Rocket Writes a Story (2 page)

Rocket always brought his words back to the classroom and wrote them down. The little yellow bird would help him spell the tricky ones, and then they’d hang them on their word tree.

Sometimes the bird added her own words to the collection. “This one is small, but I promise it’ll come in handy,” she’d say.

“Magnificent!” chirped the little yellow bird once their tree was covered. “Now what shall we do with all these splendid words?” Rocket thought all afternoon. Then he had an idea.

Rocket left school that day with a very waggy tail. “I’m going to write a story!” he declared to Fred and Emma.

“My story will be an adventure about the great wide world,” he told a butterfly.

“I will use many words,” he explained to Mr. Barker.

“Hello up there!” he called as he passed the tree where he had found the word

The next day, Rocket returned to his classroom. It was time to begin. He looked down at the blank page and the blank page looked up at him. But no story would come.

At snack time, Rocket gave up. “I don’t know what to write,” he told his teacher.

“Don’t worry,” the little yellow bird replied. “One of the hardest parts of writing is coming up with a good story. But it’s one of the most fun, too. Perhaps you want to write about something you’ve seen.”

“A bug?” asked Rocket.

“Yes!” sang his teacher. “Stories need good characters. Or what about something that happened to you? Or something you really enjoy?”

“My favorite stick?” suggested Rocket.

“Of course!” said the bird. “Or you could write about something that inspires you!”

“Inspires me?” asked Rocket.

“Yes, something that excites you,” the little yellow bird sang.

Rocket took a walk and looked for inspiration. He thought about friends he knew and places he’d been. He stuck his nose high in the air and sniffed the gentle breeze. And there it was—a delightful smell of pine needles and feathers. Inspiration!

For the rest of the morning he thought about feathers and pine needles. Pine needles and feathers.

That afternoon he started to write.