Please post CAP Fable assignments on this thread

[Roadrunner]

We have strayed a little from the program, but all the wonderfully written stories are inspiring us to pick it up again. We are on chapter 4 in the Narrative book, but MCT paragraph assignments have taken over our writing time.

 

Love the written work by the younger ones! Makes me wander if I should retire WWE2. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

We have strayed a little from the program, but all the wonderfully written stories are inspiring us to pick it up again. We are on chapter 4 in the Narrative book, but MCT paragraph assignments have taken over our writing time.

 

Love the written work by the younger ones! Makes me wander if I should retire WWE2. :)

 

Or just take a break, maybe? That's what we're doing.  I plan to finish WWE2 (we have 10 lessons left) but it was definitely time to have something new to stave of the February doldrums!  Morgan really likes the program, which is incredibly rare for her . . . 

[Roadrunner]

Or just take a break, maybe? That's what we're doing. I plan to finish WWE2 (we have 10 lessons left) but it was definitely time to have something new to stave of the February doldrums! Morgan really likes the program, which is incredibly rare for her . . .

We have six weeks left of it. I bet my son will dance when it's over. :)

[Halcyon]

listening in, as DS will be starting this monday :) (or Book 2)

[Halcyon]

Okay, we started Fable today, just the sample to see if my DS8 (3rd grade) would enjoy it. Here's his retelling of The Lion and the Mouse:

 

The Mouse and the Dung Beetle

The Mouse was happily sleeping in his hole when the Dung Beetle pulled on the Mouse's whisker, thinking it was poop. The Mouse chased after the Dung Beetle and caught him. The Beetle begged the Mouse to spare him, and he would help the Mouse down the road. The Mouse giggled and rolled on the floor at the idea that the Beetle could ever help him but he let him go. 

 

Later that week, the Mouse got trapped in a mouse trap. Although he squeaked and screamed, and roared and wailed, nobody came to his rescue (or so he thought). The Dung Beetle, however, was watching the Mouse and rubbed poop on the trap to make it slip and the Mouse was let go.

 

"You thought a lowly insect such as me could not save a mouse!" said the Dung Beetle. "But now both you and I can see that you were wrong, and I was right."

[Chrysalis Academy]

I love it - what a great imagination to choose a dung beetle as the hero!  Plus, he got to write "poop" in a school assignment.  Bet he loved that!  :lol:

[Halcyon]

I'll post dd's first assignment! I'd love any feedback, because while I can appreciate good writing, I don't honestly know how to TEACH it.

I scribe for her, because she has a lot of trouble writing. This is also the second draft, the first one I simply wrote what she said word for word as she was thinking aloud. I didn't include punctuation in the first draft, and she came up with the punctuation for this draft.

 

As a mouse lay asleep, a little ant in its hurry to get away from the mouse, stumbled over her tail, waking her. In the mouses anger to get him back, she wrapped her tail around the ant. The ant asked her not to hurt him, for he would repay her some day. Two days later, the mouse was trying to get a piece of cheese from a mouse trap. She knew that if she made one wrong move, she would get caught, so she was very careful. She had quite good hearing and heard birds tweeting outside, which distracted her and she stumbled. As fast as her little legs could carry her, she ran, but the mouse trap was a bit too quick for her and caught her tail. Meanwhile, the ant was taking a breadcrumb to his tower. He heard the mouse wailing and quickly dropped what he was doing, and ran as fast as he could inside to where the mouse lay trapped. When he saw what happened, he told every other ant in his colony. Then he showed them the way to where the mouse lay. They worked together to lift the trap and set the mouse free. She was so happy that she said to the ant "You were right." and she saw how foolish she had been.

 

I know there are improvements to be made...some of the sentences sound, choppy? I don't know. I feel like at times she gets caught up in trying to tell me every last detail, but I'm not sure how to help her figure out how much is enough, kwim?

This is wonderful. I love the vivid imagination she shows!

[Gentlemommy]

Haven't checked in here for a bit...with holidays, snow days (weeks!!!), illness, and travel, we have gotten way off track. Luckily, we are going strong again, and back to our normal routine...until next week, when we will go on a ten day RV adventure lol.

 

We are at chapter 12 (? I think) in Fable, where the student writes his/her own fable. This is dd's very preliminary rough draft-

 

Far away there was a pond that sat between the forest and the field. A sheep and her lambs were drinking from the pond water on the side of the field. On the other side, a wolf was spying on them and after chewing some bones he decided he wanted something a bit more tasty and started stalking the sheep. The mother heard the wolf and so did one of the lambs but the other thought she was trying to scare him and had succeeded with his sister. [need to clear this sentence up]

So while the mother thought he was following her she ran off but he stayed put and said "you try and scare me but you never will!" [again, this is unclear to me] In the meantime the wolf was getting closer and closer to the lamb, but little did he know that the mother had turned around and saw what was going on. Her lamb had also spotted the wolf and was trying to run but had his foot stuck in a root. Suddenly the wolf jumped out of the forest and ran for the lamb, baring his teeth. The lamb thought it was all over but he thought too soon, for out of the clearing came his mother and she distracted the wolf while the lamb weaves his foot out and ran off to join his sister who was standing frozen in thought. [run on sentence much! Lol]

The mother finally kicked the wolf with her back feet and the wolf wobbled and fell. Then she hurried over to her children and began snuggling them furiously. The lamb looked sadly down as the mother tried to nuzzle his face. "I'm sorry, I just thought you were trying to scare me." The mother looked up from her nuzzling and said, "I know, but next time, listen."

