Denny The Lonely Dragon
By Jeremy LaRose
(1)“Okay, children let’s settle down and get out your crayons for coloring time,” The good-natured Ms. Nicely announced with a smile to her kindergarten class. It was the second day of school and the class had still not settled in to school. Ms. Nicely knew that it would be awhile
before a lot of them were comfortable in their new environment so she kept on smiling to ease the children’s troubled hearts. Little Johnny Peary was a little teary, little Susan Sniffles needed a tissue and little Nicholas Wander was heading towards the exit. By the way they were all
little, very, very little, that is except one. That one exception, that one that wasn’t so little, was actually quite big. That student’s name was Denny, and Denny wasn’t your ordinary little boy. In fact, Denny wasn’t a little boy at all! Denny was a dragon.
Yes, Denny was a dragon. A three-hundred-fifty pound, green-scaled, winged, fire-breathing dragon! What is a dragon doing in a kindergarten classroom? Well dragons need to go to school too, why would they be any different? How are they supposed to be able to learn to read or add two plus two? Just like little boys and girls, dragons need education, so Denny’s parents sent him to Sleepy Willow Elementary School and Ms. Nicely for a proper education.
(2) “Johnny, that is a great job staying in the lines,” Ms. Nicely said as she walked by little Johnny and looked at his coloring of a clown dancing with a dog. “Susan, I love that shade of pink you used,” she said, as she glanced at her job of coloring a lady that wore a hat made out of fruit. “Nicholas, that is a very interesting pattern you have going there,” Ms. Nicely said with her trademark smile, as she walked by little Nicholas who had drawn wide scribbles all over his picture of a monkey riding a unicycle. The smiled faded away as she neared Denny. “Denny, what happened here?” Ms. Nicely said as she got to the corner where Denny sat next to a pile of melted crayons.
(3) “I’m sorry Ms. Nicely, I coughed on the crayons and they melted,” Denny explained as he held up his hands that were covered with a rainbow of dripping wax.
“Nice move weirdo.” Little Nicolas said as he pointed and laughed at him. Everyone else joined in and began to chant,
“NICE JOB, WEIRDO! NICE JOB, WEIRDO!” They all pointed. They all laughed. Denny began to cry.
“Now class, we do not use that language in my classroom!” Ms. Nicely said, without the sing-song tone she had used during the first two days of school. The class took note of the unexpected tone and settled down and went back to coloring. But, Denny… highly acidic green tears burned the rug as they hit the floor. Denny wasn’t sure he liked school.
(4) At 9:15 Ms. Nicely told the boys and girls that it was now time for snack. A cheer rippled though the room. Everybody liked snack time, everybody except Denny. Johnny Teary, who had spent the first two days of school crying and holding onto his mother's pants leg with a grip of iron as she tried to drop him off for school, finally stopped the waterworks as he proudly held up his snack and said, “I have badella pudding,” (he meant to say vanilla but everyone got the point.) Mary Contrary held her snack up and said, “I have Oreo cookies, and they are not the store brand, mother never buys the store brand.” then
wasted no time in twisting open a cookie and devouring the creme filling, tossing the chocolate wafers off to the side where a hungry little boy with sandy blond hair scrambled to gather the disposed cookie peices. “I have a fruit roll-up, it’s green and if I put it on my face I look like Denny!” little Gertrude Isrude giggled as she put her roll-up on her face and began to jump around the room making roaring sounds. Everyone laughed, everyone except Denny, who sat in the corner eating his bran muffin with pure silver chips that his mom had given him for his snack. Another acidic tear hit the ground making a hole in the carpet.
(5) After reading group, and counting time, it was recess. Denny liked recess because the boys and girls all got to go outside and play games. Denny liked games, especially kickball or red rover. Today, a group of boys had gathered and were going to play kickball. “Okay everyone, whoever wants to play has to get against the fence,” one little boy said to the others. Denny brightened up! He loved kickball. Denny hopped on his little green scaled legs over to the fence and lined up with the other children.
“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, you can?t play.” One little boy wearing a Yankees cap wailed.
“Why not?” Denny asked a little confused.
“Because you look funny and nobody likes you. Hey, everybody, raise your hands if you want Denny to play kickball with us.” The mean little boy asked the crowd along the fence. No one raised their hands. “Sorry, maybe next time Weirdo.” The little boy laughed as he pointed at Denny. Everyone on the fence pointed at Denny too and chanted,
“Denny is a Weirdo, Denny is a Weirdo!” Denny put his tail between his legs and clomped away to hide behind the maple trees. The grass hissed as his tears hit the ground.
(6) After recess Denny told Ms Nicely he wanted to go home, he decided that he didn't like school one bit. Ms. Nicely just smiled, patted him on his head and said, “Denny, it’s almost time to go home, but first you need to get your tambourine out of the music box and get ready for music.”
Denny still wanted to go home, but his parents told him to listen to his teacher, so he got his tambourine out of the box and joined the rest of the class on the red carpet. Music class also didn’t go very well for Denny, he just couldn’t keep the beat that Ms. Sonata had the class playing to, it was on a five count beat and Denny always fell off pace by beat three. Sally Symphony, the best tambourine player in the class turned at Denny and stuck her tongue out at him, not even missing a beat. Denny would have cried, but he was already all cried out. Denny was really glad when school got out.
(7) When Denny got home to his family’s lair he went right to his bedroom and buried himself in his treasure heap. His mother, having seen Denny storm in immediately came in to see what was the matter. “Denny hunny, where are you?” His mother said as she looked around his bedroom not seeing her son anywhere.
