Thursday, October 25, 2012

Writing Prompts using piclits

Check out this interesting website for a multitude of cool writing prompts.  I found the photographs and words lists really helpful in generating new ideas for stories and poems.  Look through the gallery until you locate a picture that speaks to you in some way. 

Write a short story as a Word document so you can revise, edit, spell check, save etc.  Then copy the whole short story or best parts of your story as a comment under this post.

Also, I would love for you to e-mail me a copy of your Inventory of Beings as I would be thrilled to add them to this blog!

Have fun and enjoy!

Love,
Little Sardine
P.S.  Grade 5s, you can show off your new learning about dialogue and the use of quotation marks if it suits the style of the story!

P.P.S.  If you think this is a useful site, let me know and I can set up an account for the class.  That way, we can save right on the piclits site.

WEB SITE:
 http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx


HOW TO VIDEO:

15 comments:

  1. We were above the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of miles from any land when we spotted it -a wall of clouds. Lightning flashed,the clouds towered over our small plane. I turned to my navigator George Willington. He was a tall man with some muscle.
    “What do we do, “I asked him.
    “No idea,” he responded obviously scared.
    “Then we`re screwed,” I said, “because I have no idea either.”
    “We could try to fly above the storm,” he mused.
    I interupted his thoughts by saying, “You`re right.”
    “Well, if we`re going to do it we`d better do it soon,” he told me his voice getting more and more terrified by the second. Then suddenly lightning flashed and the familiar drone of the engine whirred once and then faded out completely. We both screamed but, being in the middle of the ocean nobody heard us. Without a sound we hit the ocean. The cold was like a sucker punch in the stomach, it knocked the air out of us and left us treading water. Breathless, I grabbed a piece of the wing and got on top of it and then called George’s name. There he was.
    For the next three days we floated, taking turns to be on the wing while the other person hung off the edge. After three long days we finally saw a boat. It came and picked us up.
    Ater a long week we finally arrived in New York.

    By S.L.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like how efficiently you were able to tell this story. ALthough it is brief, you were able to develop the personality of the two characters through the use of dialogue and some well aimed adjectives and verbs!

    In particular, I really like your lead sentence. It drew me right into the action and invited me to continue reading. The first paragraph is very descriptive and drives the action for the rest of the story.

    Nice job. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fight for freedom

    There was a war going on in Africa. They were fighting for freedom. Freedom to work, to be educated, to be treated with respect. The soldiers did not want to fight. They were strong, poor slaves. They were being forced to fight, and if they did not, they would be killed. The soldiers went to sleep every night, dreaming about being free, doing what pleases them, doing what they love. That was the only thing that kept them fighting. They wanted other people to be free, even if they were not. But on the second month of war, they began to think., “ Why can`t we be free without having to fight? Why can`t every one just do what they want? The world would be so much better.” They knew they were thinking the same thing, so they all marched up to the head of the troop.
    “We don`t want to fight anymore. We want to be free.”said a soldier named John. The head of the troop did not understand. He beat them with a wooden stick and sent them back to their room. They did not get any food that night. They decided to escape.

    They planned to gather all the soilders on Saturday night. When Saturday came, the soldiers were confused. “We have much more important things to do.” one said. But they all still went. “Wouldn`t all of you men prefer to be free without having to fight?” said John. They all nodded in agreement. “Well then, here is the plan. We escape at midnight. When we get back to our neighbourhood we start a war free campaign for freedom. And the war will have to stop because there won`t be enough soldiers.” They didn`t have to say a word. They knew they all agreed.

    The plan went perfectly. One year later, all the newspapers were talking about these me. The war had stopped, and now people could stand up for their beliefs, without worries of being killed. These soldiers prove that even a couple of young men can make a difference.

    If only it was like this in real life. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. not about the storm!

    A person named Bob was going for a walk one day. He saw truck. He went in and got locked in randomly. He started screaming. Some mysterious people said “I think the trap worked!” another person said”What a dumb, stupid animal. He walked right in it”. Bob said “Umm... excuse me?”. nobody heard him. Bob started banging. He heard “We got a bear!”. That didn’t help his attitude. He found a key. He tried to get out but got a small shock. When the truck stopped, Bob let his anger out on them. They then really thought he was a bear. “Oooooooowwwwwwwwwwww...” “Yeah, oooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww...”. Bob then ran to see he was in a foreign country. “I must’ve fell asleep and flew on an airplane!”. So he looked and found out he was still in Canada but in a weird cowless landscape. The truck left and Bob was hungry. He saw a hot dog stand. He knocked the owner out and took some and got some pop. He had to run more to prevent JAIL(ahh!). He really was freaked out so he ran so far, he saw a shop. He needed money. Nobody would donate so he worked there. He thought: “well, I work here and am underpaid so I’ll take some food. Not my prob.”. the next day he was looking suspicious so he retired and ran away. Then after 5 months, a person was getting robbed so he decided to beat him up. Bob asked the person “Tips?”. The guy just laughed. Bob was just so annoyed, he vowed never to be nice ever again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I Hope you like my story

    Piclet Story.


