In the October holidays, The Swot Shop ran a Creative Writing Masterclass for students in Years 3-6. The program offered a perfect mix of creativity and academic growth – helping students find their writing voice while achieving something they can be proud to share.
Over three afternoons, students were guided by one of our qualified and experienced teachers through the entire process of crafting their own illustrated book, from the first spark of an idea to the final copy. Students were welcome to either type their story or hand write it and, depending on which class they attended, they either wrote to the theme of ‘rainforest’ or ‘lake’.
At the end of the course, we awarded prizes to outstanding achievements in the course and crowned two winning champions, one in Year 3-4 and one in Year 5-6.
Below we share their wonderful stories with you – no doubt you will enjoy their work as much as we did.
A big congratulations to all our participating students and budding writers – your enthusiasm and skills were incredible and the atmosphere during the week infectious. Keep writing!
In January, we’ll be sharing our runner up outstanding stories from the week – stay tuned for more excellent stories.
Water Wonderland at the Pier
Chapter 1 ROBERTO
He could hear her cries from all the way downstairs.
“DAD!” Ivy wailed. “THE SHOWER’S OVERFLOWING!”
“WHAT?” Roberto yelled, running up the stairs two at a time. He raced past his room towards the bathroom, but to his surprise, everything was perfectly fine. His 14-year-old daughter was wrapped in a towel, tears streaming down her face, with a small puddle of water on the marble floor.
“I thought you said-“ Roberto started.
“Dad, I was scared,” Ivy sobbed. “I saw mum drowning, and whenever I close my eyes, it’s all I see. I- I’m scared of water…” she admitted, ashamed.
“Hey,” he whispered softly. “That’s okay. We’ll figure something out.” But deep down, he didn’t know how to fix it.
Chapter 2 ZACK
“Someone, somebody help!” a man pleaded, running swiftly across the wooden pier towards Zack. He jumped, startled.
“What brings you here, sir?” Zack asked, trying to stay calm.
“My daughter needs help,” he wheezed, out of breath. “She can’t go near a puddle of water without having a breakdown.”
Zack thought about this information before asking the man what his name was.
“Roberto. I’m Roberto,” he replied. “You?”
“Zack. Nice to meet you,” he answered, shaking Roberto’s hand. He asked Roberto to explain everything.
“Four years ago, my wife, my daughter’s mother, had an accident in this same lake. She didn’t make it and drowned.” Roberto looked down at his shoes. “Ever since, my daughter, Ivy, has been traumatised. She can’t even look at a tiny puddle without crying and calling for me. I came to you because I heard that you’ve been fishing since you were 18 years old. You’ve been around water for three years. Do you think you can help her?”
Zack nodded slowly. “Ok. I get it. I’ll do what I can.”
“Thank you,” Roberto whispered quietly.
“Don’t worry about it. Bring your daughter to the ice cream shop next to the lake tomorrow”, he instructed, grabbing his fishing rod.
“I will. See you tomorrow,” he called, sprinting to his house. Zack threw his fishing rod into the murky water, wondering what he had just gotten himself into.
Chapter 3 GOOSE
The goose sat on the other edge of the lake, watching this man giving up his time to help someone in need. “I will help when the time is right,” the goose remarks, in its own language.
“QUACK! QUACK!” the goose’s friends and family called out to it, but the goose didn’t budge. It first took in its surroundings before slowly gliding through the water along with them, paying very close attention to the turns they took. “I will come back here every day, and watch this girl overcome her fear,” the goose promised to itself. Then it swam under the water and disappeared.
Chapter 4 ROBERTO
“Ivy!” her father called out. “Let’s go get some ice cream!”
Ivy entered the kitchen, looking annoyed. “I was trying to get some homework done, but ok,” she muttered. Roberto walked out of the house, Ivy trailing behind him. They passed the lake on the way. Ivy’s face paled as she walked past the huge body of water. “Ivy, meet Zack,” Roberto introduces them to each other as the two of them arrived at the ice cream shop. Ivy skeptically eyed him as they ordered the sweet treat, probably wondering who he was and why he was here.
“Ivy, Roberto, let’s take a walk near the lake,” Zack casually suggested as they licked their ice cream. Ivy froze in place, but Roberto accepted and began to follow Zack towards the water.
“Dad-“ Ivy started.
“Come on, Ivy, it’ll be fun!” he persuaded. Ivy didn’t budge.
