Collaborative story

It's been fun working on the collaborative story with other teachers on staff.  Everyone has a unique style. I keep wanting to steer the story one way and return to find it someplace very different. I have pasted it below (with names deleted to protect the privacy of the authors).

A Collaborative Story

We will be using this picture to create a collaborative story.  We are a very creative group so I am very intrigued to see how our story will evolve!   I have started the story line - now you just have to contribute.   After you have made your contribution to the story, add your name in parentheses so we know who contributed.   Once you are finished you can go to FILE and select SAVE NOW (or you can always use Apple S).  If it is grayed out, Google Docs has already saved it for you.  Feel free to come back to the story and add more to the story line!


Chapter 1

To see them, you would think, “What an odd couple!”  How they met and developed their unique relationship, however, is an amazing story in itself.  

Murgatroid tumbled over and over again in the darkness, afraid to even think about where he would stop or what would happen to him next. His heart pounding and his fur drenched, he opened his eyes.

His fur was wet and sticky. He could hear the rushing water under him. He looked up and blinked several times to clear his eyes. It was as dark as a wolf’s mouth. He thought he heard a noise....

It was that first grade class coming to the pond for their yearly visit to the vernal pool. They dipped their nets into the water and hoped to catch the first frog. The class never thought that they would also find that runaway hamster from the kindergarten class.  What should they do?

“It’s Jumpin’ Josie!” shouted Raoul, the little curly haired lad who had netted the wee beastie.  “But what’s that green blob underneath her?  Is it a pile of leaves and pond muck?”

“No, it’s a frog!”  bellowed Alice in amazement. “What is Jumpin’ Josie doing riding on the back of a giant bullfrog?  Is it a rodeo?”

“No, it’s Mr. Froggy.  He went went a courtin’ Miss Mousie!” burbled Fletcher.   (Bill)

Meanwhile, 6th graders tumbled out of their classroom door and dashed to the field.

Science whiz Clarissa overheard the conversation at the pond. She considered the younger children’s observations a bit immature. She thought, “Every knowledgeable 6th grade student would instantly recognize that this isn’t a “courting” situation.  Romance across species is impossible.” So, with adolescent confidence Clarissa declared, “Can’t you see that the frog is

                                                    wearing a hat?”   

Chapter 2

                                                    One month earlier...
          

It was night time.  Josie the little brown mouse sat with her 25 sisters and brothers  and their exhausted mother in the a room with hard walls.  They sat with their backs next to the big, round, blue and red pond that was filled with hard, round things.  Occasionally giant humans with huge heads and smaller bodies would jump into this skyscraper, and thrash around.  They made horrible screeches and the pond shook.  When this happened, Josie and her 25 sisters and brothers and their exhausted mother scrunched down and put their paws over their eyes, expecting the worst.  But the big headed humans with the smaller bodies would always go away and the mouse family crept back to lean against the blue and red pond.  Josie’s 25 brothers and sisters, and their exhausted mother were happy living in this hard walled room with the blue and red pond.  They got to eat lots of snacks left by the big headed humans, and they were content.  But Josie yearned for adventure.    

Before heading out for adventure, however, Josie had to clear up a huge conundrum. She was having an identity crisis.
“Mama,” Josie inquired innocently,”what am I?”
“Am I a mouse or a hamster?”
Josie’s mother gazed lovingly at her daughter and gently cooed, “Well...”   

“You’ve got to be kidding.  You are supposed to help me feel better, Mom.”  

“You can decide that yourself, my darling,” said her mother. Confident that she could be whatever she wanted to be, Josie nosed her way out of the hard-walled room into the larger world of big-headed, small-bodied humans.   (Ghostwriter)

Josie had not gone far when she heard the sharp voice of Ignatious Bottlecrumb, the science lab teacher say, “Looks like one of the mamsters has gotten loose. And look at that spiky fur and those prominent whiskers! It must have elevated levels of testosterone. I must bring it back to the lab for tests.”

Without warning or ceremony, Josie was scooped into a trash bin and whisked down the hall.  The colors of the walls shifted from the cozy pastels of the Kindergarten room to the warm cork boards of the hallways to the sterile white of the science lab. Ignatious shook Josie from the basket into a tiny wire enclosure.  “Trapped again,” she thought. But this cage was far smaller than her prior dwelling.  She felt the prick of a needle in her thigh, and then, for a time, she felt no more. (Bill)