Publish polished student writing inspired by this contest-winning photo here!

[Publishing Voice]

Each year, the WritingFix website sponsors a Digital Photo Contest for students and teachers nationwide.  The goal is for students to take pictures that would inspire their classmates to want to write the "story behind a picture."

 

Click here to access WritingFix's Digital Photo Resource Page! 

 

At right, you see the student-winning digital photograph from our 2010 contest.  It was taken by high school student Crystal Ji.  You can enlarge the picture by clicking on.

 

If you use this photo in class as a writing prompt, and then have a student like what they're writing so much that they take their writing through the writing process, we want to see their published stories posted here!

 

Post no rough drafts...please.  We're looking for polished writing inspired by this photograph!  Final drafts of stories can be pasted or attached in the "Reply to This" box below.

 

Very Important:  Teachers, please only share your students' first name and grade level with us when you post the writing on their behalf.  Do not post last names or school names, or the posts will be deleted.

 

Twenty-five Teachers every semester will win a free classroom resource!  Each semester, we choose 25 new students to publish at our online lessons directly at the world-famous WritingFix website. To have your students' writing considered, it can be posted below in the box underneath  this posting.  In November and May, we will select the 25 students whose writing impressed us the most, and if your student(s) is selected, you will be asked to choose from any of the NNWP Print Publications (http://www.unr.edu/educ/nnwp/publications.html) for us to send to your classroom.

 

Help us celebrate your writers.

 

--Corbett Harrison, WritingFix Webmaster

[Nancy Schneider]

Two Eggs in a Nest

 

As I walk through the woods, I see a small tree

I climb it to find out what I can see

While I’m climbing the tree, I see with my eye

Something that makes me want to cry

 

Two eggs in a nest, no one claims them

As cute as they could be, nobody takes them

Then I see a sign that says “lost and found”

So I decided to pick up the nest.

It barely weighed a pound.

 

I take the eggs home to see if they hatch.

“But wait!” I thought as I gave my head a scratch.

“Where will I keep them when I get home?”

I’ll ask my dad if I can make a nice dome.

 

I’ll make it of brown branches,

green leaves and sticks.

I’ll even try to teach them tricks.

Oh! I’m so exited as you can notice.

I think I’ll name them Lucky and Otis.

 

 

By: Savvina

       

[Amy Peterson]

EPILOGUE
Two speckled eggs lay beside each other. One is large, the other small. Perched in a small tree is their nest, waiting for the mother’s warmth. Time passes. The warmth comes, but not the kind it needs. A fire has started in the tree. The burning tree falls into the nearby sea. Quickly a shape flashes by, taking the eggs with it. The mother never returns to the tree.

Many years later…

“Look out, Gold!” Silver shouts. With extreme speed and agility, Silver’s brother moves to the side of a dark blue object.
“Those vendors are crazy this time of year!” Gold comments.
“Lots of stuff to be sold in the Underwater Kingdom,” a rough, coarse voice says. The voice takes shape as a sales merchant steps out of the shadows. Tall, thin, yet buff, the merchant’s intense purple-green gaze bores into the brothers. Fishy scales cover his body.
“You two weren’t born here, were you?” the merchant asks.
“How could you tell?” Gold asks.
“You don’t have scales,” he notices.
“Are you from the Upper Land Kingdoms?”
“You could tell all that in one look?!?” Silver said, shocked.
“With ease, man. You should consider meeting some other merchants. They can tell if you'll buy something they have by the way you move your eyes!”
After a brief huddle, our heroes decide to take him up on his offer. They travel with him to the merchant kingdom. Becoming merchants’ apprentices, they work their way up to the top of the merchant ladder. Never had they thought becoming merchants would reunite them with their long-lost mother. With many tears and lots of hugs, the brothers finally meet her while trying to sell her something.
They live in peace and wealth with their mother until a war starts between the Upper and Underwater Kingdoms. The king of the Underwater Kingdom calls upon the brothers to recruit them as soldiers. Will they refuse? Serve? Go back to the Upper Kingdom? And what will happen to their mother? What will befall her? The rest is up to you to decide.

Brandon 5th grade

[Lauren Sansone]

The Mother Bird’s Nest

By: Jessica

Grade 3

In the nest I saw a bright blue colorful egg. The mother bird lost her egg and the mother bird can’t find her  egg. The bright blue egg is behind  the bushes  where it is hiding. The mother bird  put the sign that

said “Lost and Found.” The bushes had shadows where the sun shines on the leaves. The mother bird put  light brown  sticks to make the baby bird nice and  cozy in their light brown nest. When I went outside I saw a bright blue egg and I felt it and it was a hard egg. It cracked by itself and there was a baby bird Who will say ‘’mama’’ to her mother bird.

 

[Ashley Crossno]

Two Little Birds, 5th Grade