry to the underground lair in the frozen foods aisle,” Linda noted.
“Alright,” Arnold said. He looked and looked until he found a frozen pizza box on the floor. Arnold picked it up, and the floor below him opened. Arnold was quickly swallowed in darkness….
Arnold woke to Linda, again, talking.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“Yeah,” Arnold answered. He stood up, brushed himself off, and looked around. He was in a small hallway with dirty brick walls and dim torches. The room was dark, damp, and kind of claustrophobic. Then, something caught Arnold’s eye. A big, iron, vault door. He walked over. There was a keyhole in the middle. Arnold sighed. He knew he had to find a key now. Arnold began to tell Linda,
“Well, now I have to find-“ But he didn’t finish his sentence, because something else caught his eye. It was a small, shiny blue thing under a tiny rock. He knelt over, and picked up the rock. There, under the rock, was a small blue key. There was a weird swirly white dot imprinted on it, but Arnold didn’t care. He wanted to find that gold. He grabbed the key, stood up, and turned to the vault. He slid, or tried to slide, the key in the hole. It didn’t work. Arnold tried to jab it in the hole. After two attempts, the key slid in the keyhole. Arnold twisted the key. The vault door unlocked. Arnold pushed it open. In front of him, was a huge mountain of gold. It was so bright and shiny, that Arnold had to look away for a second for his eyes to adjust. Well, Arnold had done it. He dove into the gold pile.
“Woohoo!” He yelled.
“You did it!?” Linda asked excitedly.
“Yep!” Answered Arnold.
Arnold swam in the golden objects. He was really happy. But, he still needed to get this gold to his house somehow. Oh, well. He’ll figure it out. All that matters is that the amazing Arnold has done it again.
———————————————————————————————
There you have it! My story! Hope you liked it!
Have a good rest of the year!
Sincerely,
Nolan D.
Hi Team Wilbur!
ReplyDeleteHere is a poem I made for you. I picked your team because I love tacos so much! I also love going to the beach. The last time I was there, I saw several dolphins frolicking in the water.
Wilbur the pig wanted to get off the farm,
So he took his good friend by the arm.
She wore a swirly crown with a braided gold cord;
Wilbur wore his swimsuit and took his surfboard.
They headed to the beach but first had some lunch.
(They had packed tacos and a nice, fruity punch.)
Surfing was planned, but it wasn’t to be…
As they both got distracted by dolphins in the sea!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Lisa (Faith's Mom)
Dear Team Beverly,
ReplyDeleteMy mom and I wrote this story together for you. Enjoy!
_______________________________________
“Brrr,” said Beverly the Bear, shivering and grinding her sharp teeth. “Why does the International Bear Association hold its annual Taco Eating Competition in the middle of hibernation season?” I was sound asleep deep in my cave and just like every year, I have to dig myself out and schlep to Brown Bear Forest in Sequoia National Park just to retain my title again.
“Welcome Bears from all over the world,” shouted Charlie, the competition’s announcer. “We have a tough competition this year. We have returning champ, Beverly Jo, straight out of hibernation in Mongolia, ready to face off against Scarlett, a wise, confident panda, Kaia, an intelligent black bear, Carlie, a snowy, friendly white polar bear, and Voldemort, a cunning grizzly bear.”
The bears line up on stage to begin the competition. “Bears, here are the contest rules, announced Charlie. First, eat as many tacos as you can in 15 minutes. Second, every taco must have at least two toppings and one meat. Third, tacos must be eaten fully in order to count. Fourth, once you build your tacos, you must eat only those. No switching. Finally, no cheating and no bad sportsmanship.”
“On your paws, get set, go,” bellowed Charlie, and the bears began to prepare their tacos. Beverly grabbed ten tacos shells, filled three with turkey, five with ham, and two with corn beef. She moved to the toppings bar, and added bright red tomato slices on top, her favorite taco addition. She wanted to add ketchup as her second ingredient and made swirly lines on top of each taco shaped like a giant B to represent her name. Her tacos were ready to eat.
Beverly grabs her first taco and shoves it into her mouth, starts to chew, and quickly, gasps with pain. “Ouch, what in the world just happened?” cried Beverly. Tears rolling from her eyes and her mouth on fire, Beverly runs to the toppings table and discovers that someone switched the labels on the toppings. Instead of ketchup, Beverly had accidentally put fiery hot sauce on every taco. Beverly knew what she must do. The rules clearly stated that she had to eat only the tacos she prepared. She would have to worry about who switched the labels later.
END OF PART 1
@Ms. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteWe made haikus for each group.
Barnaby Bones
Barnaby Bones looked
Gazing at the awesome dot
Painted carefully.
