Jenn found this story and others in Oakley’s school bag tonight. She had torn them out of her notebook from the summer and placed them in an envelope titled, “Short Stories for School”, by Oakley Rhea Martin.
I’ve captured it precisely as she wrote it…
“Caw, Caw, Caw,” the crow flew up into a pine tree up high. Oh, how those three girls loved nature. But best of all they loved birds. But maybe they didn’t like it when the birds ate their blueberries. That was just kind of upseting. The oldest sister, Aspen loved how beautiful and shiny the wings were. Oakley, who was the middle sister, loved how swift they were in flight. Lindy, who was the youngest sister, loved how beautiful the birds eggs were, for example the light turquiose blue of the robins egg. One day, the 3 girls heard a female and male cardinal chirping a song. Then the three sisters knew what they had to do. They had to keep birds in their hearts forever. Keep nature exist in the world. The cardinals had sent a message to keep them them birds and whole safe.
He was so pretty. He was very valiant. He had very bright black and orange hairs. He had a very loud roar. And that was who he was. The Orange Tiger. They called him magnificent. Awesome. Their leader. Spectacular. Their war hero. At least against elephants. But maybe not against giraffes. The animals just loved him. Adored him. In fact, they loved him so much they called him their king and that was just that. That was the way that the Orange Tiger was made. It was just how he was.
the end
This is a story that Oakley wrote in her notebook. For no apparent reason. I love it.
It’s one of our very favorite traditions… a week at the beach with the Haile family. Every year, we find our way to Duck, where Grammie’s family has gathered for 30 years. And every year, we love it.
The kids (ours and the cousins) were all about the waves this year. While it makes me nervous on occasion, I can’t really argue with them. The waves are absolutely my favorite part of going to the beach too. For you, I have a review of the best wave jumping seen at Port Trinitie last week…
“Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”
Today was a good day, a memorable one. Like most Saturdays, it started at the market, where we bought some 32 quarts of strawberries… But that’s another post.
From there, to the soccer fields, where the Purple Pandas (Aspen’s team) managed a 1-1 draw against a team that had beaten them 7-1 weeks ago. Yes, the Pandas ended the season on a hot streak.
Next up? Oakley’s team ran into a wall… perhaps the most physical team I’ve seen in U7 soccer. Some of the girls did physical right, clean, others, well, not so much. But Oakley’s team, the Smashing Dolphins played it just right. They didn’t back down from anyone, they went after them, and they dealt with the checking in just the right way… They put the ball in the back of the net 5 times…
From there, we all caravanned to the Martin house for a soccer celebration… I’ve had a great season with two fun teams of girls… some of whom we’re getting to know really well. I’m thankful for that… even in a season where the Panda’s won but one game, the group of girls is growing closer, and that’s pretty awesome to see.
Every teacher should have to create a video summarizing their year, right? I mean, why wouldn’t they, what with everything else they have to do at year’s end?
Well, the incomparable Miss Drury did just that for her kids, and she shared it with us at their final publishing party. You get to hear the kids talk about the things they’ve learned including the techniques and concepts… complete with some words you may not know.
I know I’ve been hyping Oakley a lot lately, but there’s just a lot of good stuff going on. (Aspen and Lindy have their moments too, but they haven’t been translating to the blog as well as Oakley’s. Incidentally, Aspen voluntarily helped me clean out the whole basement from the flood today, which was pretty awesome.)
But, back to Oakley’s letters… I’ll just share them verbatim. They’re that good.
Oakley has had a brilliant first grade year. Literally, brilliant. Credit can go to many… her school has served he so well this year, her teacher, well, we’ve talked about that… and her mom is OK, too.
I’ve got two things to share… first, as video. Oakley’s school play took place last week, and her school deserves a lot of credit for doing these things right. All of the kids get their moment to shine, it’s fun, it’s brief, I even enjoy going. That’s an accomplishment.
So, enjoy Three of a Kind, including Oakley’s muscles and her trio…