 

 

 

 

Ok, so aside from the run on sentences and clearing things up a little, what else can I tell her? Sometimes I feel like she uses a word over and over again, like today it was nuzzling. She used it three times in two sentences at first, then changed one to snuggling. Also she is not using the typical descriptions of sheep/lambs to aid in telling the story...lambs typically don't wander, sheep are frightful animals and wouldn't kick a wolf...I also think she could be more descriptive in the animals mannerisms in general, the fierceness of huge wolf or skittish nature of lambs...I don't know if I'm being too picky or what.

[Halcyon]

Amplification exercise The Hunter and the Doves:

 

Many years ago, a beautiful flock of cream white Doves lived on an island off of Australia called Codfish Island. The flock one day spotted some delicious native seeds scattered over the dry land. They swooped down to eat the rare seeds. Meanwhile, a cruel hunter was sitting in the crotch of a nearby oak tree, ready to throw her net upon their beautiful white heads. Suddenly, as they ate, the birds felts a tingling on their backs. They began to panic because they had never experienced a net before. The King Dove, who was among them, told the birds to grab a piece of the net with their beaks and flap their wings. They listened to the King Dove because he was the highest Dove of them all. The birds started to fly away with the net. The Hunter screamed and cursed at them because she wouldn't be able to sell her hats or have dinner tonight. Moral: Together you will always win.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Wow!!! I'm super impressed at his vivid language and use of details.  I especially like "a cruel hunter was sitting in the crotch of a nearby oak tree" - not a phrase you'd hear from many 8 year olds!

 

ETA: are you liking it so far? Are you still using the sample, or did you decide which level to start him at?

[Halcyon]

Wow!!! I'm super impressed at his vivid language and use of details.  I especially like "a cruel hunter was sitting in the crotch of a nearby oak tree" - not a phrase you'd hear from many 8 year olds!

 

ETA: are you liking it so far? Are you still using the sample, or did you decide which level to start him at?

Thanks rose. We LOVE it. LOVE. He asked this mornign to do writing first--it's been a long time since my formerly-writing-loving-child has asked to do writing first. I am so happy. I think we'll continue with this book--I think the amplification exercises are a ton of fun for him. We're moving through about a chapter a day--is that the right pace? Do you think i need the teacher's guide?

 

ETA; We still only have the sample. Once i decide whether to order the teacher's guide, i wil place my order. This is such a nice mix of WWE and creative writing! It's the perfect in between before WWS. Maybe we'll even continue with this instead of WWS...!! I so wish the older grades were available so i could try it with DS11. Oh well, WWS2 it will be for him!

 

ETA2: Okay, just realized we are moving through this book REALLY fast--I mean, at the pace we're going we'll be done in 2 weeks LOL. I guess it's a one semester course and you're supposed to do a chapter a week. Oops. That's okay, I am just surprised. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, that's faster than we are going, but if it works it's fine.  I'm technically doing this "early" - Morgan is just 7, in 2nd grade, and she doesn't have the same writing stamina.  Her main issue is that she is still working on spelling, and when she has to stop and ask how to spell a word, she loses the thread of her mental composition.  I really see the value of letting her do the activities separately - coming up with something to say, and getting the words down on paper.  It's Partnership Writing, right?   ;)   I have her do all the "short" writing pieces herself - dictation, copywork, single sentences, but for the long stories I let her do it orally and scribe for her.  I kind of worried this was too much scaffolding and we should just wait till she can write it herself, but we desperately needed a break from WWE, this girl likes variety.  We've been taking 4 days to do a lesson, but we break them up.  She loves it, and asks to do writing, too, which is such a refreshing change!

 

The only thing the teacher's guide has added so far is the dictation sentences, I really haven't used it for anything else.  I think you could live without it.

 

ETA: We're cross-posting.  I bet you slow down as the lessons get more complex.  It adds something every lesson.  The first two were really short, but we're taking longer on Lesson 3.

 

I agree about WWS (doing this instead of, if it stays so good) and wishing I could use it for Shannon too!  I'm secretly planning on getting Book 4 the minute it comes out and seeing if it might be useful for her, but I"m kind of afraid this particular ship has sailed.  Oh well.

[Roadrunner]

Amplification exercise The Hunter and the Doves:

 

Many years ago, a beautiful flock of cream white Doves lived on an island off of Australia called Codfish Island. The flock one day spotted some delicious native seeds scattered over the dry land. They swooped down to eat the rare seeds. Meanwhile, a cruel hunter was sitting in the crotch of a nearby oak tree, ready to throw her net upon their beautiful white heads. Suddenly, as they ate, the birds felts a tingling on their backs. They began to panic because they had never experienced a net before. The King Dove, who was among them, told the birds to grab a piece of the net with their beaks and flap their wings. They listened to the King Dove because he was the highest Dove of them all. The birds started to fly away with the net. The Hunter screamed and cursed at them because she wouldn't be able to sell her hats or have dinner tonight. Moral: Together you will always win.

