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Kids Fiction

Mrs. Clark stood at the door, welcoming each young student with a warm smile and a high-five. We are missing two students, she thought. Almost as soon as the thought passed through her mind, she saw young Julia skipping down the hallway, her backpack dangling off her shoulder. 

“Hello, Julia!” Mrs. Clark said, stepping into the classroom after her. “Good morning, boys and girls! Today is Tuesday, September 22nd. Does anyone know what is special about today? Ben?”

“It’s my daddy’s birthday,” Ben said, his blue eyes sparkling. 

“Happy birthday to your dad, Ben. But that’s not all that’s different about today. Does anyone have any idea? No?” Mrs. CLark looked over the children, and when no one raised their hand she turned to the whiteboard. Picking up a dry-erase marker, she wrote “FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN” in big, purple letters. 

“Can anybody read that?” she asked. Mia raised her hand, and Mrs. Clark nodded her head. 

“Fist-no first, day of, adam, no atom, no…” she drifted off. “First day of… atom.”

“Very close, Mia. Good job!” Mrs. Clark said. “The word is autumn. We also call it fall. Who knows some things that happen in the fall?” When her question was met with a sea of hands, she instructed everybody to line up against the wall. 

“Ok, guys and girls. If you know something about fall, say it when I point to you. If someone said what you wanted to say, just say ‘pass’ or ‘someone already said it’. Ok, we’ll start with Trevor and move down the line all the way to Aria. Go!”

“Fall is when Halloween is,” Trevor said. 

“Fall is chilly,” Aimee chimed in. 

“Fall is… I forget,” Clara announced.

“Fall is when the leaves turn all yucky and die,” said Martin. And so they went down the line, with all but three students saying something about fall. 

“Great job, class! Fall is also a season.” Mrs. Clark said, writing season on the board. “Who knows the other three seasons? Jamie?”

“Spring, summer, and winter.” Jamie said. 

“You’re right, Jamie. Nice job!” Mrs. Clark smiled. “Now this is a very tricky question. I know you are in kindergarten and only a few of you will have the answer because this is a fourth grader question. Here we go. What causes the seasons to change?” To her surprise, two hands were raised- Caitlyn and Davy. She nodded at Caitlyn. 

“It’s something to do with the Sun and Earth and how they are close together.” Caitlyn answered with a bit of doubt in her small voice. 

“Great! Davy, can you expand on that thought?”

“My sister was learning about this. She said the Earth moved in circles and when we were close it was warm and far it was cold.”

“You are absolutely correct, Davy! The Earth is always spinning around the Sun. When our area is pointed away from the Sun, it is fall and winter. When it is close to the Sun, it is summer and spring. But don’t worry if you don’t understand-you’ll focus on this when you get older.” Mrs. Clark noticed the room clock and told the young children to go sit upon the colorful rug in the corner so she could read aloud to them. 

“There once was a squirrel who was gathering food for the winter. He had seeds, acorns, nuts, and berries. One day Chipmunk came to Squirrel, asking for some food, but Squirrel said no. The next day, Rabbit came to Squirrel and asked for some food, but again Squirrel said no. The third day, Possum came to Squirrel and asked for some food. For the third time, Squirrel said no. When winter came, Squirrel had lots of extra food, while his friends had little. When spring came and the snow melted, his friends came to visit him. Squirrel said he was sorry for keeping food from them, and they all ate a happy meal together. The end.” Mrs. Clark finished the story and placed the book back on the shelf and began to discuss it with the class. “What do you think you can learn from the story? Carter?”

“Share what you have,” Carter replied.

“Good! And Cora?”

“Forgive people when they do something bad.” Cora smiled.

“Awesome! And finally, Joey?”

“I learned that animals hold food for cold times.” Joey explained. 

“Great! You all did awesome! Let’s go back to our table groups and talk about this story with our friends, eat a snack, and draw a picture about the story.” Mrs. Clark said. All the children hurried back to their seats and grabbed their crayons while Mrs. Clark passed out paper to draw on. The room quickly filled with childish chatter as the kids discussed the book. After fifteen minutes, Mrs. Clark flipped the lights on and off three times, the class signal to be quiet and stop what you are doing. 

“Okay, boys and girls. Throw away your snack wrappers and put your drawings in the green bin. We are going to do a fun craft now!” Mrs. Clark grinned, passing out safety scissors, crayons with no wrappers, and yellow and orange paper. “We are doing leaf rubbings. Come up and grab three leaves from this gray bin, and then I will explain what to do next. A stampede of children raced to the front of the room, each grabbing a handful of leaves. Of course there were some arguments over who got what leaf, and who stepped on who’s toe, but all were quickly resolved when Mrs. Clark made them apologize and compromise. Within two minutes, every student was at their seat with all their materials. Using the projector, Mrs. Clark demonstrated the project. 

“First, put the leaf under the paper. Then use the side of the crayon and rub over it. When you like it, cut it out! Simple!” Mrs. Clark explained. “Bring me one or two of your favorites, and I’ll put them on our bulletin board and stick them on the cubbies!” Within fifteen minutes, every child was done and the classroom was adorned with cute leaves. The room looked so festive!

“Great job!” Mrs. Clark complimented. “Oh-that’s the bell! Single file, ladies and gentlemen, and I’ll lead you out to be picked up!” The children filed into a line and followed the young teacher out to the cars and buses. On every face a smile, every mouth telling their parents and guardians about the day. 

October 09, 2020 16:07

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9 comments

Krista Womack
23:56 Oct 21, 2020

The story read very well. There were good small lessons for kids to learn. There is not much of a plot to it, just a basic day at school with no feeling.

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Grace Lynn
14:53 Oct 26, 2020

Thank you for your compliments and advice. I do agree I need to find a way to incorporate a deeper plot into the story to make it more exciting. If you have any advice as to how to do that I would love to hear it!

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Krista Womack
20:42 Oct 26, 2020

The story shows what is going on but from a narrative's point of view instead of the ones in the story. Using the people in the story gets their inner thoughts and how they feel that would allow a deeper plot, like maybe the teacher is dealing with a death in the family but has to put on a smile for her class. That would allow for a lot of inner diaolgue. It all depends one who the story is for as to where you want the point of view to be from. Just my opinion, I hope it helps.

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Grace Lynn
13:30 Oct 28, 2020

That's a really good idea! When there are many characters, I tend to use a 3rd person narration. I think adding more depth with a first person sounds like a really good idea. Look out for a story like that soon!

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Krista Womack
21:39 Oct 28, 2020

Wonderful! Can't wait!

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Autumn Rebecca
15:25 Oct 20, 2020

Read this to the littles. Such a cute, enjoyable story! Great job! 👍

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Grace Lynn
12:30 Oct 21, 2020

Aw! Thanks so much!

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Tom .
16:57 Oct 17, 2020

I liked the dialogue and how you captured their youth. I also liked the energy of the teacher. It reads like a scene or a character setter. Something that would start a larger piece. It, in my opinion, needs a sub plot. A second story running underneath this one. A student behaving strangely or flashbacks for the teacher. I liked your style. It is very readable and flows really well.

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Grace Lynn
14:09 Oct 20, 2020

Thank you so much! I agree with the idea that there could be more depth to the story. I really appreciate your advice! :)

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