    The Forest of Cocytus


    The forest of Cocytus was an very ancient roman forest about as old as the world itself. It has been told to be home many magical creatures. Although not all of them are good. There was once a very brave young roman boy who took a very dangerous decision, he went IN the forest. EVERYONE knew never to go into that forest. How they knew? Well an even longer time before the boy, two children were playing tag and ventured into the forest. The next day two people found a plie of bones and some roman hats and clothes. Now without further ado the boy’s story.

    “Ugh my head” complained the boy named Marcus. The boy was in soldier training for they were about to invade Normandy. “Im only 14 I shouldn’t be here. O well if I complain I’ll get beaten to death” thought the boy miserably. Hello Marcus! It was his friend, Septimus who was even worse at roman training then he was (which was a lot) “NOW BOYS TIME TO TRAIN WITH SPEAR THROWING!!”
    “Yessssssss my favourite subject” Thought Marcus. “AWWWWWWW!” yelled all the bigger and more manly boys. “Why can’t we do that boxing thing again?” Asked the leader of the bullies, Nero. “We will do that later Nero” said the teacher. Nero was the teachers pet in soldier training. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR SPEARS ON TABLE!!!” In spear training the boys took spears and threw them at targets (like darts on steroids) Marcus always got 60/60 points at targets then there was sneak attacks where the training would build fake villages and the boys had to take them over with their spears. Marcus loved that even more than the darts-on-steroids thing. “OK SPEARS ARE OVER TIME TO BOX” Marcus always lost at boxing. He was also beat senseless WAY too much. “THAT’S IT IM SICK OF THIS PLACE” And Marcus did something he should have never ever EVER done. He went in the forest. He still took his spear and some stolen armour and food. He was (trying) to get to the Greek. He knew that the forest was dangerous but he still went in it. Marcus spent a moth in there fighting bears and dragons,
    getting help and food from fairies and stuff. Eating fish with wings and FINALLY after a month he emerged into the Greek land. “I made it! Ok where’s the food?” was his first words over there he knew how to speak Greek (he was secretly learning that Roman-illegal language). After about 10 years he wrote a book called
    The Dangers Of Cocytus and how I survived. The End






    ReplyDelete
  6. Once There Was a Dog

    Once there was a dog. The dogs name was Jimmy. Jimmy was bored so he went on a walk. Jimmy saw a bone, but it was on a human named Bob. Jimmy was still very hungry so he chased Bob around town. “Get away from me!” Bob yells, but Jimmy couldn’t understand English because he was a dog.

    Eventually, Jimmy got too tired to run so he took a nap on the beach. When Jimmy woke up, he was halfway in the sand. “Hey, get me out of here!” Jimmy said to Bob, but Bob only heard “Woof, woof!”. By noon, Bob had left and Jimmy’s head was the only thing sticking out of the sand. At the end of the day, when everyone was asleep, Jimmy’s friends came to help him out of the sand. “Thanks!” Jimmy said to his friends. Then Jimmy left the beach and never chased a human again!

    ReplyDelete
  7. An owl with big brown curious eyes is perched upon a long branch waiting for the last strings of sun to disappear. “it is time” he thinks to himself as he silently lifts into the sky.
    Boom, boom, boom is all he could hear. then he looked down, “oh my” he thinks “this looks dangerous”. He swerves down avoiding the big yellow chompers, digging up the earth. Suddenly he pauses, he nearly plummets to the ground. There are two other machines and one is cutting down the trees. Inching closer and closer the bringer of death moves towards the hallow. He forgets about bringing the food, his mind is settled on one thing: to warn his mate and the owlets. he ushers them from the hallow, screeching in his owl language. The family will have to find a new tree.
    The end!
    MW

    ReplyDelete
  8. A person named Bob was going for a walk one day. He saw a truck. He went in the truck and got locked in randomly. He started screaming. Some mysterious people said “I think the trap worked!” another person said”What a dumb, stupid animal. He walked right in it”. Bob said “Umm... excuse me?”. nobody heard him. Bob started banging. He heard somebody say “We got a bear!”. That didn’t help his attitude. He found a key. He tried to get out but got a small shock. When the truck stopped, Bob let his anger out on them. They then really thought he was a bear. “Oooooooowwwwwwwwwwww...” “Yeah, oooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww...”. Bob then ran to see he was in a foreign country. “I must’ve fell asleep and flew on an airplane!”. So he looked and found out he was still in Canada but in a weird cowless landscape. The truck left and Bob was hungry. He saw a hot dog stand. He knocked the owner out and took some hot dogs and got some pop too. He had to run more to prevent JAIL(ahh!). He really was freaked out so he ran so far, he saw a shop. He needed money. Nobody would donate so he worked there. He thought: “well, I work here and am underpaid so I’ll take some food. Not my prob.”. the next day he was looking suspicious so he retired and ran away. Then after 5 months, a person was getting robbed so he decided to beat him up. Bob asked the person “Tips?”. The guy just laughed. Bob was just so annoyed, he vowed never to be nice ever again.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Trip