“Denny’s not here, go away.” A muffled voice replied from under the pile of riches. Denny’s mom sighed and decided to give him a few minutes to cool down. Plus she knew how to get her little dragon out from hiding. A few minutes later the aroma of fresh nachos with pepper jack cheese and extra red-hot jalapeños came wafting into Denny’s room and to his submerged snout. Denny involuntarily turned his frown upside down and came out from hiding. By the time he got to the kitchen table there was already a heaping mound of nachos and a glass of Tabasco sauce waiting for him. His mom gave him a minute to dig in and then tried to ask him again what was wrong. “I hate school, I’m not going back," was Denny’s reply. Denny’s mom’s brow wrinkled with concern, his father put down the newspaper and joined in on the conversation.
(8) “Why wouldn’t you go back, Ms Nicely seemed to have all kinds of really fun things for you to do and learn about?” He said to his visibly upset son.
“Nobody likes me, they all call me names and say that I look funny.”
“Oh, snuggle bunny, they don’t mean it they just aren’t used to someone as special as you being around.” Denny’s mom said to him as she wiped some dripping cheese off his chin.
“Your mother’s right son, you see people act funny when they meet something or someone that doesn’t look like them or is familiar to them, they just need to get used to you.” His father said as he sipped from his mug of molten sulfur.
“I just want them to like me, what if they never get used to me?” Denny whimpered.
“Well honey, kill them with kindness.” His mom replied. Denny’s eyes widened in horror.
“Kill them, won’t I get in trouble for that!”
“No son, it’s an expression. It means be so nice to them that they can’t be mean to you.” His dad explained.
“Well what can I do to be nice to them?” Denny asked.
“Denny Benny, you are a very special little boy and have many special talents, use them to your advantage.” His mom said to him with a smile.
“But how?”
“Just think about it son, I’m sure you’ll see that you can do a lot of nice things for the other kids and then they will see what a nice person you are.” His father said to him, followed by one of his winks. His parents believed in him and that he could make friends, so Denny perked
up and started to believe too.
(9) The next morning the class gathered on the red carpet for share time. “Who would like to share first?” Ms. Nicely asked the class. Hands shot up from all over the carpet. “Okay, how about you Nicholas.” She said smiling as usual. Nicholas stared blankly for a second and then said,
“I forgot.”
“Well if you remember raise your hand again and we can come back to you.” Ms. Nicely said as she called on the next student, “Susan how about you?”
“I got a new teddy bear named Rupert.” Susan said as she held up a stuffed bear that was covered with a thick film of clear goop that had an overwhelming mediciny smell.
“Susan Sniffle? What is all over your bear?” Ms Nicely asked her eyes watering from the strong odors.
“It’s Vicks Vapo Rub, Rupert caught a chill, so I’m helping make him better.” Susan said with an sincere look.
“I see, well here let me put Mr. Rupert in the magic box, he’s been such a good bear that he gets to be in this very, very special box.? Ms. Nicely said as she dropped the greasy stuffed animal into a box, keeping the smell contained. “Ok, who is next?” Ms. Nicely asked scanning the crowd for anther volunteer. “Yes, Nicolas?”
“I remembered, my mommy got me this cool bracelet, I wear it so my mommy doesn’t lose me when we go places.” Nicholas said as he held up his wrist which had a red strap wrapped around it with a big stretchy cord attached to the strap that looked a lot like a leash. “That’s very nice Nicholas.” Ms. Nicely said with a giggle. “Ok, now we need to move on, if you didn’t get to share today you can share tomorrow, but we have to stop because we have a very special guest to talk about the letter W. Kids, please welcome, Mr. W.? At that very cue a tall man dressed up in a purple costume that was shaped like the letter W came bursting into the room doing a cartwheel before he got to the carpet. Everyone smiled and clapped for the grand entrance.
(10) “Hello kids!!!!” a handful of the kids answered with a quiet,
“hello”
“I said HELLO KIDS,” the wacky man repeated.
“HELLO” the class thundered back at him.
“That’s more like it. Okay, I am here to talk to you about the cool and exciting letter W!!!!! Now W makes a wahhh sound (he said as he pursed his lips), can anybody guess a word that begins with the letter W.” Mr. W asked as he held his hand to his chin as if he were in deep thought. One student raised their hand and said,
“Water” Mr. W’s eyes lit up and he ran to the fountain.
“You mean this?” He said as he turned the water fountain on and splashed the kids. “That’s right, water begins with the letter W, what else?” Mr. W put his hand back to his chin until another answer was given.
“How about white?” Mr. W sprang to action again,
“That’s right, this chalk is white, this paper is white, the chair is white, white, white, white! How about another?” Denny raised a claw and offered,
“Wing, wing starts with a W.”
“Why yes it does, hmmm I don’t see any wings around to show as an example,
does anyone see any wings?” Everyone looked around the room, Denny raised his claw again. “Yes, you see one?” Mr. W asked.
“Yes I do, I have them.” Denny said as he unfolded the wings that he usually kept pinned close to his sides, showing all fifteen feet of his wing span. Ooohs and Ahhhhs rang through the room, one kids even said
“Cooooool.” Nicholas said, Denny smiled for the first time in three days.
(11) After Mr. W left it was snack time. Ms. Nicely started off the snack time by asking in her most sweet story book voice, what each child had to eat for snack. “Jimmy what do you have for snack?” Ms. Nicely asked little Jimmy who had gotten a chocolate mess all over his face, shirt and the floor around him.