Wilbur and the Taco
Wilbur the Pig saw
Discovered taco
On swirly surfboard.
Blue Swirly Glove
Arnold jab at dot
With a blue swirly gold glove
Dot did not like it.
Golden Dot
Panda painted dot
Gold squiggly lines made up dot
It was beautiful.
Gold Prize Tomato
Swirly tomato
Beverly ate tomato
Gold prize tomato
Cheers,
L¡ly and Lu©as B.
@ Lily lucas, we are so proud of you both.
DeleteYour Haiku is amazing. Love to you and your classmates. Sounds like such a fun project your teacher has assigned. Grammy and Grampy
ReplyDeleteMustering all the strength she could, Beverly took deep breaths as she used her yoga techniques to clear her mind of all that spice and focus on the task that must be completed. Taco by taco, Beverly devoured her ten, racing against the speedy clock. She reached her final taco with three seconds to spare. Paw and paw with Voldemort, battling to finish first, Voldemort gobbles it in his mouth, finishing milliseconds before Beverly. The audience gasps. Beverly is stunned. Charlie announces, “We have a new winner, Voldemort is the new champion.”
Suddenly, the referee Daniel, runs to the stage, yelling “Voldemort cheated. Voldemort cheated.” The audience freezes with amazement and confusion. Daniel is carrying the ketchup and hot sauce bottles in his hand and approaches Voldemort. Earlier that day prior to the competition, Daniel claims he carefully watched the competitors planning their strategies for the competition. He had thought something looked mysterious about the way Voldemort smiled with confidence considering he was the underdog. “During the competition, it all became clear to me,” said Daniel. After seeing Beverly’s face light up bright red, he decided to check out the toppings table. It was then that he discovered foul play. His secret was discovered and Voldemort was immediately disqualified making Beverly the true winner.
The winner’s podium was brought onto the stage and Beverly stepped on top. A gold trophy of a taco was presented to her. Accepting it once again, Beverly felt prouder than ever before. The hot tacos challenged her in a new way and she overcame the obstacle to win. After feeling so hot from those tacos, all Beverly could think about now was going home to the freezing weather to resume hibernation.
_________________________________
What words from my story helped you visualize what was happening?
Do you see and "SHOW, not tell" sentences?
I can *BEARly* wait to hear your responses,
Katie and her mom
Dear Katie and her mom,
ReplyDeleteWe LOVED your creative story!
Faith liked that you used the names from our class in your story.
Mrs. Yollis loved the great SHOW, NOT TELL WRITING:
Rather than saying Beverly was cold, you used some descriptive writing:
“Brrr,” said Beverly the Bear, shivering and grinding her sharp teeth.
Scarlet loved the word play! Like, instead of saying on your marks, get set, go! You said, “On your paws, get set, go,” bellowed Charlie, and the bears began to prepare their tacos.
We also loved your synonym for SAID. Clearly, said is dead! For example, you used bellowed, yelled, announced, shouted, and cried. Well done!
How long did it take you to write this?
Do you like tacos?
From,
Mrs. Yollis, Ben, Scarlett, Faith, Hana. Lily, Carlie, and Rebecca
Thank you everyone for the positive feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed our story. To answer your question, it took us about 30 minutes to write the story. Also, I don't like tacos but my mom does.
ReplyDeleteFrom,
Katie
Dear Team Wilbur,
ReplyDeleteHere is a funny Story.
My friend Paco has a pig named Wilbur
They both especially liked a lot of Taco on Tuesday
After taco's they took their gnarly surfboard on the swirly water,
they soon discovered surfing and eating equaled puking
Dear Mrs.Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI had a dream about a pig named Wilbur. He loved to go to the beach and surf. One day, Wilbur went to the beach and he saw a shortboard for sale. It had swirly waves painted on it. It was expensive and he didn't have enough money to buy the surfboard. He also loves tacos so he came up with the idea to sell tacos at the beach and he did. He discovered that lots of people love tacos too. He sold chicken, beef, and fish tacos. He raised enough money to buy the shortboard. The next day he waxed it so he could go surfing on it and he named it Taco.
And then, I woke up. I hope to dream about Wilbur the surfing pig again tonight!
From,
Samantha B.
@ Samantha,
DeleteI enjoyed hearing about your dream. Please keep us posted about Wilbur the pig. Maybe he will play soccer next.
Cheers,
L¡ly
BARNABY BONES was a creative chap,
ReplyDeleteWho loved to paint and write poems.
He PAINTED a man, who gazed at a can that lay strewn on an old vacant lot.
A Pointillist painter, Barnaby was, he CAREFULLY placed a DOT, on the exact spot that the GAZING man sought, to kick that can up the road.