Elephants and Slides

First of all a picture or two...sans any elephants or slides.

Hi! From the bottom El Gran Salto Jimenoa.

The beauty of the Dominican Republic- also this waterfall can be found in Jurassic Park.
On Sunday a group of us went up the mountain only to come back down the mountain on a steep inclined path. The path was while extremely slippery! The slipperiness cost me my camera LCD screen;however, I can still use the viewfinder as is proof of the above photos. We spent about 3 hours at the base enjoying the serenity of the river and being the only ones there! The way back us was not so fun as I am reminded of still today.

Back to the elephants and slides. I'm teaching my students how to write creative and expressive stories. It is easiest to do so when you have a funny subject hence the elephants. Here are some of the best of the day.

"The elephant went up the ladder. He got scared. He tried to go down but he could not. The slide when KABOOM! The end."

"Once upon a time there was a circus. This circus was the biggest circus in the world. One day the owner of the circus left the gate open and the elephant got out! Then a child found the elephant and took him home. They went to the park and they went on the slide. Then they went down the slide together. Next, they went to eat ice cream, chocolate, and drink Sprite. The child's name was Emmanuel and the elephant's name was Peggy. Then the child took the elephant home and they lived happily ever after."

Elephant on a Slide

One day an elephant named Lila wanted to explore. She was bored of being an elephant; she never did anything fun. So, she went to her old old grandpa; he gave her a book about stuff that people did. Finally, she found something fun. It was a picture of an orange slide. She went to a small town where she found a house with a slide. She knocked on the door, a girl named Lauren answered, "Hello, what do you want?" "I want to use your slide", said Lila. Lauren said, "okay." So Lila hopped on, "WEEEEE!!!! This is fun, but my family will worry about me." So Lila went back to the jungle. [this is written by my best language/english student-she used everything found here, but I just placed things where they belonged]

An Elephant and a Slide

Onceupon a time there lived an elephant. He {dreamt} was the only elephant in the whole world! The other animals were trying to figure out what he was. The giraffe said I'm pretty sure he is not a monkey. The okapi{FYI: is a native mammal to the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also known as the "forest giraffe" despite having stripes like a zebra.[[worldbook]]---evidentally I missed this memo in grade school science.} said he is not a zebra. So when he woke up there was a slide. Everybody got a turn on the slide and when it was the elephants turn the slide fell over. The end.

The joys of 3rd grade imaginations.