“I thought we were just going to have fun!” she yelled. “I didn’t think you would make me go near the exact place I told you I hated yesterday!” Ivy stormed off towards Roberto’s house. He sighed. Zack looked at him with eyes full of sorrow.
“This might be harder than I thought it would be,” Zack admitted.
“I told you this wouldn’t be easy,” Roberto sighed once more.
“I’ll keep trying,” Zack confirmed, determined. “Soon, she’ll be swimming like nothing ever happened.”
“I sure hope so. It’s been so hard trying to get her to feel better. Nothing has been working.” Roberto said, devastated.
“We will find a way.”
Chapter 5 ZACK
Zack sat on his wooden rowboat, trying to think of a way to help Ivy. She was so helpless. “To be honest, I don’t know how I can help her”, he thought, fidgeting with his fishing rod. A tiny little goose swam gracefully towards him. “Aww, that’s so cute!” he thought to himself.
Wait… Zack jumped up, yelling Roberto’s name all the way to his small seaside house. He got confused stares from many people as he ran past, but he didn’t care anymore. He had just come up with the best idea to help Ivy. By the time Zack reached Roberto’s house, he was panting and out of breath. Roberto stepped out from the door, giving him a worried look.
“Why are you here right now?” he questioned, walking towards him.
“I have the best idea to help her!” Zack managed.
“You look like you need some water. Come inside,” Roberto gestured to the living room. He walked into the cozy room and gratefully took the water Roberto gave him, gulping it down like his life depended on it.
“So, what’s your idea?” Roberto asked Zack, taking a seat next to him. The words came tumbling out of his mouth, from when he saw the goose to how he thought it would help. Roberto’s eyes sparkled.
“Perfect,” he whispered. Zack grinned.
“Bring her outside your house tomorrow at 2:00, ok?” he instructed.
“I’ll be there.” Roberto smiled. “Thank you for helping.”
“No problem,” Zack replied. “If you need help, never be afraid to ask for it.”
“I won’t,” he promised. Zack left, wondering how Ivy would react to the adorable goose. Would she love it? Or would it just make everything worse? He didn’t know, but he hoped the goose would comfort her.
Chapter 6 GOOSE
The goose watched as the man returned to his boat, looking delighted. It had earlier swum up to the man to see what he would do, but he had just run away. The goose thought “Well, I’m getting tired. I’m going to go to sleep now.” It drifted off to sleep next to the pier where the man was sitting.
The goose wakes up to find himself sitting in a small cage in the man’s hand. It lets out a small whimper of a quack. The man looks down at it and opens the cage but doesn’t let the goose go back into the water. His powerful grip was enough to hold it back. Then the other man and the girl walk over, and the girl’s eyes lit up.
“A goose!” she cried happily. The goose shifted uncomfortably. It didn’t like being held back with such strength. It quacks, hoping the man would take the hint and let it go. He didn’t.
The girl walked over to the goose and pet its back. It calmed down, relaxed.
Then it remembered its promise to help her when the time was right.
It wasn’t going to break that promise now. It wiggled free from the man’s grip and pretended to fall into the water and started drowning.
“QUACK!” it yelled. The girl screamed.
“Dad, do something!” she called desperately. But he had taken a phone call and couldn’t do anything. The other man froze, probably wondering what had just happened.
“AGHHHHHHHHHH!” the girl protested. Then she jumped into the water.
The girl screamed, before taking a deep breath and carefully grabbing the goose. It sat happily in her arms, soaked but excited. The other man ended his call and ran over.
“Ivy, you did it!” he declared, ecstatic. Ivy was shivering, teeth chattering.
“I… am… c-c-cold!” she managed. The man laughed, then told the first man to take care of her while he got a towel. He then ran off.
The first man was staring at Ivy as if he had just discovered a new species of geese.
“You… you jumped into the water?” he finally asked.
“I guess I did,” she shrugged. Her dad came into sight, carrying a towel for her. But when he arrived, the goose realised he had a smaller towel, which Ivy immediately wrapped around it. She carried it to the sun, and they both sat together. “I did it. I helped her overcome her fear,” the goose thought to itself. “I really did it.”
The Bushfire
Chapter 1
The air was full of humidity. The bright shades of green were everywhere, and the golden rays of sunlight danced through the spots of the rainforest, trying to penetrate the large canopy of leaves hovering over the ground. Thomas woke up with a jolt. His bed would be turning red if it were metal. He felt that he was going to be cooked alive.