“I have chocolate cupcakes that my mommy made me because she says I’m her little angel.” He answered spilling more crumbs.
“That’s lovely, Jimmy. How about you Alison?” She said to the little girl that sat next to Jimmy with the blue ribbons in her hair.
“I have marshmallow peeps, they are little bunnies.” Alison said with a toothy smile that showed the yellow dyed sugar on all of her teeth.
“That sure sounds yummy, Susan I'm sure your Mommy's dentist appreciates the business, how about you, what did your mommy pack for you today?” Little Susan didn’t answer at first, and her head was down for a minute. “Susan? Are you ok?” Ms Nicely said as she walked over to Susan ready for a tissue giving or back rubbing to soothe her.
“No I’m not, my mommy packed me a grilled cheese, but it is cold and not very grilled.” Little Susan said as she lifted her head up and let the tears flow freely. Denny remembered what his parents had said to him the night before and went over to little Susan.
“I can fix that, here.” Denny said as he took the grilled cheese sandwich out of Susan’s hands and into his.” Then very carefully he puffed a little puff of fire onto the sandwich, just enough to warm it up and toast the bread, making the grilled cheese much more eatable. “Here you go.” Denny said as he handed the sandwich back to Susan.
“Thank you Denny that was so nice of you.” Ms. Nicely said. Susan’s sad face washed away, now she smiled brightly and her eyes twinkled with happiness as she ate her perfectly grilled, grilled cheese. Denny felt pretty good going out to recess.
(12) At recess all the boys and girls we playing kickball again, Denny really wanted to play but he didn’t want to relive what happened the day before so he stayed off to the side and watched. The boys and girls were all having a wonderful time playing, that is until Frankie Feety kicked a foul ball right onto the roof of the school. “OH NO.” All the little boys and girls said at once, now their game was over, the ball was lost. The ball was lost until Denny came to the rescue.
(13) “I’ve got it!” He said as he opened his wings took a deep breath hand began to pump them lifting his huge body off the ground and into the air. Now it wasn’t easy for Denny because he was just starting to fly, but after a few moments he had reached the roof and had retrieved the ball. All the kids stared in amazement.
“Give it here.” The mean kid yelled to Denny as he landed next to home plate.
“Sure,” Denny said as he rolled the ball back to the boy, “Can I play now?”
“Geez, I thought we went over this yesterday, you can’t play. No one likes you.” The mean boy said to him. Denny’s high spirits sank and he could feel the tears welling up. “See, look…Everybody who wants Denny to play raise their hands.” Denny was ready to run off and hide again, but a hand went up, it was Susan’s. Then another hand went up, and another, after a short moment all of the kids hands were up except the mean little boys. “Okay fine, you can play.” The mean boy said in a tone that didn’t sound so mean. Denny smiled and thought to himself, maybe kindergarten wasn’t so bad after all.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Stanley Draft 3
My goal this summer is to publish this book as a picture book written for 1st graders (or about) to teach them about accepting others and believing in yourself. Sorry it is a bit longer that two pages.
Stanley The Lonely Dragon
By Jeremy LaRose
(1)“Okay, children let’s settle down and get out your crayons for coloring time,” The good-natured Ms. Nicely announced with a smile to her kindergarten class. It was the second day of school and the class had still not settled in to school. Ms. Nicely knew that it would be awhile
before a lot of them were comfortable in their new environment so she kept on smiling to ease the children’s troubled hearts. Little Johnny Peary was a little teary, little Susan Sniffles needed a tissue and little Nicholas Wander was heading towards the exit. By the way they were all
little, very, very little, that is except one. That one exception, that one that wasn’t so little, was actually quite big. That student’s name was Stanley, and Stanley wasn’t your ordinary little boy. In fact Stanley wasn’t a little boy at all! Stanley was a dragon.
Yes, Stanley was a dragon. A three-hundred-fifty pound, green-scaled, winged, fire-breathing dragon! What is a dragon doing in a kindergarten classroom? Well dragons need to go to school too, why would they be any different? How are they supposed to be able to learn to read or add two plus two? Just like little boys and girls, dragons need education, so Stanley’s parents sent him to Sleepy Willow Elementary School and Ms. Nicely for a proper education.
(2) “Johnny, that is a great job staying in the lines,” Ms. Nicely said as she walked by little Johnny and looked at his coloring of a clown dancing with a dog. “Susan, I love that shade of pink you used,” she said as she glanced at her job coloring a lady that wore a hat made out of fruit. “Nicholas, that is a very interesting pattern you have going there,” Ms. Nicely said with her trademark smile as she walked by little Nicholas who had drawn wide scribbles all over his picture of a monkey riding a unicycle. “Stanley, what happened here?” Ms. Nicely said as she got to the corner where Stanley sat next to a pile of melted crayons.
(3) “I’m sorry Ms. Nicely, I coughed on the crayons and they melted,” Stanley explained as he held up his hands that were covered with a rainbow of dripping wax.
“Nice move poo-poo face.” Little Nicolas said as he pointed and laughed at him. Everyone else joined in and began to chant,
“NICE JOB, POO-POO FACE! NICE JOB, POO-POO FACE!” They all pointed. They all laughed. Stanley began to cry.
“Now class, we do not use that language in my classroom!” Ms. Nicely said, without the sing-song tone she had used during the first two days of school. The class settled down and went back to coloring. But, Stanley… highly acidic tears burned the rug as they hit the floor. Stanley wasn’t sure he liked school.
