Year 3 English Innovators
This term, Year 3 English Innovators were given the challenge of writing a collaborative story. The students selected from a range of story ideas and created all the character names. After writing a paragraph individually or with a partner they shared their creation with the group and then voted to select which one would be use for the final collaborative narrative. To assist with plot, flow and structure, the students were provided with the beginning sentence of the following paragraph. We hope you enjoy our stories!
THE ROBOT COMPANION
After weeks of tinkering, soldering, and typing mysterious lines of code, Harry finally stepped back and smiled mischievously. Then he sat at his desk, determined… he had had enough. “No more homework!” Harry yelled. “Once and for all!”
He pressed the red ‘ON’ button, proud to see his creation come to life. “This will be the greatest invention I have ever made!” thought Harry. “Behold… the Homework 2000!” he cackled.
The screen flickered on. The robot’s eyes opened. Harry was stunned, his smile bright and cheerful. “Hello! Would you like me to do your homework?” asked the robot. “Absolutely… now let’s test your limits,” Harry replied.
First, he gave it a Year Six homework sheet. Done in a second. Then Year Twelve work. Not a problem—an entire booklet finished instantly!
“Yes! This is going to be my companion forever!” thought Harry. “Now…” he said aloud, “let’s do this.”
For a few days, everything went perfectly. When Harry arrived at school, Miss Rich said, “Good morning, Harry.” “Hello,” replied Harry. “I’ve done my homework,” he exclaimed, handing it to her.
“HARRY HUTCHINS!” yelled Miss Rich, astonished. “This is incredible! You deserve a Tim Tam!”
Harry guiltily ate the delicious chocolate Tim Tam, thinking, Maybe I should tell Miss Rich the truth…
The next morning, Harry grabbed his bag and leapt into the car with Homework 2000. When school came into view, the two climbed out and walked towards the gate. Suddenly, Harry noticed Homework 2000 was gone. It must’ve teleported to school!
When Harry reached his classroom, he froze. Chaos confronted him.
Homework 2000 stood face-to-face with Miss Rich, its screen showing an angry red face.
“Move!” yelled Harry.
Miss Rich blinked, then ducked as a stack of books toppled onto her desk. “I’m so sorry, Miss Rich!” screamed Harry. “Please forgive me—my robot is burning hot. It’s malfunctioned!”
“JUST STOP THE BIG DUDE, HARRY!” yelled Miss Rich. She looked as scared as a deer in headlights.
“I don’t know how to stop it!” Harry shouted, frustrated.
“I AM THE HOMEWORK 2000!” boomed the robot. “The Homework what?” questioned Miss Rich.
Then she glared at Harry. “Harry… have you been using this robot to do your homework?” “Huh… no…” he chuckled nervously.
“I WILL NOW SQUASH YOU!” the robot declared in an angry monotone voice.
Homework 2000 had programmed itself to charge at Miss Rich. “Why do you give such time-wasting and boring homework?” it demanded. “Children need more time to play!”
The class began chanting, “No more homework! No more school!”
Suddenly, all the children screamed as they ran out of the classroom and onto the playground.
As Miss Rich ran out to supervise the escaping students, she called over her shoulder: “Do something about that robot—or whatever it is!”
Harry burst into tears and sprinted to his desk, grabbing his small coding device. He typed in more mysterious code he had learnt from a book called Building Your Robot with Nothing but the Sweat of Your Brow.
Harry’s heart felt broken, his spirit divided and his mind unfocused. He felt sympathy for the robot, his classmates, and his teacher all at once.
It took only minutes to reset the code.
Harry watched as his masterpiece slowly shut down. Then… BOOM!
The robot was badly corroded. Rivers of tears rolled down Harry’s cheeks as he stared at the remains of Homework 2000. His best friend was gone.
A few minutes later, Miss Rich and the students returned to the classroom. Harry stood silently, still heart-broken from the dusty sight.
“Harry,” said someone beside him, “It’s okay. We actually enjoyed all the drama.”
“Oh, Harry,” Miss Rich said gently. “I feel bad for you and your robot friend, but he had to go. He was causing a lot of trouble. To make everyone happy, I’ll ask the Principal to tell everyone that, from now on… there will be NO MORE HOMEWORK!”
With a faint smile, Harry wiped his tears and whispered, “Thanks, Miss Rich.”
By 3A and 3C English Innovators
The following story was inspired by the movie ‘How to Train your Dragon!
The Unexpected Visitor
It was just an ordinary morning until I saw smoke coming from the sandpit…
Hesitantly, I walked over to my sandpit. Shiny scales poked out from the sand. I thought I saw a guy in a dragon costume, so I said, “Nice dragon costume!” But the guy in the costume said, “I’m a real dragon!!” I didn’t believe him.
