LESSON 4.1.1
Sample A
Grades 1-3
If I could be any wild animal, I would be a platypus. Cause they remind me of a clay model I made.
I love Tasmania.
Last year I was in second grade. We did a unit on Australia. I saw Tasmania on the map and did a report on that. It’s an island near Australia. Not many people live there. There are lots of forests. I thought that was cool cause I don’t like crowds. And I love forests.
Then one day I fell asleep and dreamed I was in Tasmania. I was walking along a stream. Then I saw a strange animal in a pool of water. “That’s a platypus!” someone shouted.
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Then I woke up.
I don’t know if the shout was from excitement. Or fear. Because platypuses are very dangerous.
But later I looked up information and found out they are real.
According to National Geographic for Kids, it’s a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal that has a bill like a duck. The adults are only about 15 inches long, plus a tail that is about 5 inches long.
The males are venomous. They have stingers on the ends of their rear feet.
Platypuses eat insects, shellfish, and other stuff off the bottom. They live about 12 years in the wild and about 20 years in captivity.
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One reason I like platypuses is because it reminds me of a clay model I made.
A platypus looks like a duck, a beaver, and an otter put together.
When I was in kindergarten, we were told to make something out of clay. Our parents were going to come see the teacher on open house night. I like military things. My dad’s a soldier. So I wanted to make a duck vehicle. That’s an amphibious vehicle. My dad just now gave me the word. And spelled it.
It brings soldiers into a battle. It goes through the ocean and lands on the beach. Then the front opens and the soldiers charge out. My model looked like a bulldozer blade stuck onto dog poop. All the other kids made bunnies and things like that. I didn’t want people to see it. I started crying. But my dad hugged me. He said, “You’ll make a great soldier someday, Jessie.”
END
Jessie
Grade 3