That's exceptional. Really!

[Halcyon]

Thank you!

[Halcyon]

Okay, we are LOVING this program. I know we're in the honeymoon phase, but really...

 

Here's DS's amplification of The Crow and the Pitcher. He had a little fun with the moral LOL.

 

The Crow and the Pitcher

 

A beautiful fluorescent crow was going to die because of a gigantic drought. Foraging in the woods, she noticed a tall, red pitcher. In it was a tiny amount of water. Because the pitcher had a very long and skinny neck, she could not put her head through it to drink. She thought “Hmmmmmm, how am I supposed to drink the water? I will surely die of thirst.†Then, she had an idea. If she could gather a lot of small pebbles from the ground, then she could put them in the pitcher and the water would rise higher. It was very easy to find the pebbles because the pitcher was in a rocky quarry. As she gathered them up, she thought “If I don’t finish this soon, I will die of thirst before I can even drink a sip of water.†Her body was beginning to feel burned and her limbs felt soggy and weak. Eventually, the water rose to the top. She pecked at the water until it was all gone. She felt awesome and survived through the drought, but then got eaten by a hawk.

 

MORAL: If you use your wits, it can sometimes lead to death.

 

[Mom-ninja.]

Okay, I'm just seeing this for the first time. This looks like something my 4th grader would enjoy. He's bored with WWE at this point. We're in level 4 having done the previous three.

 

Thinking I might get this.

 

Books 1 and 2 are all that's available right now? Darn.

 

So a 4th grader that has completed WWE 1-3 and is in week 6 of WWE 4 should start in book 1 or 2?

 

 

[ByGrace3]

Lesson 7 Amplification

 

One day a brown puppy stole a huge white bone from a smelly, small store. When she left she crossed a small bridge over water. When she saw her reflection in the water, the puppy thought it was a bigger dog with a bigger white bone. The little puppy got jealous. Then she fell into the water and lost her bone. Thankfully land was close by, the dog got out of the water and cried, "What a foolish puppy I've been." The dog went home with a soaked body and no bone.

 

Moral: it is naughty to be needy.

 

 

Thoughts? Sometimes I am not sure what to correct. The only things I helped her fix was a spelling mistake or two, and one sentence structure issue.

[Hannahs4]

Thanks to all of you for posting your kids' writing!  My daughter is loving the "pretend class" aspect of this, and I am letting her read all the ones that relate to the lesson she has just completed.  She has been begging me to post hers, so here are a couple.  She would like any feedback too!  I will add, that prior to starting this, we had just been doing written narrations, and it had been like pulling teeth!  I am so glad that she is actually enjoying this. 

 

Lesson 1:
 

The Mouse and the Ant

 

A mouse lay asleep in the shade of an old oak tree, his head resting on his paws.  A timid little Ant came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away she ran across the mouse's nose and roused him from his nap.  The mouse laid his paw angrily on the tiny bug to squash her.  "Spare me," begged the poor Ant, "please let me go and someday I will surely repay you."  The mouse laughed so hard the oak tree shook but he let the ant go.  A few days later he was looking for food and was caught in a mouse trap.  She squeaked an squeaked!  The ant recognized the voice and he came and helped the mouse out of the trap.  "You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Ant, "now you see that even an ant can help a mouse."

 

Lesson 2: 

 

The Hunter and the Doves

 

A flock of brown doves spotted some pumpkin seeds scattered on the ground.  They flew down to eat the seeds which, not surprisingly tasted like pumpkins.  A hunter hiding in a tree who was camoflauged to look like tree branches, dropped a brown rope net on them.  The birds were trapped!  Keeping his head, the King Dove, who was the only white dove, told the other doves each to lift a string of the brown net and flap their wings.  By doing so, the doves were able to lift the net together and carry it off as they escaped through the air. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hannahs4]

Last one for the night:

 

Lesson 3
 

The Crow and the Pitcher

 

A hooded crow was dying of thirst in a terrible drought.  She had been flying for a long time.  She was glad that she was not black like other crows because dark colors take in the light and heat and light colors reflect light and heat.  She was very white, but part of her was black.  Even though she was mostly white, she was still hot and thirsty, and for the first time in her life she wished that she was not covered in feathers.  She soon gave up that thought.  "If I was not covered in feathers, I would not have flight feathers and could not fly for of course it must be harder for all those ground animal,s for they cannot see water from as far away as us birds."  Suddenly something startled her out of her thoughts.  It was a bright shine coming from a pitcher.  She flew down to inspect it and found that there was water in the pitcher.  It was placed in an angle so that the sun had reflected off of it, and that was the shine she had seen.  She was terribly thirsty, so she tried desperately to drink the water but found that she could not for the neck of the pitcher was too long and skinny and narrow, and her beak was to short to reach the water.  Then she had an idea.  She gathered pebbles.  "Mighty small ones," she thought, "and some are colorful and pretty, like this red one, and this purple one.  Some are bigger like this plain gray one."  She dropped in all the pebbles she gathered in the water this of course raised the water level and she was soon able to drink and save her life. 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading them!    She is 9.

