In class we have discussed different ways of starting a story. Here is at least one example from each of the kids in the class. Can you guess what type of opening sentences they are? We’d like to thank Dr. Daniel for sharing her organization of the opening sentences with us.

Once was I wandering around a mansion in Rome, when I found a secret passage. As I walked through then passage I found a legend carved on a rock wall. I t said…

Adrian

The day started like every other day. I was going bike riding when I saw a woman that was having a hard time walking so I borrowed a wagon and offered to push her. She let me help her and then she gave me some corn on the cob. She told me that if my first bite had a golden kernel in it, then I could wish for anything I wanted.

Anuja

“Mom, I am going for a walk along the riverbank.” As I walking along the riverbank, I tripped over a strange looking ball. It was spinning on the ground. I picked it up and discovered that it was a ….

Brett

It was Christmas Eve and I had decided to go to bed early. When I went to bed I heard a strange sound. I peeked out of my window and I saw….

Bridget

One dark and foggy Halloween night I decided to investigate something spooky. There was a house that I had heard had a ghost in it. I called some of my friends to ….

Casandra

“Mom we’re going to miss our flight if you don’t hurry up!” I yelled. This was going to be the best time of my life. We were going to …..

Claire

One day when I was walking home from school, I saw a young lady with a couple of heavy bags. I went up to her and asked her if she needed help. She replied, “Yes you could take this for me,” and I took one of her bags. When we got to her house she told me that her name was Marina and then she gave me a corn on the cob. She told me that, “this corn has magical powers!” “What do you mean?” I asked. “ You will find out once you eat it,” she answered.

Claire

It was Christmas Eve and my parents were asleep. They didn’t know that I was downstairs hiding behind the couch. I had a flashlight with me and my lizard on my shoulder. I was listening for the footsteps of Santa. It was 12:00 and I was about to go to bed when suddenly I heard footsteps. I looked up and saw…

Damien

“Yahoo! Come on Mariah!” I said. We were already downstairs when we heard, “Can you let me out of here?” “What was that?” I said. “Let’s go check it out,” Mariah said. It got louder with every step….

Dylan

“Hey Mom”, I yelled. “ When are we going to be leaving for Hawaii.” “In two hours,” said my mom, “and you can bring two friends.” “I already got two friends, Ryen and Hugh,” I said. We left the house and we picked them up. We got into the plane and went to Hawaii. When we got there we all ran out carrying our luggage. “Hey guys, what’s this?’ asked Ryen suddenly. “I have no clue!” I said. On the ground there was a strange looking animal. It …

Emery

It was Halloween night and my friends, Ryen, Emery and Quintin, and I were going to see if the story was true about the ghosts that lived by the river. We met by my house because the river was only a block away. “ Are you sure that we should do this?” Emery said. “Shhh, we’re getting close,” I said. Suddenly…

Hugh

One day as I was walking home from school, I accidentally bumped into an old lady. She fell down but I helped her up. She said, “ Thank you for being kind,” and then she gave me a corn on the cob. She whispered in my ear that it was magical. I said thank you and walked away. “What does she mean ‘magical’”, I thought.

James

I was so excited. I was headed for the corn maze. When I got there, I ran into the maze and quickly got lost.

Janine

“I’m going to be late for school!” I screamed. “Ok, get going,” my mom said. When I got into my class, I went to take out a pencil when I saw this white thing sitting on my desk! It looked like…

Jocelyn

One dark, foggy night, I went out with Rhea and Casandra. We were going to the haunted house to see if we had heard was true.

Joy

I was so excited. I was going to the Million Dollar Corn Maze with my family. This was a special corn maze that had a special corn in it. If you found that corn, you could win a million dollars!

Kayla

It was two days before Christmas and I was lying in bed. Suddenly I heard a sound…like bells. I got up and went to my window. I only saw owls swooping down and I thought that I must be dreaming so I went back to bed. The next day…

Liya

We were going to Russia. I yelled at my mom, “Mom, we’re going to be late for the plane!” We arrived at the airport and we just missed the plane so we jumped on the wing with our spy gear. We had flying backpacks, claw gloves, swords and armor.

Markus

One night my friends and I went down to the old, abandoned army base. There was a tale that there was the ghost of a soldier who got killed by the captain of the Natives. All the other soldiers had run away but the ghost was still there.

Martin

One foggy Christmas Eve, I was sleeping when suddenly I heard something outside. I saw a train outside my house. The conductor yelled….

Matt

One Christmas Eve I was so excited about Santa coming to give me presents. I had all my stuffed animals all over me and I was asking them,” When is Santa Claus going to come?”. I decided to go downstairs to see what was going on. I leaned against the wall and peeked. I was shivering like crazy, my teeth were crackling. I ran quietly into the family room so Mom and Dad couldn’t hear me. “What the heck is that?” My present was moving. “Excuse me, excuse me. Let me out!”, the box shouted. I made a frown and opened the present. Inside…..

Meghan

I was writing a letter to Santa. It said ;

Dear Santa,

How are you doing? Enough chit chat, let’s get down to business. This year

I want a Bionicle Mask of Light on DVD.

I put a stamp on it and mailed it. I waited for Christmas. That night I woke up and heard something. I sat up and got out of bed. I tiptoed down the hallway with my dog.

Michael

“Mom can I go and explore the mine?” I asked. We were on a tour at an old mine in Drumheller.

“Yes son but be back in an hour,” my mom said. So I went into the mine to explore. I was very far in the mine when I noticed that almost an hour had passed. I started running back out when I saw something that I hadn’t noticed on my way down. It was…

Nathan

When I was walking home from school I saw a maze up ahead of me. I went in the maze . I saw Emery and asked him if wanted to walk through the maze with me. So Emery and I were wandering around the maze when we saw a time portal. We went through the portal and found ourselves in ….

Quintin

One day while I was walking along a beach I found a cob of corn lying on the sand. “Cool, a free corn,” I thought. So I peeled it open and suddenly a note fell out of it. It said that I could have two wishes come true!

Ryen

“Ooh Mom,” I begged, ”I’m not even tired yet!” My mom was just in the middle of our staircase. “No Sarah,” my mom yawned, “Santa will be here very soon.” I grumbled as I crept up the staircase, my shoulders slumped.

Sarah

“Are you crazy Grandma and Grandpa?” I yelled at my grandparents as my grandma handed me a stalk of corn. “No, we’re not Sarah,” they said to me solemnly. “It’s magic wishing corn,” my grandma said. My grandma broke off a piece of corn for me. I gobbled it down and hurried off to bed. Twenty minutes later I started to have strange dreams. The next morning I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. Yikes! It was blank. I was invisible!

Sarah

I was in Egypt to explore a Pyramid. I was by myself. All of a sudden I heard something move beside me. I swung my flashlight around to the left to see what was beside me. “What’s this?” I asked myself. Beside me there was a strange looking …

Tristen

It was Christmas Eve and was so excited. I had been awake for hours but so far I hadn’t heard a single noise from downstairs. I was getting worried that Santa might not come to my house. I got up and went downstairs to check. Under the tree there was one present. I noticed that it didn’t have a name on it. Then all of a sudden the present started to move.

Umanga