Eagles Express Themselves: A Spring of Stories, Scripts, and Speeches
- Red Fox Community School
- a few seconds ago
- 13 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
by Abra Kessler
There were many opportunities for the Eagles to express themselves in writing this spring. We worked on newsletters, which is writing on events that take place in school. Some examples are writing about cooking a favorite dish with a teacher, going on a field trip, a review of our class read aloud, or writing about what is happening in a Special such as music, art, or Spanish.
We learned about the features of non-fiction writing and wrote up our research for our U.S. states projects. We also wrote reading responses to the books we read in our reading groups.
Our school play is student driven generated from their ideas and the scripts were written up.
In free writing, some students chose to make a comic book, others chose to write chapter books.
Finally, the graduating Eagles wrote their reflection speeches that they presented at their graduation ceremony. The Eagles looked over their writing from the spring and chose the piece they wanted to revise and edit into a final draft to submit for Fox Tracks. A watercolor was then created to illustrate their writing.
Maricela’s Story (the Sequel) from Seedfolks
By Phoebe
The first thing I hear is bawling. The first thing I feel is pain. The first thing I see is an adorably chubby little baby with gorgeous hazel green-brown eyes. It couldn’t be mine.
“Who’s child is this?” I ask the doctor standing nearest to me, scribbling on a piece of paper on a clipboard. “And where’s mine?” The doctor chuckles.
“This is your baby, Maricela. And, I don’t expect you to, but have you thought of a name for this pretty little girl so we can fill out the birth certificate?” I stare at the baby in my arms, and it comes to me.
“Hazel,” I say. “Like her eyes.” I say.
”Excellent. Now, the father has come to see her,” my doctor informed me. And then, right on cue, he walked in. Connor, Hazel’s father. The one person I truly hate. But, to my surprise, he looked genuinely nervous. Maybe even afraid. But I didn’t have the slightest inkling as to why.
”Why are you here?” I half asked, half accused.
He hesitated.
”I was told I have a daughter,” he said. “So I wanted to see her.” That was when I burst.
“After cheating on me?! After leaving me?! I can’t believe you would do that to me!” Connor decided to play innocent.
“Do what?! What do you mean I cheated on you?”
”Oh,” I scoffed. “You know what I mean. The blond? You kissed her?” Connor looked at me, dumbfounded. “I never kissed another girl.” I raised an eyebrow at him, like Oh, I totally believe you.
”Just leave, Connor.”
”But—“
”LEAVE.”
He looks at Hazel one last time, and walks out. I breathed a sigh of relief.
The poor doctor, standing in the farthest corner of the room, manages to stutter,
“Whoa, that was a lot,” and promptly faints. With all of the nurses fussing over him, I allow myself a good look at Hazel. She coos and touches my nose, gurgling happily. “Hello there,” I murmur, “You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?”
“You’ll need to start nursing her soon,” comes a voice from the other side of the room. She’s the only one in the room not hovering over Dr. Kennedy.
“Mom?” I say, astonished.
“I said I wouldn’t be a part of the rearing of the child, not that I wouldn’t come to see my granddaughter when she was born,” says my mother, in her motherly fashion. “Now, her name?”
“Hazel,” I say. “Hazel Riverend.” Mom glares at me.
“Don’t remind me,” she snarls.
We stare at each other for who knows how long before Hazel starts crying.
“Shh, shh, shh,” I soothe, “It’s all right.” I boop her nose, and she stops, sniffles, looks up at me, and grabs my hand, balls my fingers into a fist with the thumb sticking out, and starts sucking on it.
“Awww,” says one of the nurses, looking up from the recovering doctor. “Y’all are just darling.” I slowly look back and forth between Hazel and the nurse, whose name tag reads, ‘Sue.’
“Us?” I ask.
“Who else?” Sue chuckled. Ping. I look around for my phone.
“Miss, do you know where my phone is?” I inquire.
“Whoops, here ya are, dear.” She pulls my phone out of her pocket and hands it to me. Ping. Ping. Urgh. Connor’s spamming me with text messages.
‘Maricela?’
‘Hello?’
‘Can we just talk?’
‘You can’t ghost me forever.’
A pause.
‘I didn’t cheat on you. I would never.’
I stare at the last text for a second, then shut off my
phone. I look to the side, and my mother is hovering over my shoulder.
“Told you soooo,” she says.
“Stop.” I snap. She glares at me, her look saying, Don’t you start. Well, mother, I started.
“Just because you are upset that I don’t have a partner to raise my baby doesn’t mean that you can just walk in, telling me what to do, putting me down.” I pause, seeing her expression of anger, and something else I can’t quite put my finger on.
Fear.
To be continued…
Kid Governor
By Cy
In January we went to Montpelier for Phoebe’s inauguration, which is basically a fancy and more formal way of saying sworn into office. Rosyln, who is not from Red Fox, won Vermont’s first Kid Governor and Phoebe, who is in my class, is in her cabinet. That is really cool because there were more than 70 students who ran for Kid Governor. Phoebe is one out of 7 people who got into the cabinet. Her platform was Mental Illness in Children. Part of being in the Kid Governor cabinet is that Phoebe has had meetings with Governor Scott and also Robyn Palmer, Vermont’s Kid Governor coordinator. There are meetings every month for Phoebe to go to and she has a one year term in the cabinet. One event Phoebe went to was a But Why? interview. But Why? Is an NPR children’s podcast. There was also a Kid Governor leadership summit.