 

[Steven]

My DD (age 9; fourth grade) just completed the write your own fable assignment for chapter 8:

 

Too Much Stuff!

 

One night, Dad had had it. He shouted, “It's too messy here! @#%*! Give some of your toys to charity! You don't even play with half of them!â€

 

“No way José!†I said, “I won't give up even one little toy car!†So Dad sent me to bed early. “What a meanie!†I thought.

 

The next day, I went to the mall and bought more stuff. The day after was my birthday, and I was turning 12. I had a humongous party and got 36 presents. Grandma couldn't make it to the party, so she came the next day with even more toys for me. All this time, Mom was pregnant and at the baby shower I got some big-sister gifts. Then it was Christmas!

 

By January, my room was so full of stuff that I couldn't move around. When I went to my dresser to get dressed the next morning, there was so many things piled on it that when I tried to open it an avalanche fell on top of me! I tried to scream, but a teddy bear's plush bottom was in my mouth! Suddenly, I couldn't breathe!

 

And then I woke up. I was lying in my bed. Dad had come into my room and was cleaning up, throwing things into bins and bags and boxes. He had accidentally thrown my teddy bear onto my pillow.

 

When I went down to breakfast, I told Dad, “You know, maybe I do have a little too much stuff. I could give some of it to charity. Like maybe those dolls I never play with.†Dad smiled and said, “Good idea. I have some things that I could give away, too.â€

 

Later that day, we donated three big bags of old toys and clothes to charity.

 

Moral: It is foolish to be greedy.

 

I find I have to provide quite a bit of hand holding to get her through these assignments. At first she refused to try this assignment on the grounds that she had never been greedy, and so could not write a story from her own life about being greedy. So without directly saying it, I guided her to the concept of using a dream format. I spent one session helping her brain storm, and  another session getting her to put those ideas into an outline. Then it took her two sessions to compose the story using the computer (with all auto-correct features turned off). Then two more sessions to revise it. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Steven, I think that's great.  I think you are doing exactly the right thing - hand hold/partner write as much as she needs to right now.  I think what you are doing sounds just right for a 9 yo, and I love her story!  I think it's very inventive, very imaginative, very detailed, it definitely pulled me in.  Tell her great job!

[Roadrunner]

Well, that's faster than we are going, but if it works it's fine. I'm technically doing this "early" - Morgan is just 7, in 2nd grade, and she doesn't have the same writing stamina. Her main issue is that she is still working on spelling, and when she has to stop and ask how to spell a word, she loses the thread of her mental composition. I really see the value of letting her do the activities separately - coming up with something to say, and getting the words down on paper. It's Partnership Writing, right? ;) I have her do all the "short" writing pieces herself - dictation, copywork, single sentences, but for the long stories I let her do it orally and scribe for her. I kind of worried this was too much scaffolding and we should just wait till she can write it herself, but we desperately needed a break from WWE, this girl likes variety. We've been taking 4 days to do a lesson, but we break them up. She loves it, and asks to do writing, too, which is such a refreshing change!

.

We finished WWE 2 and moved on to Fable. I also have a second grader (fall baby, so on the younger side). When I did this program with my older boy, we used Killgallon and did all sorts of other writing projects concurrently with CAP, + history and science narrations. I am thinking to do only Fable for my second grader. Do you think that's enough writing on its own? Is Morgan using Fable as the only writing curriculum? I am second guessing myself given the WTM rec to do at least half an hour of writing per day. Please tell me CAP is plenty! :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Oh, I totally think it's plenty for a 2nd grader! We don't write half an hour a day by a long shot.

 

We do either a portion of a CAP Fable assignment, or a 2-day WWE combo (an oral narration plus a dictation sentence) and on Fridays when I'm working she does copywork.  That's it for writing.  We talk about things she's reading or that I read aloud, but I'm not pushing more independent writing than this right now!  She also practices cursive and writes in her Spanish workbook most days.  That's enough writing for her now.  Sometimes she writes in her diary, but that's her call.

 

Morgan is still putting together the pieces - knowing what she wants to say, and getting words on paper.  She still needs to be able to practice them separately, and CAP has her starting to put them together very gently.  I think that's fine for 2nd grade.

[Roadrunner]

Oh, I totally think it's plenty for a 2nd grader! We don't write half an hour a day by a long shot.

 

We do either a portion of a CAP Fable assignment, or a 2-day WWE combo (an oral narration plus a dictation sentence) and on Fridays when I'm working she does copywork. That's it for writing. We talk about things she's reading or that I read aloud, but I'm not pushing more independent writing than this right now! She also practices cursive and writes in her Spanish workbook most days. That's enough writing for her now. Sometimes she writes in her diary, but that's her call.

 

Morgan is still putting together the pieces - knowing what she wants to say, and getting words on paper. She still needs to be able to practice them separately, and CAP has her starting to put them together very gently. I think that's fine for 2nd grade.

