Reflections Contest

Sierra and Caleb kept busy during the month of October tapping into their artistic abilities for the national Reflections contest. They ended up having lots of fun, and both were thrilled to receive some awards for their efforts.

Sierra wrote several very silly stories that had me suppressing my laughter as she dictated them to me, and she won an Award of Merit (second level of recognition) and an Honorable Mention (third level of recognition) at our elementary school for two of them.

Caleb had an advantage this year being the oldest grade in the K-2nd contest level. He entered every category of art except dance choreography and proved to be quite the Renaissance Man. His short film won an Award of Merit and he won Awards of Excellence (top level of recognition) for his photography, musical composition, writing, and two drawings at the elementary school. These entries advanced to regional judging, where he received an Honorable Mention for musical composition, Award of Merit for photography, and Award of Excellence for writing.

His story "The Come-to-Life Origami Paper" will now advance to the state level! It will be a couple months before we hear the results from the state competition. I'm sure it will be hard to place there, but it's always fun to wait and dream. We attended an awards ceremony for the regional contest at the elementary school today, and it was comical to see the second grade buzz louder and louder every time Caleb went on stage. He was pretty calm about the whole thing, but I think he's proud and excited.

I told both kids that what makes me happiest isn't the awards but enjoying their art. Since their stories are the easiest thing to post, I thought I'd include a sample of their efforts below. Enjoy!

The Silly Elephant by Sierra Biddulph

Once upon a time there was a silly elephant. He did many tricks. On his tail he could balance a birthday cake, on his belly he could balance a rocking chair, on his eyes he could balance diamond rings and necklaces, on his ears he could balance sunscreen, and on his trunk he could balance a bed.

There was one girl named Sarah who didn’t like his tricks even a teeny tiny bit. He saw her face and thought, “Maybe I can make my tricks even sillier, like jumping through a hoop!” When he jumped through the hoop, he accidentally fell over. That made the girl even less into his tricks. The elephant was very, very sad. The elephant thought, “I don’t even know if this will work, but I will just try.” He picked the girl up and spun her around for everyone. Then he said, “Good day, ma’am.”

The little girl said, “Wow! That elephant must be a really famous elephant, even more than the President of the United States of America. No elephant can speak, and he was just born the other day! How can he learn to speak so fastly?”

After that, the elephant and Sarah became best friends, and she visited him every day at the zoo.

The Come-to-life Origami Paper by Caleb Biddulph

Chapter 1

One day Mike was riding to Hobby Lobby. He was going to buy some origami paper. He found a box that said ‘Weston origami paper. Will bring your origami to life!’ “Wow!” said Mike, “This must be the only box of origami paper in the whole store!” Indeed, it was. He had looked through every nook and cranny of the store, but had not even found a single piece of origami paper in the entire store! He went to the checkout counter, bought the paper, rushed out of the store, and hopped onto his bike to pedal home and go make some origami. He climbed the stairs to his room and decided to make a goldfish. He folded it, snipped it, and opened it out into a goldfish. As he stood back to admire his work, he thought he saw the tail move. He looked again. Yep, he definitely saw it move. He looked away from it. Then heard a voice scream, “Get me some water! Noooooow!” Mike jumped up, opened the door, ran downstairs, got a bowl, filled it with water, ran upstairs, shut the door, and put the goldfish into the bowl, all in 5 seconds! “What’s going on?” he asked the goldfish.

Chapter 2

“Well, look at that box,” said the goldfish. “Can’t you read?’ W-I-L-L. That spells will. B-R-I-N”… “Ok, I get it,” said Mike, “But how did this happen?” “No idea!” said the goldfish. “But I can tell you something!” “What?” asked Mike. “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON!” bellowed the goldfish. “Er, yeh, I already knew that,” said Mike. “Can’t you tell me anything else?” “No!” said the goldfish. “Well, I’m underwater…” “Looks like there isn’t anything you can tell me. Guess I’ll have to live with that.” He paused. “Well then,” he said “So, mind if I make you a friend?” “No, not at all!” said the goldfish. “The more the better!” So he folded, snipped, and opened the paper up into a goldfish. Its tail twitched. It twitched again. “Get me some water! Noooooow!”

Chapter 3

Mike plopped him into the bowl. “Hello, good friend!” said the first fish. “Hello good friend!” said the second fish. Mike put the bowl in the closet. Then he headed downstairs. That night, Mike heard a sound from his closet. “Can I have a glass of water?” “No,” said Mike, “You already have lots of water. Now go to sleep!” The next morning, Mike went to school. At the classroom, the teacher, Miss Airbag, was introducing a new kid. “Class, this is Bulligan. His favorite animal is a cow. He says he likes male cows best. Another word for a male cow is a bull. And his favorite truck is a bulldozer.” Mike soon found out why. He was a bull-y.

Chapter 4

Bulligan tripped him on the sidewalk so he got loads of scratches. He stole his lunch money. In fact, Bulligan was probably bullying him more than he was bullying anybody else! Finally he had a plan. The next morning, he made a dragon and eight cranes out of the magic origami paper. Just as he expected, they came to life. He whispered orders to them, and he got the goldfish out of the closet and whispered orders to them. He got some foil and wrapped it around the bowl so the water didn’t fall out, and stuffed the animals into his backpack. When he went into the classroom, he still had his backpack on. He opened it up, and the cranes and dragon flew out. Everybody stared, especially at the dragon, since they had never seen one before. The cranes picked up Bulligan and swung him around. The dragon swooped up and just hung there, since Mike wanted to teach Bulligan a lesson and just made the dragon to scare him. Then, before he could give the signal for the fish to splash water at him, Bulligan yelled “OK, I give up!” The cranes dropped him, and the dragon swooped down. “You have used your magic wisely,” said a voice from the shadows.

Chapter 5

A figure stepped from the shadows. “It is I,” said the person. He had white, long hair that almost touched the floor. He had a cape, and warm brown eyes. “I am Wizard Horus.” His eyes twinkled. “My last name is Weston.” Weston… It rung something in Mike’s memory, but he couldn’t tell what. “Yes, I am the maker of the origami paper,” Horus said, as if he had read Mike’s mind. “It was hard work. I worked on it day and night. Why did I do it? I thought I could make a difference in the world.” “And I did,” he finished, looking at Mike. There was a silence. Then Bulligan spoke up. “Do you think it was a good idea to bruise my hands?” he said, pointing to the scratches on his hands the cranes had made. “Oh, I can fix that,” said Horus. He waved a wand he had conjured out of thin air, and the scratches vanished. Then he stepped back into the shadows and he too vanished. After that, Mike and Bulligan, (who now called himself Friendigan) were the best of friends. Horus visited them often enough, and they all lived happily ever after.