(4) At 9:15 Ms. Nicely told the boys and girls that it was now time for snack. A cheer rippled though the room. Everybody liked snack time, everybody except Stanley. Johnny Teary proudly held up his snack and said, “I have badella pudding,” (he meant to say vanilla but everyone got the point.) Mary Contrary held her snack up and said, “I have Oreo cookies,” then
wasted no time in twisting open a cookie and devouring the creme filling. “I have a fruit roll-up, it’s green and if I put it on my face I look like Stanley!” little Gertrude Isrude giggled as she put her roll-up on her face and began to jump around the room making roaring sounds. Everyone
laughed, everyone except Stanley, who sat in the corner eating his bran muffin with silver chips that his mom had given him for his snack. Another acid tear hit the ground making a hole in the carpet.
(5) After reading group and counting time, it was recess. Stanley liked recess because the boys and girls all got to go outside and play games. Stanley liked games, especially kickball or red rover. Today a group of boys had gathered and were going to play kickball. “Okay everyone, whoever wants to play has to get against the fence,” one little boy said to the others. Stanley brightened up! He loved kickball. Stanley hopped on his little green scaled legs over to the fence and lined up with the other children.
“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, you can?t play.”
“Why not?” Stanley asked a little confused.
“Because you look funny and nobody likes you. Hey, everybody, raise your hands if you want Stanley to play kickball with us.” The mean little boy asked the crowd along the fence. No one raised their hands. “Sorry, maybe next time Doo Doo head.” The little boy laughed as he pointed at Stanley. Everyone on the fence pointed at Stanley too and chanted,
“Stanley is a Doo-Doo head, Stanley is a Doo-Doo head.” Stanley put his tail between his legs and clomped away to hide behind the maple trees. The grass hissed as his tears hit the ground.
(6) After recess Stanley told Ms Nicely he wanted to go home, he decided that he didn?t like school on bit. Ms. Nicely just smiled, patted him on his head and said, “Stanley, it’s almost time to go home, but first you need to get your tambourine out of the music box and get ready for music.”
Stanley still wanted to go home, but his parents told him to listen to his teacher, so he got his tambourine out of the box and joined the rest of the class on the red carpet. Music class also didn’t go very well for Stanley, he just couldn’t keep the beat that Ms. Sonata had the class playing to, it was on a five count beat and Stanley always fell off pace by beat three. Sally Symphony, the best tambourine player in the class turned at Stanley and stuck her tongue out at him, not ever missing a beat. Stanley would have cried, but he was already all cried out. Stanley was really glad when school got out.
(7) When Stanley got home to his family’s lair he went right to his bedroom and buried himself in his treasure heap. His mother having seen Stanley storm in immediately came in to see what was the matter. “Stannie hunny, where are you?” His mother said as she looked around his bedroom not seeing her son anywhere.
“Stanley’s not here, go away.” A muffled voice replied from under the pile of riches. Stanley’s mom sighed and decided to give him a few minutes to cool down. Plus she knew how to get her little dragon out from hiding. A few minutes later the aroma of fresh nachos with pepper jack cheese and extra red-hot jalapeños came wafting into Stanley’s room and to his submerged snout. Stanley involuntarily turned his frown upside down and came out from hiding. By the time he got to the kitchen table there was already a heaping mound of nachos and a glass of Tabasco sauce waiting for him. His mom gave him a minute to dig in and then tried to ask him again what was wrong. “I hate school, I’m not going back," was Stanley’s reply. Stanley’s mom’s brow wrinkled with concern, his father put down the newspaper and joined in on the conversation.
(8) “Why wouldn’t you go back, Ms Nicely seemed to have all kinds of really fun things for you to do and learn about?” He said to his visibly upset son.
“Nobody likes me, they all call me names and say that I look funny.”
“Oh, snuggle bunny, they don’t mean it they just aren’t used to someone as special as you being around.” Stanley’s mom said to him as she wiped some dripping cheese off his chin.
“Your mother’s right son, you see people act funny when they meet something or someone that doesn’t look like them or is familiar to them, they just need to get used to you.” His father said as he sipped from his mug of molten sulfur.
“I just want them to like me, what if they never get used t me?” Stanley whimpered.
“Well honey, kill them with kindness.” His mom replied. Stanley’s eyes widened in horror.
“Kill them, won’t I get in trouble for that!”
“No son, it’s an expression. It means me so nice to them that they can’t be mean to you.” His dad explained.
“Well what can I do to be nice to them?” Stanley asked.
“Stannie, you are a very special little boy and have many special talents, use them to your advantage.” His mom said to him with a smile.
“But how?”
“Just think about it son, I’m sure you’ll see that you can do a lot of nice things for the other kids and then they will see what a nice person you are.” His father said to him, followed by one of his winks. His parents believed in him and that he could make friends, so Stanley perked
up and started to believe too.
(9) The next morning the class gathered on the red carpet for share time. “Who would like to share first?” Ms. Nicely asked the class. Hands shot up from all over the carpet. “Okay, how about you Nicholas.” She said smiling as usual. Nicholas stared blankly for a second and then said,
“I forgot.”
“Well if you remember raise your hand again and we can come back to you.” Ms. Nicely said as she called on the next student, “Susan how about you?”
“I got a new teddy bear named Rupert.” Susan said as she held up a stuffed bear that was covered with a thick film of clear goop that had an overwhelming mediciny smell.