I feel so much better. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Here is my 6th grader's amplification for Narrative 2, Lesson 2.  She had a blast with it:

 

Jack and the Giant - Amplification

     The clock tolled twelve. The giant, who had been listening intently for this ever since it struck eleven, grinned trollishly. He crept quietly into Jack’s bedroom, or, he thought he crept quietly. He spotted a lump lying in the middle of the bed. “Your giant killing days are over, human†he said with a dry chuckle. Then he struck, hard, on the middle of the lump; his aim was good. Again and again he hit the lump, all over, aiming to break all of Jack’s bones.

     Under the bed Jack giggled with mirth, while he watched the giant bashing the log he had put on his bed. He grinned at the look of oafish concentration on its large ugly face. Finally the Giant was satisfied. For a moment he stared at the bed, hardly daring to believe he had done it, and how easy it had been. Then he smirked, very pleased with himself, spat on the smashed figure on the bed, and shuffled back to his own room.

     Jack, still chortling heartily, cleared the bark chips that were the remainder of the log off his bed, climbed in, and slept till morning. When he awoke, he walked down to the kitchen. “Thank you very much for having me to stay,†he said “I had the most wonderful night sleep!†Then he stalked out the front door, thoroughly enjoying the look of dumbfounded surprise on the giant’s face. The giant, realizing he had been tricked, put his head in his arms and sobbed, and in doing so, he let his breakfast burn.              

[Roadrunner]

Here is my 6th grader's amplification for Narrative 2, Lesson 2. She had a blast with it:

 

 

Jack and the Giant - Amplification

The clock tolled twelve. The giant, who had been listening intently for this ever since it struck eleven, grinned trollishly. He crept quietly into Jack’s bedroom, or, he thought he crept quietly. He spotted a lump lying in the middle of the bed. “Your giant killing days are over, human†he said with a dry chuckle. Then he struck, hard, on the middle of the lump; his aim was good. Again and again he hit the lump, all over, aiming to break all of Jack’s bones.

Under the bed Jack giggled with mirth, while he watched the giant bashing the log he had put on his bed. He grinned at the look of oafish concentration on its large ugly face. Finally the Giant was satisfied. For a moment he stared at the bed, hardly daring to believe he had done it, and how easy it had been. Then he smirked, very pleased with himself, spat on the smashed figure on the bed, and shuffled back to his own room.

Jack, still chortling heartily, cleared the bark chips that were the remainder of the log off his bed, climbed in, and slept till morning. When he awoke, he walked down to the kitchen. “Thank you very much for having me to stay,†he said “I had the most wonderful night sleep!†Then he stalked out the front door, thoroughly enjoying the look of dumbfounded surprise on the giant’s face. The giant, realizing he had been tricked, put his head in his arms and sobbed, and in doing so, he let his breakfast burn.

Love her adjectives!!!

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yeah, her Killgallon is showing, isn't it?

[Roadrunner]

Yeah, her Killgallon is showing, isn't it?

Yes it is!!!

You are right that it's easier to concentrate on style when you aren't so worried about the content.

 

I am having such a hard time deciding what to do going forward. Despite all the warnings about WWS for young kids, I think we will attempt next year to do the first 10 lessons in addition to CAP.

 

My little one wrote his first fable yesterday. He is so excited about the program. We are taking two days to rewrite it. :)

[Halcyon]

Lesson 8 The Mice and the Council rewrite:

 

Something had to be done about the DoDo bird! Not a day went by that the Ants didn’t hear about some Mom or Dad, brother or sister, aunt or uncle who had been pecked down by the DoDo bird. The Ants lived in such constant fear of the DoDo bird's beak that they hardly dared to move from their beds, night or day, afternoon or evening. Finally, they called a meeting to decide what should be done. Many plots they talked of, but not a single one sounded good enough. At last, a Young Ant stood up, and said, “Why don’t we just make it swallow a clock so we will know when he is coming? We will hear the tick tock of the clock.†All of the Ant Colony was surprised that they hadn’t thought of the idea themselves. “Hurray for the Young Ant! Hurrah! Hurrah! For he’s a jolly good fellow…†When they were celebrating, an Old Ant said, “I will say the plot of the Young Mouse is very good, but who will stuff the clock down her throat?â€

[Roadrunner]

I just wanted to say that I have never seen my younger boy happy during his writing assignment until today. He did the amplification of the Crow and the Pitcher and was so enthusiastic about it. Every day was a drama for him in WWE 2. I really hope the attitude persists. He is a baby maturity wise and CAP's usage of fables is absolutely perfect for him. Comprehension in WWE was a real struggle for him.

 

"A craw was dying of thirst because of a drought. He had no water, so he was unhappy. One day the bird flew into a dry forest. The bird's feathers were golden and it had red feet. The forest had trees with no leaves and there were no plants. The river was dry and the air was hot. Nothing was growing. It was a bad day for everyone.

One day he found a pitcher with water in it. He was so happy and he hoped the water wouldn't dry out so quick. The pitcher was so narrow that he could not reach the water, but when he thought, he figured out what to do. He put big and fat rocks in the pitcher and he finally drank water."

:)

[Chrysalis Academy]

That's great, Roadrunner! Is he writing this on his own, or are you scribing for him?  

