Hannah Wrote a Short Story for her Online Class

Hannah is taking an online class on CurrClick.com. Her class is taught by Loretta Rhodes of Lessons Worth Learning. She's taking a Summer book club class. Their assignment for this week was to write a historical fiction short story from an era in American history. Hannah chose the Pioneer days. Daddy really talked Hannah through the writing of her story and helped her to get her thoughts down on paper in a way people could understand what she was thinking when she wrote it (he taught her about having assumptions when you think the reader already knows something, like that it's a fall time of year, without telling them. He taught her how to add that into the story). Here's Hannah's story:

Maggie and Her Pioneer Life

Maggie Jonise woke up early one morning. She threw back the beautiful new quilt on her bed climbed out and the floor was cold. The nights and mornings were chilly on these fall days. Her mother had finished her new quilt just in time after working on it all summer. Maggie put on her dress, stockings and shoes and scurried downstairs. When she got downstairs she found her mother and father sitting at the kitchen table sipping their coffee. They greeted her “good morning.” Maggie asked where her brothers, Jonathan and Jimmy were. Thinking they might be out working already harvesting the wheat.

Dad told her the boys were out in the barn fixing a gate because one of the horses had made a mess of it. The black horse with a white star on its forehead had damaged the fence and gate. He must have been spooked badly by something. The boys thought he‘d been frightened by the slamming of the door to their house.

Maggie went out to the barn to see if she could help and they said that she could brush the horses. Suddenly they noticed a cold wind blowing into the barn and Jonathan went out to see if a storm was blowing. He saw a tornado picking up the clouds in the sky over the fields by their house. He rushed back and told Maggie and her brother to hurry to the house. They flew to the house in a hurry like a bird would do in a storm, trying to get home. Jimmy let the door slam behind them as he and Maggie flew inside. Their parents asked what all the commotion was about. Maggie told them a tornado was just outside the house and Jonathan was out in the barn tying up the horses. Dad tells Mom to take Jimmy and Maggie to the tornado shelter and he would go find Jonathan.

As Dad ran out the door to the barn he saw the tornado tearing down the wheat as it crossed their fields. Jonathan was running toward him and they both ran for the house and the tornado shelter.

The storm blew by quickly and they barely heard a sound since their storm shelter was so sturdy and strong. When they came out they saw a big hole in the roof of their house and their wheat crops were nowhere in sight.

Dad tried to encourage the family that everything would be ok. He said that he could fix the hole in the roof and they could plant again in the spring. He said they could survive the winter by walking the fields and picking up the pieces the tornado did not swirl away.

As the sun peeked through the clouds, Maggie’s family stood in a circle and prayed prayers of thankfulness that they are all ok and hope for them to get through the winter that was to come.



Mrs. Loretta liked Hannah's story. We are proud of Hannah and think she did a GREAT job! Yay, Hannah!!