CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3

The Day I Took the Spotlight Wouldn’t it be superb to have one moment when you took the spotlight, to have everybody clapping for you and cheering loudly? I have had that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—the day I took the spotlight! Sometime in February, my teacher told us all about the Woodmen of America speech contest. The topic was “people who have overcome obstacles in their lives.” I thought my great-grandma Lorraine Parsley, who has had recurring cancer 13 times and is still living, would be perfect.

Indy’s Life Story I am going to tell you about my dog and how I got him. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but at some point my parents asked if I wanted to have a dog. I, of course, said yes. We couldn’t decide what kind of dog to get at first, but at last we found a great breed, the Shetland sheepdog. We called a good breeder. I was so excited about getting a dog! Before I knew it, I was on my way to the breeder. I went inside and saw dogs everywhere. It was so hard to pick which one to get. I saw one I liked. It was a small blue merle.

The Terror of Kansas It was 1:00 a.m. on a warm spring Wednesday, and it was storming outside. Casey was sleeping in her bed when she was awakened by a loud blast. It was the tornado siren. Just then her parents rushed in and said, “Grab your pillow and one thing you want to save!” She decided to grab her dog, who was sleeping in her room. Most of her other things she could replace, but she couldn’t replace a living thing. Then she heard a loud crash and ran downstairs with the trembling dog in her arms. When they were all downstairs, they started listening to the weather radio.

Chloe’s Day The first thing I do when I wake up is lick myself with my pink, scratchy tongue. Then I get up and stretch. First I stretch my front legs, then I stretch my back legs. Next, I go wake up Erin’s mom by scratching on her door. Sometimes she sprays me with a squirt bottle filled with water to stop me, but mostly she gives me my favorite smelly salmon cat food with medicine in it. Then I sleep until lunch. When I wake up again, my stomach is growling, so I meow for more food. Usually Erin’s mom gives me more, but sometimes she tells me to go eat my hard, dry cat food.

The Haunted House Have you ever been trick-or-treating when you came upon an old house and wanted to explore it? Well, I’ll tell you a story about five kids, Jake, Zach, John, Bob, and Sean, who did it. They were trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, going door-to-door, when they came upon an old house. “Let's go in,” Sean said. Everybody said they would. They started up the walk. The grass was overgrown, and there were a couple of broken windows. They got to the door, and it opened by itself. They went inside. They had flashlights with them, so they turned them on.