[Roadrunner]

That's great, Roadrunner! Is he writing this on his own, or are you scribing for him?

He did it all on his own!

[3andme]

This is my 10 yo son's original fable for lesson 12 "My Own Fable". A little on the morbid side for my  taste but he's a boy. We went through 2 editing rounds to get to this final piece but the original plot line was all his own.

 

A Racoon, a Rat, and a Cat

 

A raccoon, a rat, and a cat made a living stealing things from  garbage cans. One day, they went into a house to steal garbage. While sneaking  through the hallway, a vicious white guard dog, leaped on the rat and tore him limb from limb. Then, the cat and the raccoon fled into the kitchen with the vicious dog on their tail. Another gruesome brown guard dog leaped down from the counter and started chasing the cat out of the back door. The cat scrambled up a thick oak tree in the backyard. Meanwhile, the raccoon also escaped out the back door with the white guard dog snapping at his heels. Once outside, the raccoon flew into the garbage can. 

 

The brown guard dog gave up on catching the cat and joined the white dog pursuing the raccoon. 10 minutes passed with both dogs fiercely barking and growling  around the garbage can. During this time, the raccoon noticing that he was surrounded by garbage started eating. Finally, one of the guard dogs shoved the garbage can onto its side with a bang. The terrified raccoon wanted to flee but he didn't want to leave any food behind. So he snatched as much food as possible in his mouth and ran for his life.

 

Meanwhile, the cat in the tree, noticing that the 2 guard dogs had left, slowly crept down the tree into the overgrown grass in the backyard and leaped over the fence to never be seen again. The raccoon, on the other hand, did not fare nearly as well. Trying to hold all the food in his mouth, he ran out of energy and gradually slowed down until the guard dogs caught up with him and killed him. 

 

Moral - Don't bite off more than you can chew. 

 

[mom2vikha]

Please comment. DD8 from book 2: Narrative 1

 

   The rich Sage

 

The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, "what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops?"

So he thought to himself " Maybe I will buy some boxes to store my crop". He went to every store in town and bought lot of boxes. When he went home with his boxes, he quickly dressed and packed his crops. He went out on the street and yelled, "crops for sale!". Everybody bought a lot of crops. The man had made so much money than every before. He rushed to tell his family. But he decided to buy a flute. His music was so beautiful that the his whole family rejoiced. If you are wise, You are gifted by God.

 

[Wabi Sabi]

My 9 y/o's first assignment. I want to go a step further and work on revisions with him to correct spelling, grammar, add paragraphs, and so on. 


The Mouse and the Ant 

There was once a mouse that lived in a hole in a big house. One day an ant went to the hole. By accadent the ant crawled up onto the napping mouse's nose! The mouse grabbed the ant and was geting ready to eat it! The ant said "Please don't eat me! I promise if you let me go I will surely repay you!" The mouse laughed at the thought that an ant would repay him. But the mouse wasn't very hungery so he let the ant go. A few days later the ant herd the mouse crying from his hole. When he got there the mouse's hole was blocked by a stone with the mouse traped inside. The ant hurried to push the rock out of the way. when he did he said "See, you laughed when I said I would repay you. Now, you see even a ant can save a mouse!" 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Ok, so we're back to Fable after a hiatus over the summer.  And boy, what a difference!  I feel chastened as once again I realize that even though my dds are bright, maybe it's silly to start them on things "early" - things go so much more smoothly when they are developmentally ready.  Morgan did a great job with the first 6 lessons of Fable in 2nd grade from a creative POV, but I had to help her a lot with scribing.  She sat down  yesterday and wrote the amplification exercise from Lesson 7 all on her own, and she's sitting beside me doing the Write Your Own fable now.  I'm helping with spelling when she asks, but the rest is all her.

 

Here is her amplification:

 

Crossing a long bridge with a bone that she had stolen, Dog looked at the still water and saw her reflection.  She did not know that it was herself that she saw.  She thought it was another dog with a bigger bone.  She attacked the dog and fell in the water.  She dropped her bone in the water and it was lost forever.

 

Moral:  Don't be greedy, there are consequences.

 

It's not actually amplified all that much . . . and I can see that working on variety in sentence beginnings is in order, but overall I'm pretty happy with her first solo writing of the year!

[Chrysalis Academy]

Here is Morgan's (8, 3rd grade) entirely self-composed and self-written Fable from Lesson 7:

 

Johanna's mom gave us each a bag of gummies.  Later that day while everyone was occupied, Johanna said, "I want another bag of gummies!"  I said, "But you can't, your mom said no more gummies."  But Johanna was determined to have another bag.  So she snuck out into the kitchen and grabbed another bag.  Just then her sister saw her and went to their mom and told on her.  She had to give back the gummies her mom gave her and she had to give back the gummies she stole, and her mom said, "You can't have any more gummies for a week!"  But since I didn't steal any gummies, I got to keep mine.

 

Moral:  Caution greedy people: Consequences are at your heels!

 

 

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

DD9 started Fable back in August, and I've been meaning to post here, because we LOVE this program! 