“Susan Sniffle? What is all over your bear?” Ms Nicely asked her eyes watering from the strong odors.
“It’s Vicks Vapo Rub, Rupert caught a chill, so I’m helping make him better.” Susan said with an sincere look.
“I see, well here let me put Mr. Rupert in the magic box, he’s been such a good bear that he gets to be in this very, very special box.? Ms. Nicely said as she dropped the greasy stuffed animal into a box, keeping the smell contained. “Ok, who is next?” Ms. Nicely asked scanning the crowd for anther volunteer. “Yes, Nicolas?”
“I remembered, my mommy got me this cool bracelet, I wear it so my mommy doesn’t lose me when we go places.” Nicholas said as he held up his wrist which had a red strap wrapped around it with a big stretchy cord attached to the strap that looked a lot like a leash. “That’s very nice Nicholas.” Ms Nicely said with a giggle. “Ok, now we need to move on, if you didn’t get to share today you can share tomorrow, but we have to stop because we have a very special guest to talk about the letter W. Kids, please welcome, Mr. W.? At that very cue a man dressed up in a purple costume that was shaped like the letter W came bursting into the room doing a cartwheel before he got to the carpet. Everyone smiled and clapped for the grand entrance.
(10) “Hello kids!!!!” a handful of the kids answered with a quiet,
“hello”
“I said HELLO KIDS,” the wacky man repeated.
“HELLO” the class thundered back at him.
“That’s more like it. Okay, I am here to talk to you about the cool and exciting letter W!!!!! Now W makes a wahhh sound (he said as he pursed his lips), can anybody guess a word that begins with the letter W.” Mr. W asked as he held his hand to his chin as if he were in deep thought. One student raised their hand and said,
“Water” Mr. W’s eyes lit up and he ran to the fountain.
“You mean this?” He said as he turned the water fountain on and splashed the kids. “That’s right, water begins with the letter W, what else?” Mr. W put his hand back to his chin until another answer was given.
“How about white?” Mr. W sprang to action again,
“That’s right, this chalk is white, this paper is white, the chair is white, white, white, white! How about another?” Stanley raised a claw and offered,
“Wing, wing starts with a W.”
“Why yes it does, hmmm I don’t see any wings around to show as an example,
does anyone see any wings?” Everyone looked around the room, Stanley raised his claw again. “Yes, you see one?” Mr. W asked.
“Yes I do, I have them.” Stanley said as he unfolded the wings that he usually kept pinned close to his sides, showing all fifteen feet of his wing span. Ooohs and Ahhhhs rang through the room, one kids even said
“cooooool.” Stanley smiled for the first time in three days.
(11) After Mr. W left it was snack time. Ms. Nicely started off the snack time by asking in her most sweet story book voice, what each child had to eat for snack. “Jimmy what do you have for snack?” Ms. Nicely asked little jimmy who had gotten a chocolate mess all over his face, shirt and the floor around him.
“I have chocolate cupcakes that my mommy made me because she says I’m her little angel.” He answered spilling more crumbs.
“That’s lovely, Jimmy. How about you Alison?” She said to the little girl that sat next to Jimmy with the blue ribbons in her hair.
“I have marshmallow peeps, they are little bunnies.” Alison said with a toothy smile that showed the yellow dyed sugar on all of her teeth.
“That sure sounds yummy, Susan, how about you, what did your mommy pack for you today?” Little Susan didn’t answer at first, and her head was down for a minute. “Susan? Are you ok?” Ms Nicely said as she walked over to Susan ready for a tissue giving or back rubbing to soothe her.
“No I’m not, my mommy packed me a grilled cheese, but it is cold and not very grilled.” Little Susan said as she lifted her head up and let the tears flow freely. Stanley remembered what his parents had said to him the night before and went over to little Susan.
“I can fix that, here.” Stanley said as he took the grilled cheese sandwich out of Susan’s hands and into his.” Then very carefully he puffed a little puff of fire onto the sandwich, just enough to warm it up and toast the bread, making the grilled cheese much more eatable. “Here you go.” Stanley said as he handed the sandwich back to Susan.
“Thank you Stanley that was so nice of you.” Ms. Nicely said. Susan’s sad face washed away, now she smiled brightly and her eyes twinkled with happiness as she ate her perfectly grilled, grilled cheese. Stanley felt pretty good going out to recess.
(12) At recess all the boys and girls we playing kickball again, Stanley really wanted to play but he didn’t want to relive what happened the day before so he stayed off to the side and watched. The boys and girls were all having a wonderful time playing, that is until Frankie Feety kicked a foul ball right onto the roof of the school. “OH NO.” All the little boys and girls said at once, now their game was over, the ball was lost. The ball was lost until Stanley came to the rescue.
(13) “I’ve got it.” He said as he opened his wings took a deep breath hand began to pump them lifting his huge body off the ground and into the air. Now it wasn’t easy for Stanley because he was just starting to fly, but after moment he had reached the roof and had retrieved the ball. All the kids stared in amazement.
“Give it here.” The mean kid yelled to Stanley as he landed next to home plate.
“Sure,” Stanley said as he rolled the ball back to the boy, “Can I play now?”
“Geez, I thought we went over this yesterday, you can’t play. No one likes you.” The mean boy said to him. Stanley’s high spirits sank and he could feel the tears welling up. “See, look…Everybody who wants Stanley to play raise their hands.” Stanley was ready to run off and hide again, but a hand went up, it was Susan’s. Then another hand went up, and another, after a short moment all of the kids hands were up except the mean little boys. “Okay fine, you can play.” The mean boy said in a tone that didn’t sound so mean. Stanley smiled and thought to himself, maybe kindergarten wasn’t so bad after all.
