Progressive Story Project

First grade students participated in a shared writing experience with schools around the United States called the Progressive Story Project. Sponsored by Karen Ditzler, an Instructional Technologist in Pennsylvania, students are partnered with classes to write a story, create illustrations, and record the story in Voice Thread.

Mrs. Owen's Class - The First Halloween

One scary dark Halloween night there was a vampire trick or treating with his friends. He was sharing his candy with his friends. When the vampire went home all of his candy was gone. He cried, “Boo Hoo!” He looked in his bag and there was a hole in his bag. Then he went outside and he saw a trail of candy. He followed the trail and he picked up some candy. He walked and walked.

He walked into a really spooky haunted house! First he saw a white ghost with red eyes. The vampire was scared and ran away fast. Next he saw a brown werewolf with yellow eyes. He ran away fast and the werewolf chased him. When he looked back he saw the werewolf and ghost behind him. They started shouting, "We just want to be your friend!"

The vampire stopped running in front of the haunted house. He turned around to find the ghost and werewolf standing in the door. They asked the vampire to be their friend. The vampire said “OK,” and they went off trick or treating together. When they set off, the vampire told them he didn’t have a bag because his had a hole in it. The ghost with the red eyes gave him a bat-shaped bucket to carry his candy. This was a very special bucket with magic powers.

The vampire was so surprised that he jumped up joyfully to give ghost a lovely hug. The three friends headed out to trick or treat in the foggy, dark night. While they were walking, it got darker and they started seeing lots of scary people dressed up as witches, goblins, and ghosts. The vampire whispered, "Oh my, I wish I had a bright light so I can see if these scary people are real!." Then all of a sudden a mysterious candle popped out of the bat-shaped bucket. That is when the vampire realized that the bat-shaped bucket has magic powers.

The light from the magic bat shaped bucket helped the vampire to see that the people trick or treating were half monsters and half people. He was very scared! He ran home with his eyes wide open and screaming loudly all the way! He quickly opened the door with his magic bucket. Next he ran into his house right into his bedroom. He hid under his blankets shivering. His friends’ werewolf and ghost came to help him and they told him to use his magic bucket to get rid of the monsters! All of a sudden a magician with a magic wand came out of the magic bucket and did a spell to get rid of the monsters! Vampire listened and all the monsters went away. Vampire and his friends were happy so they celebrated and ate some candy! Then they brushed their teeth to get rid of all their sugar bugs!