It was really fun going to Montpelier. It was cool touring the state house. This was the first time I was ever there. I want to be a part of Kid Governor next year when I’m in fifth grade. I’m not really sure what I want my platform to be, but maybe something with physical and mental health.
SVAC Art Show
By Marcel
At the SVAC Art from the Schools opening reception on April 3rd, our art was the centerpiece. In the main room our display took up about half of the space. We had the whole back wall and extending into the room was a large table that looked like the dinner party we made. There were lots of schools showing their art, but my favorite was Red Fox’s based on Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party. Red Fox students picked any woman they wanted to represent and honor. I chose Zena, our art teacher and even though my mom was offended that I didn’t pick her, I chose Zena because she is my favorite art teacher. I created a dinner mat with hot pink fabric that said Zena with her last name. I also made a plate that had a question mark with her name on it. I did that because it represented me thinking about her. Finally, I made a really cool clay green cup because green is one of Zena’s favorite colors.
At the celebration I saw all my friends and their parents. I was really excited that so many people left notes all over our place mats complementing us. After everybody was finished looking at all of the art, they opened up an ice cream stand and everyone got ice cream at the end!
Counting on Grace
By Hunter
Counting on Grace is a very good book that takes place in a large textile mill in 1910. The main character’s name is Grace and she lives with her family in a mill house. If you don’t know what that is, it's basically a house and if you want to live in a mill house, every able bodied person has to work at the mill. Grace goes to school with this kid named Arthur. There is this guy named French Johnny, who has been trying to get Arthur to work in the mill because–you guessed it–Arthur lives in a mill house. If you didn’t know, French Johnny owns the mill. French Johnny comes to the school and asks to take Arthur to work at the mill. Their teacher, Miss Lesley, starts yelling at French Johnny but French Johnny insists on taking Arthur. Then Arthur runs, and I mean runs! He even took the book that the whole class was reading. Then Grace gets up from her desk and notices that Miss Lesley was crying. Then she tells Grace to go work at the mill and that she does not want French Johnny to take one of her best readers away. So Grace goes to find Arthur and she does find him in an old trapper’s shack by the river. She talks to him but French Johnny follows her and now he is in the shack too and grabs Arthur and takes him away to the mill and Arthur is calling Grace a tattle. Grace then goes to work at the mill and at this part of the book it’s just them working in the mill and it is not that interesting, so I’m going to just skip it. So Grace has a fever and she has to stay home and watch over grandpa Pepe and he is kind of crazy so they tie him to his bed with ropes, but somehow he gets out and is ranting about going back to Canada, but he goes onto the train track and gets hit by the train. Then there is this guy at the mill with a camera, Mr. Hine, and he takes pictures of them and Grace makes friends with him. He leaves, but not before he tells Grace and Arthur to write down their life stories in a book and then send it to him in the mail. After that, Arthur loses his two middle fingers and now he can’t write down his life story or work in the mill so he and his mom are forced to leave Vermont. Later, Miss Lesley leaves to go to New Hampshire and then Grace becomes a teacher and she writes this letter to Mr. Hine:
September 22, 1910
Dear Mr. Hine,
This is the notebook you wanted me and Arthur to fill up. I had to do all the writing. Arthur cut off two of his fingers when he caught them in a frame and he couldn’t hold a pencil after that. He left town with his mother and Miss Lesley got fired and I’m the teacher for now. It’s not easy, but it’s better than the mill.
Thank you for the pictures.
Your friend,
Grace Forcier
Counting on Grace is really good. I highly recommend it to read. I liked it as one of the best books that I read this year.
Reading Group
By Eleanor
I am in Kristin’s reading group. In our group is Marcel, Arthur, William, Reed, Sebastian, and I. We are reading The Heartwood Hotel. We take turns reading out loud. It is about a mouse named Mona. Her house flooded and she almost drowned. She was in the house, but got out and she saw a tree with a heart in it. On top of the heart it said Heartwood Hotel. She heard music and went into the room. There was this bear outside of Heartwood Hotel. His name is Brumble. She was brave enough to go out and talk to him. She then brought him back to his den. She got yelled at because she let a bug into the Heartwood Hotel. So she ran away because she didn’t want to get yelled at by Mister Heartwood. She tried to find a new home after that and she saw wolves and then she heard the wolf say they’re going to look for the tree with the lights on it. They went to Brumble’s cave. Mona woke up Brumble and they covered his cave with lanterns.
My favorite characters are Mona and Brumble. I like Mona because she’s tiny, but helpful to Heartwood Hotel. She helps by solving problems and she also cleans the hotel. I like Brumble because he’s big like a teddy bear. He likes sleeping. He also likes helping out. We are almost finished with this book. At the end, I think Mona will have a job at Heartwood Hotel and Mona and Brumble will be friends. I like this book so far.