Stanley The Lonely Dragon
By Jeremy LaRose
(1)“Okay, children let’s settle down and get out your crayons for coloring time,” The good-natured Ms. Nicely announced with a smile to her kindergarten class. It was the second day of school and the class had still not settled in to school. Ms. Nicely knew that it would be awhile
before a lot of them were comfortable in their new environment so she kept on smiling to ease the children’s troubled hearts. Little Johnny Peary was a little teary, little Susan Sniffles needed a tissue and little Nicholas Wander was heading towards the exit. By the way they were all
little, very, very little, that is except one. That one exception, that one that wasn’t so little, was actually quite big. That student’s name was Stanley, and Stanley wasn’t your ordinary little boy. In fact Stanley wasn’t a little boy at all! Stanley was a dragon.
Yes, Stanley was a dragon. A three-hundred-fifty pound, green-scaled, winged, fire-breathing dragon! What is a dragon doing in a kindergarten classroom? Well dragons need to go to school too, why would they be any different? How are they supposed to be able to learn to read or add two plus two? Just like little boys and girls, dragons need education, so Stanley’s parents sent him to Sleepy Willow Elementary School and Ms. Nicely for a proper education.
(2) “Johnny, that is a great job staying in the lines,” Ms. Nicely said as she walked by little Johnny and looked at his coloring of a clown dancing with a dog. “Susan, I love that shade of pink you used,” she said as she glanced at her job coloring a lady that wore a hat made out of fruit. “Nicholas, that is a very interesting pattern you have going there,” Ms. Nicely said with her trademark smile as she walked by little Nicholas who had drawn wide scribbles all over his picture of a monkey riding a unicycle. “Stanley, what happened here?” Ms. Nicely said as she got to the corner where Stanley sat next to a pile of melted crayons.
(3) “I’m sorry Ms. Nicely, I coughed on the crayons and they melted,” Stanley explained as he held up his hands that were covered with a rainbow of dripping wax.
“Nice move poo-poo face.” Little Nicolas said as he pointed and laughed at him. Everyone else joined in and began to chant,
“NICE JOB, POO-POO FACE! NICE JOB, POO-POO FACE!” They all pointed. They all laughed. Stanley began to cry.
“Now class, we do not use that language in my classroom!” Ms. Nicely said, without the sing-song tone she had used during the first two days of school. The class settled down and went back to coloring. But, Stanley… highly acidic tears burned the rug as they hit the floor. Stanley wasn’t sure he liked school.
(4) At 9:15 Ms. Nicely told the boys and girls that it was now time for snack. A cheer rippled though the room. Everybody liked snack time, everybody except Stanley. Johnny Teary proudly held up his snack and said, “I have badella pudding,” (he meant to say vanilla but everyone got the point.) Mary Contrary held her snack up and said, “I have Oreo cookies,” then
wasted no time in twisting open a cookie and devouring the creme filling. “I have a fruit roll-up, it’s green and if I put it on my face I look like Stanley!” little Gertrude Isrude giggled as she put her roll-up on her face and began to jump around the room making roaring sounds. Everyone
laughed, everyone except Stanley, who sat in the corner eating his bran muffin with silver chips that his mom had given him for his snack. Another acid tear hit the ground making a hole in the carpet.
(5) After reading group and counting time, it was recess. Stanley liked recess because the boys and girls all got to go outside and play games. Stanley liked games, especially kickball or red rover. Today a group of boys had gathered and were going to play kickball. “Okay everyone, whoever wants to play has to get against the fence,” one little boy said to the others. Stanley brightened up! He loved kickball. Stanley hopped on his little green scaled legs over to the fence and lined up with the other children.
“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, you can?t play.”
“Why not?” Stanley asked a little confused.
“Because you look funny and nobody likes you. Hey, everybody, raise your hands if you want Stanley to play kickball with us.” The mean little boy asked the crowd along the fence. No one raised their hands. “Sorry, maybe next time Doo Doo head.” The little boy laughed as he pointed at Stanley. Everyone on the fence pointed at Stanley too and chanted,
“Stanley is a Doo-Doo head, Stanley is a Doo-Doo head.” Stanley put his tail between his legs and clomped away to hide behind the maple trees. The grass hissed as his tears hit the ground.
(6) After recess Stanley told Ms Nicely he wanted to go home, he decided that he didn?t like school on bit. Ms. Nicely just smiled, patted him on his head and said, “Stanley, it’s almost time to go home, but first you need to get your tambourine out of the music box and get ready for music.”
Stanley still wanted to go home, but his parents told him to listen to his teacher, so he got his tambourine out of the box and joined the rest of the class on the red carpet. Music class also didn’t go very well for Stanley, he just couldn’t keep the beat that Ms. Sonata had the class playing to, it was on a five count beat and Stanley always fell off pace by beat three. Sally Symphony, the best tambourine player in the class turned at Stanley and stuck her tongue out at him, not ever missing a beat. Stanley would have cried, but he was already all cried out. Stanley was really glad when school got out.
(7) When Stanley got home to his family’s lair he went right to his bedroom and buried himself in his treasure heap. His mother having seen Stanley storm in immediately came in to see what was the matter. “Stannie hunny, where are you?” His mother said as she looked around his bedroom not seeing her son anywhere.