    I wake up to the sweet smell of blueberry muffins battering against my door. Amazing. I get dressed and go down the sleek stairs
    of our house. I greet my mom and gobble up a muffin. My mom exclaims“You’re sure hungry!”
    I respond “you can’t blame me, can you” I say in a humorous voice, she flashes me a smile and then turns around and says “hi” to my little sister. I don’t even consider staying for another second. I dart out the door to my friend Marius’ house. The bus roared to a stop at the corner of my street and I hopped on, showed the driver my bus pass and away we went. I got off on Harrington Boulevard and took a leisurely walk to my friend’s house. I knocked on his door about 3 times in a tune, as that is what we always do just for fun. His mom answered the door and it slid open. I happily said “Hello Mrs. Dune, may I come in” she replied “Marius just left to go to your house!” In a joyful tone. So once again I went to the bus stop, showed the driver my pass and was off to my house. I laughed when I saw Marius knocking on my door and, without thinking I scared him. He shrieked. I fell to the ground I was laughing so hard and he was laughing too. When we finally regained our sanity, we went inside and got our tickets for the trip. I said goodbye to my mom as I carried my suitcase behind me. Marius had his too. My mom said “Bye and have a great trip” and then we were off. We got in a taxi which roared across the highway on our journey to the airport. We got through customs and went on the plane in no time at all. Before we know it, we are in Tanzania. We quickly make our way through customs and claim our luggage (like before) and looked for the man with our names on his sign. We scouted for a little but we found him in the end. He was a happy man with a tuxedo on and sunglasses. He beckoned for us and he finally caught our eyes. He said “Hello Marius and David!” Are you ready? We reply “of course!”
    So he signals with his hand for us to come with him. So we do and we get in the car and he takes us to the hotel. We say “goodbye” and we go to our room. We unpack and then go back to the lobby and tell the manager that we would like to see the man that brought us here. He comes up and asks us where we want to go, we reply “Mt. Kilimanjaro”. So we bring our snow boarding gear and then we go. He brings us to a helicopter pad and the helicopter comes and takes us to the side of the mountain. We motion a thumbs up and then we jump with our snow board attached to our feet. I feel a rush of excitement that we are actually going down Mt. Kilimanjaro. We speed down with a interval of 2 minutes slowing down and in about 7 minutes we are at the bottom. I smile to my self as we get off our snowboards and smile to the man.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Trip



    I wake up to the sweet smell of blueberry muffins battering against my door. Amazing. I get dressed and go down the sleek stairs
    of our house. I greet my mom and gobble up a muffin. My mom exclaims“You’re sure hungry!”
    I respond “you can’t blame me, can you” I say in a humorous voice, she flashes me a smile and then turns around and says “hi” to my little sister. I don’t even consider staying for another second. I dart out the door to my friend Marius’ house. The bus roared to a stop at the corner of my street and I hopped on, showed the driver my bus pass and away we went. I got off on Harrington Boulevard and took a leisurely walk to my friend’s house. I knocked on his door about 3 times in a tune, as that is what we always do just for fun. His mom answered the door and it slid open. I happily said “Hello Mrs. Dune, may I come in” she replied “Marius just left to go to your house!” In a joyful tone. So once again I went to the bus stop, showed the driver my pass and was off to my house. I laughed when I saw Marius knocking on my door and, without thinking I scared him. He shrieked. I fell to the ground I was laughing so hard and he was laughing too. When we finally regained our sanity, we went inside and got our tickets for the trip. I said goodbye to my mom as I carried my suitcase behind me. Marius had his too. My mom said “Bye and have a great trip” and then we were off. We got in a taxi which roared across the highway on our journey to the airport. We got through customs and went on the plane in no time at all. Before we know it, we are in Tanzania. We quickly make our way through customs and claim our luggage (like before) and looked for the man with our names on his sign. We scouted for a little but we found him in the end. He was a happy man with a tuxedo on and sunglasses. He beckoned for us and he finally caught our eyes. He said “Hello Marius and David!” Are you ready? We reply “of course!”
    So he signals with his hand for us to come with him. So we do and we get in the car and he takes us to the hotel. We say “goodbye” and we go to our room. We unpack and then go back to the lobby and tell the manager that we would like to see the man that brought us here. He comes up and asks us where we want to go, we reply “Mt. Kilimanjaro”. So we bring our snow boarding gear and then we go. He brings us to a helicopter pad and the helicopter comes and takes us to the side of the mountain. We motion a thumbs up and then we jump with our snow board attached to our feet. I feel a rush of excitement that we are actually going down Mt. Kilimanjaro. We speed down with a interval of 2 minutes slowing down and in about 7 minutes we are at the bottom. I smile to my self as we get off our snowboards and smile to the man.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The yellowed parchment crackled with fury as the waves of fire lapped the
    sides charring them. Along with the background went the faces. The
    frozen memory faded from existence as I watched the smiling faces
    disappear, A drop of sadness strolled down my cheek and lay foot prints
    for others to see. I clamp my eyes shut and turn around to face the flames.
    "Very good now get up and gather anything important." A voice says
    gruffly.
    "Nothing that I own is worth a cent or anything more all I wanted was the
    cursed memory!" I whisper to myself quietly. Just like the picture faded so
    had my lust for a new life, a new dawn, a new puppet in a show, a new love.
    I let my tears flow freely and I let my heart do likewise. Flow. Let go.
    Stand up and walk out. "Time to go" I say without looking back!