 

The Lion and the Mouse:

 

Once upon a time, there was a gray mouse. and an ant saw the mouse and, in trying to get away, hurried over her tail. Awoken from her nap the mouse grabbed the ant and squeezed it in her paw. “Please let me go!†Said the ant “I may help you someday, but only if you let me go!†The mouse chuckled at this thought “you, an ant helping me, a mouse!†But, being a kindly mouse, she let the poor creature go. Now, one day, mouse was in her hole when, she smelled cheese outside her door. She went outside the mouse hole and to her surprise there was cheese out there! She grabbed the cheese, but before she could go back inside she found her tail snapped in a trap!! “Oh no!†Said the mouse “what will I do!?†And hearing the troubled shouts, the ant rushed to the mouse’ s rescue with her brothers and sisters “ we’ll help you!†Said the ant “ ready everybody?†The ant’s family said “ready!†The ant said, “ push!†The ant and his family pushed with all their might, and eventually, the mouse was free! “Thank you!†Said the mouse, “don’t mention it!†Said the ant. And everybody lived happily ever after

 

 

The Crow and the Pitcher:

Once upon a time, there was a crow who was very hot during a terrible drought that made all the plants wither.  She went to the river and saw only sand.  She went to the watering hole, and there only cracked ground.  She flew to someone’s windowsill, where it was shady, and found a pitcher with water in it.  But the water was at the bottom of the pitcher, and the neck was too narrow for the crow’s beak to reach the water.  The crow had an idea.  She flew to the watering hole and found small pebbles that she carried back to the windowsill.  She placed the pebbles into the pitcher, one by one.  Finally, she put in enough pebbles that the water flowed to the top of the pitcher.  When the water rose high enough, the crow dipped her beak into the cool water and took a drink. 

 

The Fox and the Grapes:

Once upon a time, there was a turkey who wanted to get into a silo, because it was full of corn, but the turkey could not get to the silo, because he was in the chicken house with a fence made of chicken wire. The turkey pushed and pushed at the chicken wire with all his might, but it wouldn’t budge. He decided to try to cut the chicken wire with his beak, and so he ran up to the chicken wire, raised his head, and tried to cut through the chicken wire. It wouldn’t cut though, because it was made of very hard plastic and the chickens ended up having to carry him inside. When the turkey woke up from his unconscious state, he decided to give up. “That corn is probably as hard as a rock.†Said the turkey “I wouldn’t eat it even if it was in the chicken house with me right now†and he went outside and started walking around, like there was no corn to start with.

 

 

 

 

 

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

The Ass and His Driver:

 

Once upon a time there was a donkey and his driver and they were heading up the hill. Then the donkey took it in his stupid, stubborn head that he could go his own way. he decided that since his barn was on the other side of the hill, he could just walk on over. But what he didn’t see was that the Valley below the hill was filled with Wildcats! He started walking down the hill when his driver caught him by the tail and said “don’t! If you go into that Valley you’ll be ripped to shreds!†But the donkey, being stubborn, pulled and pulled with all his might trying to get to the barn. So the driver said “fine! If you want to get ripped to shreds, I’ll let you. see what I care!†So the driver let go of the donkey’s tail and stormed away. The donkey, now seeing the Wildcats, thought to himself, no way! The driver was right, if I go through that Valley I WILL be ripped to shreds! So the donkey decided to go around the Wildcats. One of them, however, did see the donkey. Though it was only a kitten, it charged after him and gave him some nasty scratches on his hide. But, except for that, the donkey made it out and to the barn all right.

 

 

The Mice in Council

 

 

 

Something had to be done about that falcon! The beavers lived in fear of her sharp, menacing talons, never coming out of their huts in fear of her gobbling them up, which she has done to relatives of the beavers. One day, the beavers decided to gather everyone, and have a meeting. All of the beavers had good ideas, but none of them seemed good enough. Then one of the beavers had an idea that the others thought would be just crazy enough to work. “We’ll tie a mirror to the Falcons head! When she’s flying we’ll know because the sun will reflect off of the mirror!†The beavers thought it was a great idea, and started shouting and dancing around for joy, when the eldest beaver stood up and said, “it’s a great idea that the young beaver has had, but I have one question, and that is… Who will tie the mirror to the falcon?â€

 

 

The Hunter and the Doves

 

 

A fruit bat had stolen a blueberry from her neighbor and decided that she would fly across the river. But, as she was flying across the river, she saw her reflection in the water. But, she didn’t know it was her reflection. She thought it was another bat with a bigger blueberry! “hey you! Yes you! Give me your blueberry right now!†said the bat. The other bat didn’t move. The bat said, “all right, but you asked for it!†and she dove into the water, dropping the blueberry. She now realized it was just her reflection, and she found herself flapping her wings in the water for dear life. She made it out of the river sad and hungry, but safe.

 

The Hunter and the Doves (totally missed this one earlier):

 

 

Once upon a time, a flock of doves was flying over a field when they saw sunflower seeds scattered below a tree.  The doves flew down and started eating the salty, delicious sunflower seeds when, a hunter with big broad shoulders and an unshaven face jumped out of the tree and threw a net over the doves.  The king dove with silver feathers and a white crown shaped mark on his chest told the other doves “if we want to escape we are going to have to use our brains and our beaksâ€.  He whispered the plan into the other doves ears.  They each grabbed a corner of the net and lifted it up with their beaks.  The net lifted away and they threw it over the hunter when they flew into the skies. 