“Stanley’s not here, go away.” A muffled voice replied from under the pile of riches. Stanley’s mom sighed and decided to give him a few minutes to cool down. Plus she knew how to get her little dragon out from hiding. A few minutes later the aroma of fresh nachos with pepper jack cheese and extra red-hot jalapeños came wafting into Stanley’s room and to his submerged snout. Stanley involuntarily turned his frown upside down and came out from hiding. By the time he got to the kitchen table there was already a heaping mound of nachos and a glass of Tabasco sauce waiting for him. His mom gave him a minute to dig in and then tried to ask him again what was wrong. “I hate school, I’m not going back," was Stanley’s reply. Stanley’s mom’s brow wrinkled with concern, his father put down the newspaper and joined in on the conversation.
(8) “Why wouldn’t you go back, Ms Nicely seemed to have all kinds of really fun things for you to do and learn about?” He said to his visibly upset son.
“Nobody likes me, they all call me names and say that I look funny.”
“Oh, snuggle bunny, they don’t mean it they just aren’t used to someone as special as you being around.” Stanley’s mom said to him as she wiped some dripping cheese off his chin.
“Your mother’s right son, you see people act funny when they meet something or someone that doesn’t look like them or is familiar to them, they just need to get used to you.” His father said as he sipped from his mug of molten sulfur.
“I just want them to like me, what if they never get used t me?” Stanley whimpered.
“Well honey, kill them with kindness.” His mom replied. Stanley’s eyes widened in horror.
“Kill them, won’t I get in trouble for that!”
“No son, it’s an expression. It means me so nice to them that they can’t be mean to you.” His dad explained.
“Well what can I do to be nice to them?” Stanley asked.
“Stannie, you are a very special little boy and have many special talents, use them to your advantage.” His mom said to him with a smile.
“But how?”
“Just think about it son, I’m sure you’ll see that you can do a lot of nice things for the other kids and then they will see what a nice person you are.” His father said to him, followed by one of his winks. His parents believed in him and that he could make friends, so Stanley perked
up and started to believe too.
(9) The next morning the class gathered on the red carpet for share time. “Who would like to share first?” Ms. Nicely asked the class. Hands shot up from all over the carpet. “Okay, how about you Nicholas.” She said smiling as usual. Nicholas stared blankly for a second and then said,
“I forgot.”
“Well if you remember raise your hand again and we can come back to you.” Ms. Nicely said as she called on the next student, “Susan how about you?”
“I got a new teddy bear named Rupert.” Susan said as she held up a stuffed bear that was covered with a thick film of clear goop that had an overwhelming mediciny smell.
“Susan Sniffle? What is all over your bear?” Ms Nicely asked her eyes watering from the strong odors.
“It’s Vicks Vapo Rub, Rupert caught a chill, so I’m helping make him better.” Susan said with an sincere look.
“I see, well here let me put Mr. Rupert in the magic box, he’s been such a good bear that he gets to be in this very, very special box.? Ms. Nicely said as she dropped the greasy stuffed animal into a box, keeping the smell contained. “Ok, who is next?” Ms. Nicely asked scanning the crowd for anther volunteer. “Yes, Nicolas?”
“I remembered, my mommy got me this cool bracelet, I wear it so my mommy doesn’t lose me when we go places.” Nicholas said as he held up his wrist which had a red strap wrapped around it with a big stretchy cord attached to the strap that looked a lot like a leash. “That’s very nice Nicholas.” Ms Nicely said with a giggle. “Ok, now we need to move on, if you didn’t get to share today you can share tomorrow, but we have to stop because we have a very special guest to talk about the letter W. Kids, please welcome, Mr. W.? At that very cue a man dressed up in a purple costume that was shaped like the letter W came bursting into the room doing a cartwheel before he got to the carpet. Everyone smiled and clapped for the grand entrance.
(10) “Hello kids!!!!” a handful of the kids answered with a quiet,
“hello”
“I said HELLO KIDS,” the wacky man repeated.
“HELLO” the class thundered back at him.
“That’s more like it. Okay, I am here to talk to you about the cool and exciting letter W!!!!! Now W makes a wahhh sound (he said as he pursed his lips), can anybody guess a word that begins with the letter W.” Mr. W asked as he held his hand to his chin as if he were in deep thought. One student raised their hand and said,
“Water” Mr. W’s eyes lit up and he ran to the fountain.
“You mean this?” He said as he turned the water fountain on and splashed the kids. “That’s right, water begins with the letter W, what else?” Mr. W put his hand back to his chin until another answer was given.
“How about white?” Mr. W sprang to action again,
“That’s right, this chalk is white, this paper is white, the chair is white, white, white, white! How about another?” Stanley raised a claw and offered,
“Wing, wing starts with a W.”
“Why yes it does, hmmm I don’t see any wings around to show as an example,
does anyone see any wings?” Everyone looked around the room, Stanley raised his claw again. “Yes, you see one?” Mr. W asked.
“Yes I do, I have them.” Stanley said as he unfolded the wings that he usually kept pinned close to his sides, showing all fifteen feet of his wing span. Ooohs and Ahhhhs rang through the room, one kids even said
“cooooool.” Stanley smiled for the first time in three days.
(11) After Mr. W left it was snack time. Ms. Nicely started off the snack time by asking in her most sweet story book voice, what each child had to eat for snack. “Jimmy what do you have for snack?” Ms. Nicely asked little jimmy who had gotten a chocolate mess all over his face, shirt and the floor around him.