    ReplyDelete
  12. A cloak of darkness slipped over the felines form, taking a fit to its awkward running patterns. The cat was invisable to the naked eye, as it moved so fast and its ebony coat like the night sky, it was simply a blur on the background. The only illumation showing its presence was the rays of light collecting in its eyes.

    The combination of azure, turquise and silver reflected off the moon, giving a beautiful illuison of a beacon. Its eyes were slightly lightening up the cats face, making the salmon of the nose and the white of the whiskers faintly visable.

    The cat ran beneath the shadows, slipping silently in and out of alleys and pathways, its raven body able to slip throught the soaked wood and brick that was covered in holes. After the storm, everything was dampened and cold and worst of all, quiet. The small feline had not come in contact with another being in days.

    She slowly trudged through the mess of wood, wire and plastic that littered the roads and streets, gently nudging the debris with her nose every now and then, looking for something remotly edible. Her slender limbs were stalking and lank, you could count the ribs she bore. This cat clearly was going to starve.

    She wrung out her fur as she walked underneath the fallen oak, its sturdy trunk and firm branches scattered across the road, which had numerous other pieces of things that had seemed unbreakable. Like the cars....

    As the cat continued her trek, she came across something new, and was curious. These things were slender and black, snaking up to a piece of half-soaked carved wood. They smelt of tar and burning, yet they seemed safe beyond that. They didn't look like the would hurt her. She cautiously nudged it, very gently, with her nose, but almost immediatly felt a painfuly jerk in her nose as electricity weaved itself in and out of the innocent cats body, spurring agaisnt her cold skin like barbs.

    The cat wailed and moaned as the light and pain took over her, and she half dragged herself towards a crate that was half rotten with termites. She whimpered, not caring, and closed her eyes, thinking back when she had a home, food, a family.
    Before the storm.

    (This isn't my best, I tried very heard, but I've hit a writers block lately! Also, andy connections between what happened there and whats HAPPENING here? *cough* Sandy *cough*)

    ReplyDelete
  13. The soft sound of a gentle breeze rustles the leaves of a forest. After a long rain, the trees are stretching their branches up to the sky. The sun comes out and a rainbow makes its way down to the forest, falling on a small plant. As the sun begins to warm the air, the flowers open up to catch the suns rays and the animals are coming out from their hiding spots to resume their life. The small plant sits there, raising its small limbs to the sky, higher than the tallest of the tall trees. As the rainbow begins to fade, the forest goes back to normal, though the small plant stays tall and proud.

    ReplyDelete
  14. as I woke up I saw the sky float forward then backward. I did not know what to do try to move I saw people that might mean I am OK but then I blinked and I looked at me I was a fly and I thought that totally explains the blurriness I tried to think what do I do do I try to find a house to sleep in what do I do I decide to fly away so I take to the air and start flying I see a open door I fly in I find in the top corner a building I fell asleep there when I woke up I started feeling claustrophobic so I did everything I could to get out and I saw light without thinking I flew full speed into the light and whack I hit a window and I was dead.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I trampled through the damp tulips with my heart thumping for what I’d just been through. My sneakers were soaking wet but I didn’t care because I was about to find what I’ve been searching for my whole life. Freedom. Dew drops fell from the branches of leaves as I skidded into the forest. I wistfully dodged the towering oak trees which my town is known for. After what felt like a century, I finally ended up on the street. I then jumped fences, skidded corners and ran down the sidewalk till I spotted an alley way where I drifted off to sleep. My name’s Juliana, I’m thirteen and this was the fifth time I’ve escaped the orphanage.

    C.L

    ReplyDelete