 

 

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

We have settled into a routine for W&R.  Everything before Writing Time is done out loud.  I read to her, we discuss, I lead with questions (from the book and based on our conversation).  I usually mark her answers/notes about our discussion on the pages as we go.  Starting at Writing Time, she writes in the answers until its time to amplify.  Finally, she does the amplification using Dragon (she does most of her longer writing assignments using Dragon).  She edits as she works (working with Dragon she has to tell it which punctuation to use) and prints a copy to share with me.  Sometimes, she will edit the printed copy, sometimes she is happy with it and doesn't want to make corrections.  The last two weeks, we have begun doing it all in one day, as she has wanted to get through the rest and get right to writing her story.  We discussed it today, and she said its easier to write the story when we've just done the work (we were breaking it up into 2 or 3 days of work each week).  Oh-and every 3rd week, we do Igniting Your Writing instead of W&R.     

[pitterpatter]

Did you gals read the samples from the teacher's guide to your children before they wrote? I'm finding that the samples are more advanced than what the instructions suggest for the writing assignments, which I'm finding incredibly frustrating.

 

For example, with "The Hunter and the Doves" amplification, the instructions say to add description and details. No where does it say to add a cause/effect relationship (i.e. the Hunter slipping and getting his kurta caught on a branch so they Doves have a chance to escape). It is not intuitive that the child should add this degree of detail. Also, the instructions do not say to reword the entire story.

[Chrysalis Academy]

No, I didn't use the TM at all. I figured I know what my kid is capable of and don't need the comparison. I don't mean that flippantly - I think it's hard to write examples that work across a range of ages and situations. It would probably just make me feel bad if I read them and my kid wasn't writing at that level. But the examples were probably written by adults, not 8 year olds, right?

[pitterpatter]

Yes, the samples are better than many/most college students would write and include things not at all suggested by the instructions.

 

Something I like about WWE is that I feel like Susan tries to provide samples a learned child might write and she provides multiple samples in various skill levels/styles.

 

No, I didn't use the TM at all. I figured I know what my kid is capable of and don't need the comparison. I don't mean that flippantly - I think it's hard to write examples that work across a range of ages and situations. It would probably just make me feel bad if I read them and my kid wasn't writing at that level. But the examples were probably written by adults, not 8 year olds, right?

 

[TheAttachedMama]

Did you gals read the samples from the teacher's guide to your children before they wrote? I'm finding that the samples are more advanced than what the instructions suggest for the writing assignments, which I'm finding incredibly frustrating.

 

For example, with "The Hunter and the Doves" amplification, the instructions say to add description and details. No where does it say to add a cause/effect relationship (i.e. the Hunter slipping and getting his kurta caught on a branch so they Doves have a chance to escape). It is not intuitive that the child should add this degree of detail. Also, the instructions do not say to reword the entire story.

 

PitterPatter, I've been reading your other threads and wanted to recommend that you purchase a copy of this book.   You can get it for about $2 used on amazon right now, and I think it would really help you teach the fable lessons.   (They have a chapter in this book on adding descriptive detail.  :))  It might be worth it to have it on the shelf to pull out when you need extra help teaching some of the topics in fable.   Some people use this book as their entire writing curriculum--however I just use it as a good supplement.   It gives me clear ideas on how to teach these ideas.

 

Also, I agree with others:   A 3rd or 4th grade student's writing will probably NOT be as high quality as the samples.  (I would actually be quite shocked if it was!)   The purpose of the samples is NOT to show you what a typical 9 or 10 year old will write. The samples serve as examples of possible ways one might complete the exercise.   They are suppose to serve as examples of good writing.   So if your child gets stuck, you could say--"Here's an example."

 

ALSO---In the Hunter and the Doves amplification, I don't think that it is expected that the child MUST add in a cause and effect relationship.  That is just ONE possible way to amplify the story---but not necessarily the only way.   I also don't think the child is expected to reword the entire story if they didn't want to.   That is why it doesn't specifically say to do that in the instructions.   I think you need to lower your expectation of what is expected in this stage.   This is the second lesson in the first book in a very long series of writing books.  

 

In MY mind, I think that this is the expectation for the Hunter and the Dove amplification:

Did the amplification make sense?  

Did it follow a logical sequence?  (Did it have a clear beginning, middle, and end?)

Did the child write/narrate in complete, grammatically correct sentences?  

Did the child include some descriptive details that expand upon the original story?  

Is the amplification longer than the summary?  

 

And that is it!   Details about a hunters "kurta getting caught on a branch" are optional.   They sprinkle in those samples in an attempt to feed your child some interesting words and ideas.   So that the child might say, "What is a Kurta?  Where is Bangalore? etc. etc."  

 

The guide book asks a few leading questions to help the child brainstorm for ways they can make the story longer.   Example:   What did the King Dove look like?  What kinds of seeds were on the ground?   (Or a teacher might lead the student by asking how the seeds might have been first scattered on the ground.)   That type of thing.