“I have chocolate cupcakes that my mommy made me because she says I’m her little angel.” He answered spilling more crumbs.
“That’s lovely, Jimmy. How about you Alison?” She said to the little girl that sat next to Jimmy with the blue ribbons in her hair.
“I have marshmallow peeps, they are little bunnies.” Alison said with a toothy smile that showed the yellow dyed sugar on all of her teeth.
“That sure sounds yummy, Susan, how about you, what did your mommy pack for you today?” Little Susan didn’t answer at first, and her head was down for a minute. “Susan? Are you ok?” Ms Nicely said as she walked over to Susan ready for a tissue giving or back rubbing to soothe her.
“No I’m not, my mommy packed me a grilled cheese, but it is cold and not very grilled.” Little Susan said as she lifted her head up and let the tears flow freely. Stanley remembered what his parents had said to him the night before and went over to little Susan.
“I can fix that, here.” Stanley said as he took the grilled cheese sandwich out of Susan’s hands and into his.” Then very carefully he puffed a little puff of fire onto the sandwich, just enough to warm it up and toast the bread, making the grilled cheese much more eatable. “Here you go.” Stanley said as he handed the sandwich back to Susan.
“Thank you Stanley that was so nice of you.” Ms. Nicely said. Susan’s sad face washed away, now she smiled brightly and her eyes twinkled with happiness as she ate her perfectly grilled, grilled cheese. Stanley felt pretty good going out to recess.
(12) At recess all the boys and girls we playing kickball again, Stanley really wanted to play but he didn’t want to relive what happened the day before so he stayed off to the side and watched. The boys and girls were all having a wonderful time playing, that is until Frankie Feety kicked a foul ball right onto the roof of the school. “OH NO.” All the little boys and girls said at once, now their game was over, the ball was lost. The ball was lost until Stanley came to the rescue.
(13) “I’ve got it.” He said as he opened his wings took a deep breath hand began to pump them lifting his huge body off the ground and into the air. Now it wasn’t easy for Stanley because he was just starting to fly, but after moment he had reached the roof and had retrieved the ball. All the kids stared in amazement.
“Give it here.” The mean kid yelled to Stanley as he landed next to home plate.
“Sure,” Stanley said as he rolled the ball back to the boy, “Can I play now?”
“Geez, I thought we went over this yesterday, you can’t play. No one likes you.” The mean boy said to him. Stanley’s high spirits sank and he could feel the tears welling up. “See, look…Everybody who wants Stanley to play raise their hands.” Stanley was ready to run off and hide again, but a hand went up, it was Susan’s. Then another hand went up, and another, after a short moment all of the kids hands were up except the mean little boys. “Okay fine, you can play.” The mean boy said in a tone that didn’t sound so mean. Stanley smiled and thought to himself, maybe kindergarten wasn’t so bad after all.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Glogster
I am piloting the use of Glogster in one of my LA classes. Glogster (glogster.com) is basically an online poster website that can hold pictures, text, music, video, ect....
I decided to use Glogster for a symbolism project. So I guess my question is; Does anyone use Glogster? How has that worked for you? Or, what do you think about group projects?
Here is the project-
Symbol Glog
-Using Glogster, students will choose an item or idea, from a book read this year in Language Arts, and explain what that item could symbolize through a variety of ways. Such ways could include-
-Poem- A published poem in which the symbol applied. (see suggested websites)
-Music- A Musical piece in which the symbol is referred.
-A quote relating to the symbol said by a famous person.
-Podcast- A podcast in which the symbol and its artifacts is explained (required).
-Artwork-A variety of images that show the symbol, these can be found online, or created and scanned.
Students will work in groups of 4-5.
This project will be due by _____________ and count as a quiz grade.
On each of the 5 workdays, you will rotate through the following jobs-
1 Head Director- Oversees all other directors and keeps them on task, assists where needed.
2 Progress Director- Records accomplishments by each group member on a daily basis.
3- Technical Director- Imports and arranges artifacts onto the Glog.
4 Research Director- Finds artifacts to be incorporated into the project.
5- Assistant Director- Fulfills any role that is needed at that time.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Symbolism
Have any of you taught symbolism in your classes? I discuss it with students and have had them look for and interpret symbols in their books, but am looking to take that a step further and have them make their own symbols in some sort of project. Have any of you done a symbolism project before? Anyone have any resources they think I should check out? I'm thinking of spending a few days on Edgar Allen Poe, hence the picture of the raven, and some other writers known for their use of symbolism.
House Hunt Thoughts
My wife and I have been house hunting for the past two months and are struggling with where we should settle (hopefully for the rest of our days). I teach in South Portland (Maine), she teaches in Westbrook (Maine). The trickiest part of the equation is my son. Jared is 13 months old and will be going to my sister's for daycare in Cape Elizabeth, so our house would hopefully be in a location that makes going to drop him off, to school, get him, and then to home, reasonable. This is of course a problem that only exists until he goes to school, so it is not an absolute factor, but is still one. I am personally drawn to a large yard, and dream of spending my summers tending vegetable plots. My wife desires a nice house and insists on public water and having Jared be able to ride his bike around a nice neighborhood. With all of these factors put together, we are having a hard time finding and agreeing on many properties.
If any of you have advice or thoughts on this I would greatly appreciate it.
The three pictures attached are three options we are currently considering. If you have any thought on those I would also appreciate it.
Schooner rd- South Portland -MLS#: 969439
Wagner Farm- Gorham- MLS#968869
Qunicy Drive- Gorham- MLS#972692
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