Kim (part two) from Seedfolks
By Rudy
Two years after I planted those lima beans, I came back to the vacant lot and saw it wasn’t so vacant. Plants were growing, people were talking, and one man was brandishing a pitchfork, sharp and ready to stop anyone or thing that would steal some tomatoes. I bumped into a man sprinting to his car with a crate of baby lettuce in his arms. I fell down and landed on some eggplants and hit my head on a garden bed. I got up and immediately slipped on eggplant gunk, sending some flying into a girl’s face, who stumbled onto a wasp nest. They bolted to Pitchfork Man, who threw it at the wasps, but missed, mowing down an entire row of sweet corn. It kept going and hit the gas tank of a truck, spraying gasoline everywhere. In surprise, a teenager dropped his cigarette: BOOM!
I woke up on eggplants.
“Ow…sorry!” I said.
“Are you okay?” Pitchfork Man asked.
“Ow…yeah, I think,” I said.
It was an unconscious dream. I got up and hastily left the garden. I was a block away from my apartment when I realized I left my brother at daycare! I’d have to pass the garden on the way there…
Duck Hunting
By William
Over the weekend I went to four different lakes because me and my dad wanted to shoot ducks. Lake one had no ducks but had a beaver dam, so we left. Lake two had two ducks and a beaver dam. We decided that was a good place to go hunting. We rowed our boat into the middle of the lake. The ducks heard us and they took off flying. We dropped our paddles into the boat and grabbed our shotguns. You have to be quick with your movement because you have a 2-5 second window to shoot. You might miss, you might not. In that case, my dad got both of the ducks. We put down our shotguns and grabbed our paddles. We started canoeing to where we saw the first duck. We grabbed the first duck and then canoed to the second duck and put it in our boat. We turned around and canoed to our car. We got out of the lake and put the canoe on top of the car. We then drove to another lake to try our luck at finding more ducks. Lake three had no ducks and a beaver dam, so we left. My dad had another spot in mind. Lake four had no ducks and a beaver dam and I climbed the beaver house and I stood on top of it. Then I ran off because I was afraid I would fall in there, and my dad was getting ready to leave anyway. When I caught up with him, I opened the door, sat in the car, and we drove to H.N. Williams to get a coconut drink. It was so delicious. Then we went home. I really like spending time with my dad hunting.
My Stay in Florida
By Sebastian
My family moved to Florida for five months during this school year. My mom rides horses and we went there for her to do that. It was fun to go to Florida. We lived in a house there. I had my own room like I do in Vermont. The sun came in the window in the morning. I like that my room in Florida was bigger than mine in Vermont. In the town there was a playground. That’s different from where I live in Vermont. I did coding there and I made a game. It’s a game where you find a ninja and different things pop up like food. There’s a timer for 15 seconds. My high score was 13. The instructor helped me design the game. When I was in Florida I also played at the park a lot. It was close to the school I was at. There was a basketball court there. I played with my brother, Ryder. I missed my friends in Vermont, but I’m glad I went to Florida.
Our Trip to North Meadow Farm
By Wolfe
We went to North Meadow Farm on a school trip. My grandma, David, and Jessie own the farm so I’m there a lot, but all four times before when my school went on a trip there I was absent, so I was excited to go this time. It was fun. We saw the newborn calf. The calf is tiny, black, and he had a really long tongue. He licked us and it tickled. We collected the eggs. There were three coops. We had to lift up the chickens and get the eggs really fast because they peck and it hurts. We didn’t count the eggs, but we got a lot. I went back to one of the coops yesterday and the basket was full again. There were a lot of big pigs that were fun to see. One of them is named Harley and another one is Oreo. Seeing the ducks was really fun because we got to feed grass to them. The theme for naming the goats born this year is Nordic and Greek gods and warriors. There’s Loki, Apollo, Thor, and two older goats, Daisy from last year and Cricket, the oldest goat on the farm. It was really fun picking up Loki and showing him to my friends. When we went to the alpaca pen, my grandma told us a story about a boy who had been uncontrollably running around the farm and he ran into the alpaca pen. My grandma was nervous because alpacas can be aggressive with people, but she also said that animals can tell when a person has a good heart and this boy laid on the alpaca’s back and the alpaca didn’t move and the boy calmed down. Before we left, we got vanilla ice cream, which I get to eat a lot at the farm, but it was nice to share with my friends from school. I hope we go back to the farm with Red Fox next year.
Bike Day
By Allison
At Red Fox, we have a thing called Bike Day. It happens twice a year. On Bike Day, we bring our bikes to school, and we get to ride our bikes, either from school to Riley Rink and back to school, or some people get dropped off at Riley Rink in the morning, and we all ride back together. We ride to and from the Rec Park. Later in the day, we also get to ride our bikes in the field. Then, we get to leave them at school so that we can use them for more field times. In the fall, I rode my bike a lot until it got cold and then I brought it home. In the spring, we had a second Bike Day, which happened pretty much the same as last time. We rode to and from the Rec Park and then left our bikes here to ride during field time. I really enjoy Bike Day. It was really fun riding my bike at school.
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