A Thorn in a Flood by Ms. Nowicki’s Second-Grade Class

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n i a n F r o l ood h T A

A Collection of Stories by

Ms. Nowicki’s Second-Grade Class Lawton Elementary

A PUBLICATION OF 826MICHIGAN PUBLISHED BY BLOTCH BOOKS, MICHIGAN

Cont

Our Beginning ..................

Neon, the Evil Bee...........

The Water Zombie ..........

Sofie to the Rescue.........

A Thorny Situation .........

tents

............................................ 2

............................................ 4

............................................ 7

...........................................

11

..........................................

14

Our Beg

ginning

The friends sit in

the sun. Then, Sophie feels a drop of rain.

Charzard is Sophie's dragon friend. Next, water comes rushing down like a flood.

Charzard becomes trapped in some thorny branches!

2

Neon, the

e Evil Bee

Charzard’s dragon

friend named Honey comes to save him from the branches. Charzard and Honey go to see his friend, a bee named Neon.

Neon tries to sting some people, and every time he stings someone,

they fall under his control. When Charzard and Honey are with Neon, he tries to sting them too! They both run far away to the ocean and dive in with a sigh of relief.

Next, Charzard and Honey have to wait

4

until Neon is gone to go to the fire kingdom to warn everyone that Neon is evil. When they are in the fire kingdom, Charzard and Honey team up with Sophie and Sky to help defeat Neon.

The End

5

The Water

r Zombie

The water keeps rising higher: scuba gear

is their only chance!

Sophie stays with Charzard, and Skystar goes to get the scuba gear at a discount store!

There is a zombie in the rising water.

“AHHHH!” said the zombie.

“Ahhhh,” said Charzard.

Skystar returns with the gear just in time.

Everyone quickly puts it on.

The zombie is up high.

Sophie, Charzard, and

7

Skystar have to swim down to safety. The water is cold, but it is hot along the bottom.

The zombie is freezing and wants to get warm.

Splash, splash — the zombie gets out of the water. The friends find an abandoned house made of broken wood.

They hide in the house

to find shelter.

“There’s no way I’m going in that spooky house,” thought the zombie. “Too much broken wood. Too many splinters!”

When Sophie heads inside the house, she finds a cupcake, which is unfortunately filled with poison — maybe

8

Huggy Wuggy put it there! The friends wander outside to a park where there are creepy apples on a tree. They eat the apples and Sophie is cured — whew!

The End

9

Sofie to th

he Rescue

Charzard needs to

get out quickly so

he doesn’t get hurt from the flood. Huggy Wuggy comes in to rescue Charzard, but as the rain quickens, the thorns continue to grow, and Huggy Wuggy gets stuck too!

Sophie sees that her friends are in trouble, so she runs to get something to cut out her friends. She sees some pliers on the ground and grabs them.

She starts to cut out her friends.

11

All of her friends are safe at last.

The End

12

A Thorny

Situation

Superdog can fly,

shoot lasers out of his eyes, and has super strength. He tries to get Charzard out, but he still doesn’t succeed.

Then, Green the dragon swims to them and says, “Hi!”

Sophie, Charizard, and Superdog ask Green to help get Charzard out of the thorns. Green turns into an Auklet bird and removes some of the smaller branches and some of the thorns, but Charzard still isn’t free.

14

Now that some of the branches are gone, Charzard tries to use his fire breath to escape, but he gets very tired of using it. He manages to burn some of the branches, but he’s still stuck!

Sophie and Green try to squeeze through the little gaps in the

branches to help from the inside. The thorns in the branches are sharp! How will they get out?

The End

15

inspires school-aged students to volunteers in their communities.

Our writing and tutoring programs uphold a culture of cre strong habits of mind. Through publication and communit enthusiastic audience for their writing.

Our programs provide an energizing creative outlet for stud members.

ONLINE LEARNING LAB

For the 2021–22 school year, our programs will remain virtual. When is it safe to return to our in-person programs, we plan to continue to offer virtual program opportunities as well!

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The program formerly-known as tutoring has been given an updated name, but the same great foundations remain. We organize trained volunteer tutors to work with students one-on-one with their homework after school. Schoolwork Support is available for all subjects, for students ages 8–18.

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One of the most popular workshops we offer is our weekly Wee-bots program for elementary-aged writers.

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Our trained volunteers go into local public schools every day to support teachers with their classroom writing assignments. Based on the teacher’s curriculum, assignments range from writing tales to crafting college essays to exploring poetry.

write with skill and confidence in collaboration with adult

eativity and imagination and support students in establishing ty engagement, we provide students with an authentic and

dents and meaningful volunteer opportunities for community FIELD TRIPS

Students come as a class to our writing lab to join a group of volunteers, interns, and staff in order to help solve a problem through writing—whether that is our editor Dr. Blotch’s insomnia, our looming story deadline, a mystery in need of solving, or one of the many others we encounter. Our field trips always end in a finished publication of original writing that students take home.

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All proceeds from our stores directly fund our free student programming. Onward robots!

WRITING IS

A way to figure things out by ourselves

We create a safe place to be ourselves and try new things We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, talking)

A way to help us connect to our world

We study the writing we want to do so we can try it We learn how to change our writing for genre, audience, and purpose

A way to help us learn who we are and who we will become

We work with a group of writers who help and support each other

A way for us to use our power to make changes and build a better world

www.826michigan.org

826 National was inspired to take a stand on issues of inclusion and diversity in light of the many events that spotlighted social and racial injustices throughout the country. We as educators, volunteers, and caring adults need to be aware of the wide range of issues our students face on a day-to-day basis. We need to support these young people as they navigate through and try to make sense of the world and their own identities.

We need the support and the feedback from our community to ensure 826 is living up to these standards.

Through our inclusion statement, our internal diversity and inclusion group, cultural competency resources provided to staff and volunteers, and partnerships with other organizations, we are always working towards being a more inclusive and supportive organization.

We at 826 have the privilege of working with the next generation of scholars, teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, and writers. It's our job to make sure they are able to take their own stands.

As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps in learning happen, we commit ourselves to inclusion: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, military service, or disability.

The 826 National network is committed to encouraging youth to express themselves and to use the written word to effectively do so. We encourage our students to write, take chances, make decisions, and finish what they start.

And 826 strives to do this in an environment free from discrimination and exclusion.

by Gerald Richards, CEO

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Copyright © 2022

The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826michigan. We believe in the power of youth voice and are thrilled that you picked up this book. No part of this book may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher, except for small excerpts for the purposes of review or scholarly study.

All papers used by Drs. T & G Blotch are slightly moldy and therefore should be kept in a cool, dry place. Please save this book for when you are older.

Library of Congress Catalog Information has been applied for. A Dewey Decimal has not.

— FIRST US EDITION —

WRITTEN, DESIGNED, AND DIGITIZED IN MICHIGAN, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BLOTCH BOOKS 826MICHIGAN.ORG