“If you’re a real dragon, then fly!” I replied. “FINE, I WILL!” the man yelled.
Suddenly, a matte-red dragon burst out of the sandpit into the sky!
“HUH?” I gasped. “You’re a real dragon!” I shouted in disbelief. “Yes, I am the last one of my type.”
Curious, Hiccup inched closer, then began to follow him around, observing carefully. Not having any siblings or friends, I started thinking about what I could do with a real dragon.
Suddenly… there was a loud “Achooo!” Thankfully, I shut my eyes just in time. When I opened them, I saw everything was covered in purple, gooey, germy snot!
“Oh no, this is bad!” I said. The mucus was creeping like a larva monster.
“ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!” sneezed the dragon.
“Who are you?” I asked. “I am Toothless, and I have a really bad allergy to pollen,” Toothless responded.
“Oh,” I gasped. “Who are you?” Toothless asked.
“I am Hiccup… and what are you doing here?” I whispered. “I am here because my world got obliterated. I am the last of my species, and you can call me Toothless the Dragon — or just Toothless,” he explained.
“AACHOOOOOOOO!”
“Oh no,” I gasped. “It’s melting the garden… and the grumpy neighbour’s swing set and trampoline!”
“This is bad,” I exclaimed. “We need to fix this before Mum and Dad wake up!”
“I know there’s a forest close to the place that people go to get… to get…” “To get what? Can you show me?” I asked.
“Of course!” Toothless replied.
So we walked all the way to the place he was talking about. Soon after, Toothless yelled, “We’re here!” “Oh… you meant the shopping centre,” I sighed.
“Now I’ll show you the forest!” he exclaimed energetically, already starting to pull my arm.
After a while, he stated, “This is it!” “This isn’t a forest. This is Ranger Park,” I replied, confused.
“A few centuries ago this was a forest. There are some herbs here that will help clean the snot and stop my allergy,” Toothless explained.
“Oh, nice idea,” I said, getting the picture.
“Let’s start looking for it!” Toothless said, already halfway through the park.
I was impressed by how much Toothless knew. Intrigued, I followed him into the park.
“We also need to dig holes, as the herbs might be under the mulch as well,” he advised.
Forty-five minutes later, after digging up the whole playground, we realised we’d wasted our time and that the herbs would be near the trees or bushes. Five minutes later, we found a whole bunch of weird-looking plants.
“This must be it!” he squealed excitedly.
“No offence, but I think we should get ALL the herbs because your nose is big and the amount of snot everywhere is HUGE,” I suggested.
We gathered armfuls of the herbs, crushing some in our hands.
“They feel warm,” I said. “Almost alive…”
They smelt like mint and looked like eucalyptus leaves. As I put the herbs in a sack, Toothless said, “Hop on my back!”
We flew home in seconds.
I quietly walked inside to get a big bucket of water and a stick to crush the ‘Herbs of Healing’. Suddenly the mixture turned into a glowing purple potion.
“Whoa!” I gasped. “So… do I spread it on your snout, or do you drink it?” “Both,” responded Toothless, “and also put it on my snot.”
“Here goes nothing,” I said, gently rubbing the mixture along Toothless’s snout. Toothless then drank the potion, blinking in surprise.
“I think it worked! I can breathe again.”
“I can’t believe your allergy has gone — you’re not sneezing anymore! Now we just need to pour some on the garden and the neighbour’s backyard.”
Together, we poured the mixture on top of the gooey snot.
“We will have to wait about ten minutes for it to start working,” exclaimed Toothless.
“What if my parents wake up by then?”
“Don’t worry, they won’t,” answered Toothless.
About ten minutes later, the ‘Herbs of Healing’ started dissolving the sticky mucus.
“Now that your allergy is cured, you can be my loyal pet!” I declared. “WOW! I believe that I am…” Toothless paused, then shouted, “I am an allergy-free dragon with a human friend!”
Just as they were about to go inside, Hiccup’s parents burst out of the back door and screamed, “A dragon! What’s a dragon doing here?”
“Don’t worry — he doesn’t bite and he can’t breathe fire,” I explained.
“Can I keep him?” I pleaded.
“Fine,” said Mum, “on one condition… you take care of him.”
“SURE!” I said excitedly. “He’s going to be my BFF! Right, Toothless?”
“Yeah!” Toothless exclaimed.
“We’ll have to keep him a secret… right?” Dad asked. “NO, I’M GOING TO BRING HIM TO SCHOOL!” I screamed.
“Okay, he can go to school — but be careful!” Mum yelled.
“Yippee!” we both screamed as we headed towards the school.
By 3B, 3E and 3D English Innovators