“Ow!” he muttered, rolling off his bed and going to wake up his mother, a frail old lady in her late sixties. The explorer hated summer. He hated the heat and preferred cooler weather.
“Dad, come look at my katydid! It’s doing weird tricks.”
That was Thomas’ son, Ben. Ben was one of the children in the world that paid attention to everything. He would observe carefully and point out things nobody would see. He was inquisitive all right, but he could be a bit too curious at times.
“Coming, mate,” Thomas replied to his son as he slowly shook his mother to wake her up. After a few seconds, her eyes fluttered open.
“Hello, dear,” she croaked out and slowly dragged herself to the edge of the bed and stood up in a hunched position and hobbled away to the kitchen. “I’m going to make some tea for us.”
Thomas made his way outside. There stood his son Ben gazing into a glass container. Inside was a makeshift forest that inside dwelled a minute katydid, a small leaf insect that was chocolate brown in colour. Thomas went up to Ben and examined the container. The katydid, which normally would be sitting still, was fluttering and hitting the walls repeatedly.
“Yeah, mate, it is doing some weird things,” answered Thomas to his ever-so-curious child. “Might be the heat. And speaking of which, it’s blistering hot. Come inside to eat your breakfast.”
Ben, like a loyal dog, pulled himself up and made his way to the kitchen. Thomas put a white cloth over the katydid’s container to cool it down and followed his son inside.
Chapter 2
In the kitchen, Thomas’ mother Laura was brewing a pot of tea. She expertly put the kettle on the stove and put the tea leaves in at the right moment for a perfect brew. She was pouring the tea into two China cups when Ben burst into the kitchen.
“I want cereal now!” he said with a commanding tone.
“Calm down, young man,” Thomas called out from behind before stepping into the room. “You’ll get your food soon.”
“You two,” sighed Laura as she handed Thomas his cup of tea, and Ben took a seat, eager for his food. Thomas stirred up a quick bowl of cereal.
“Ben, you want to go on a hike today? It’s been so long since we’ve went on an adventure,” asked Thomas.
Ben barely looked up from scoffing down his cereal to nod and continue munching.
“You two better be safe after the climb,” Laura added on.
“Yeah, yeah,” replied Ben. “We’re always safe.”
Laura gave Ben a questioning look and nodded.
Chapter 3
It was near midday, and the temperature had barely gone down. Trekking through the lush vegetation and greenery, Thomas and Ben slowly made their way to the peak of the hill near the rainforest.
“How much longer do we have to walk?” groaned Ben while trudging behind an enthusiastic Thomas. “Couldn’t we have gone on a cooler day?”
“Sunlight is good for your skin,” replied Thomas with a cheery tone. Ben merely grunted in reply.
After a few hours of hiking, complaining and a lot of breaks, Thomas and Ben finally reached the peak of the hill.
“Finally!” exclaimed Ben as he fell to the ground but quickly jumped up from the heat.
However, Thomas wasn’t paying attention to Ben. He could feel something sinister. He could smell smoke.
He looked around, trying to find the source. Then he saw it. The bushfire. The red angry embers licking and swallowing the green and leaving behind a trail of black and red. And it was headed to their hut and Laura.
Thomas hurriedly tugged Ben and told him to run down the mountain to save Laura.
Chapter 4
Laura was dozing off peacefully for the last few hours. She was unaware of the danger that approached her. That’s when her family burst in.
“Mum, we have to go!” yelled Thomas as he burst in and slowly held her mother up.
“Wha-?” Laura started but Ben and Thomas were already pushing her into the small jeep that Thomas owned. They got her into the Jeep and Ben started talking. He explained that they were in crisis and they had to leave immediately. They left just as their house burst into flames.
They were all in tears. The place they once called home was gone. Demolished. But they knew they had to keep going.
Chapter 5
Thomas, with his great fame and influence as an explorer, figured out a way to help his family. He found a nursing home for his mother. He knew that he couldn’t sustain her and his son at the same time. He enrolled his son at a school and bought a room in an apartment for the two of them. Slowly but surely, they built their lives back. Ben was making friends, Laura was getting the right care she deserved, and Thomas felt like he was being a good dad.
They were traumatised, but the bushfire made their lives even better.
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