A Day in the Life of a.......

What would it feel like to be an inanimate object we use, see, or play with every day?  What would we see and do?  How would we feel?  What would we experience?  These are the questions we asked ourselves as we turned into pencils, mannequins, sporting equipment,  school buses, cars, paper, plants, clothing, food, and more!  All students were asked to story map how their day would begin and end, and of course, what would happen in the middle.   Each map had to show the objects' feelings with strong adjectives and verbs.  The story was to be written in a way that the reader could truly feel and understand every moment the object was experiencing.  Older students were encouraged to use Voice creatively, giving themselves, the object, a personality.  The results were fantastic!  Enjoy these....

My Life as an Ice Cube, by Florence (2nd grade)

     What's happening?  I am water in an ice maker!  It's freezing!  What am I going to turn into?  I feel different.  My dream is coming true.  I'm ice!  Plop!  I fall into a bucket with others in my family.

     A hand comes and grabs me.  I feel scared.  The hand looks boney, and its finger nails are two inches long!  The hand puts me in a glass of lemonade.  I feel hot, hot, hot!  I'm now in a throat.  Yuck!  Yuck!  I'm in the tummy.

     I feel like I was ice a long time ago.  I'm water now again in this squishy red place.
 

A Day in the Gross Life of a Piece of Bubblegum, by Julia (3rd grade)

     Oh, wow.  Being in this cramped, pitch dark, old, and boring store wrapper makes my life so unpleasant.  As you must know, I am Julie the Bubblegum.  I have beautiful thick hair and I am very sticky.  I have only one wish right now: I hope somebody buys me today!  I would be the happiest bubble gum in the world if someone bought me.  

     Oh!  I hear someone picking my wrapper and me up, and boy do they have a tight grip!  I can hear this person's voice now, and it sounds girly.  So, I bet the person who is buying me is a girl.

.....10 Minutes later.....

     We're finally here!  My new home awaits me.  Click1  I am locked in somewhere, but I am not sure where.  But wherever I am, it sure feels empty.

..... 2 Hours later......

     Chatter, chatter, chatter.  I have been unpeeled from my wrapper..... and put into someone's mouth!!  EEWWWW!!!!!!  I'm being tortured!!  This person is mushing and crunching me.  I'm bumping into all of their teeth.  I'm covered with rotten teeth, germs, and cavities.  EEEKK!  I think I was just almost swallowed.  This is turning into a nightmare!  I hope it ends soon.

..... 15 seconds later.....

     Plop.  I have landed in the trash can.  That's right, I landed in it.  Can you believe it?  I thought this person was my friend.  Instead they have thrown me into the garbage can.  They are now the enemy.  Anyway, this trash can has only three things in it so far: an empty plastic bottle, a goldfish wrapper, and me.  Right now, I feel stuck and unfree.  BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.... That is a garbage truck!  I'm probably going to die.... but I had a great life.


A Day in the Life of a Baseball, by Ritik (4th grade)

     I'm having a wonderful day so far.  I have been thrown by the pitcher and have never been hit by the bat of the batter.  I like the wind that is pushing me.  I feel so relaxed.  I look at the scoreboard and see that it is the last inning.  The game is tied 0-0.

     I learn that after this inning, the other team has to bat.  Nobody has hit me, and after three strike-outs, the other team has to bat.  There are two strike-outs, and I think that the game will soon end as a tie.  I feel happy and relaxed.

     BAM!  I feel a hard bat crushing me with a lot of force!  The wind is flying past me, and then.... SPLASH!  I realize I have landed in McCovey Cove.  Now I am sinking, and telling myself.... Good bye!


A Day in the Life of an Airplane, by Aaron (5th grade)

     I woke up. It was Sunday morning and the tarmac was boiling. Then the pilot in my brain sent a signal to the control tower: five o’clock, pilot 253 ready for battle. I didn’t hear the message back.

       Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I am an airplane, an IL-2 to be exact. That’s a Russian ground attack aircraft.

        Ah, now we’ve started taxiing. The tarmac feels hard under my wheels. I feel nervous. Today we are going into battle with the Germans. I wonder if I’m going to survive.

        Owee! My pilot is pulling on the thrust. It feels like someone is literally dragging me along the smooth pavement. I’ m gaining speed. 100,200…300 kilometers an hour! In the blink of an eye, I’m off the runway and gaining altitude. I see the fields below me, the blue and white above me. Oh, the view is great up here! I can feel the wind rushing past my face at 500 KM/H. This is so exciting!

          Then everything turns to chaos. The Germans come too fast. Their airplanes are smirking; their pilots have jaws set with determination. I see an enemy coming at me. I will the pilot to turn, but he won’t. “Come on, come on,” are all my thoughts.

      Then everything goes red and time slows. I spiral out of control! My back is full of lead. Then, a split second later, BAAM! I slam into the ground at a speed exceeding 1000 KM/H. My pilot, the lucky guy, managed to eject. But now I’M a burning wreck. Gah! I’m so mad at my pilot. And I thought I was gonna have a fun day....

         A Day In the Life of a Roasted Chicken, by Crystal (5th grade)

     Ahhhh.... this rotisserie’s heat is like being inside a sauna! A chef wearing a ridiculous hat walks over to turn the skewer I am on. Oh, that feels so marvelous! Another chef with a curly waxed moustache comes to take me off the skewer. Darn it! I am whisked onto a neon-yellow plate, and set to cool on the counter. Just then, a round of dirty dishes is brought back to the kitchen. I can clearly hear the leftovers talking in hushed voices: “He nearly got me! I thought that I was about to die!” Upon hearing this, all of the newly cooked dishes, including me, chorused: “Please tell us a scary story about those monsters with two legs and lots of hair!” Carrie the cornbread, a gentle food who had nearly been chomped on, finally relented to our cheering encouragements.

            “I was on a plate with some other foods, being carried out to the dining room. I knew that I was soon going to die. It’s terrible knowing that you are going to die in 15 minutes and you can’t do anything, you know. At the table, I saw that my life would be ended by a little girl in a pink tutu, holding a sparkly fake wand. Suddenly, I couldn’t stand the fact that I was going to be murdered ruthlessly by a 5 year old girl. I spoke quietly to her. ‘Please don’t kill me! I’m too young to die!’ I whimpered. Surprisingly, she understood my shaking words! She left me on the edge of the plate and didn’t touch me for the whole meal. But, her dad nearly stabbed me with a sharp metal thingy. He just missed my arm. See, here’s a part that he cut off! Anyways, I now owe my life to that little girl.” Carrie finished. We all cheered softly as she blushed, as modest as always. I can’t imagine how anyone could ever eat sweet, kind, Carrie!   

            Then, the moment came- a waiter walked in to carry me out to my doom. I was put next to some rosemary garlic fries, and taken out to the room filled with nothing but horror and murder. On the serving tray, I looked at my surroundings for one last time, then closed my eyes. When I finally opened them, I was on a table, next to a girl. Maybe I could do what Carrie had done! But the girl was eating the rosemary garlic fries, and clearly enjoying them. I could hear the muffled screams as each fry was stuffed into her mouth. How could these monstrous creatures be so pitiless? Didn’t they see and hear us foods suffering? I thought in despair. Oh, well. No time for these thoughts. I was about to be eaten alive! The girl had finished the fries and reached for me. Just as I was about to pass her mouth, I screeched the simple word: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The word did the trick. She stopped, mid-bite, and stared wonderingly at me. I shrank back in fright. She kept staring, but slowly lowered me down, back to the plate. There was hope!! But then, in that moment of fate, she shook her head, stabbed me with a fork, shoved me in her mouth, and ended my life with a single crunch.