My second graders enjoyed listened to the story The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden. We brainstormed different characters and settings. Then we created our own version, The Gingsville Principal. After many revisions and character changes the children were able to choose the part of the story that they would like to illustrate. So off we went to our good friend Mrs. S. (our favorite computer specialist). She helped to guide us along with our Kid Pix illustrations. This really was an excellent first project for all of us.

 

The Gingsville Principal

Once upon a time there lived a principal that didn’t like trash! He lived in a town called Gingsville. This is the story of how the town learned a lesson in respect. The principal lived at the edge of town. His house was on top of the mountain. Everyday he would hike down from the mountain to get to school and he couldn’t help noticing the trash everywhere. It was hanging from the trees. There was so much trash he couldn’t even see the grass. He became more and more disappointed in the townspeople. When he reached his school he would climb to the roof and yell “THESE PEOPLE ARE GINGSVILLE ARE NASTY!!!”

The principal was getting tired of cleaning up after the townspeople. Month after month on his way to school he saw more and more trash. Each day he would have to stuff more garbage cans. The more cans he stuffed the more trash he found. He was getting madder and madder by the minute because he saw more and more trash! He said these people of Gingsville are disgusting!

One day he had a huge temper and his face got red! He couldn’t take all the garbage. He was so tried of cleaning up garbage. He sat down to rest by the millions and millions of trash cans behind the school. The stink was so awful. He called Mother Nature. “Mother Nature, Mother Nature why are you doing this to me? Can you give me the power to give back all this garbage?” Mother Nature gave him the power while he had fainted from the stink of all that garbage. When he woke up he realized he now had the power over garbage.

Little Miss Genesis was riding her bike and throwing her candy wrappers on the ground. She was unfortunate to be riding right past the principal. He said “Garbage Garbage go back to where you’ve come from!’ As quick as the candy wrappers hit the ground they flew right back to her and all stuck all over her head.

At recess Mrs. Betty Blush was drinking her carton of milk. When the bell rang she left her carton of milk under the swing set. The carton of milk wiggled and wiggled and flew back and landed on her shoe.

On the way to school a little boy named Joshua was eating a chocolate bar and he threw it to the ground. As he was taking his math test that candy wrapper came flying back to him and stuck to his shirt.

Everybody in the town of Gingsville had garbage stuck to them. One little girl was as messy as a dump and couldn’t even fit into her classroom. All anyone could see of little Lisa was her hands and her little chubby feet. Lisa was so upset she shouted “someone help me.” But no one could hear her through all of the garbage.

Joshua was going for a walk and heard the principal chanting magical words. GARBAGE, GARBAGE NASTY AS EVER I DON’T WANT GARBAGE ON MY WORLD EVER! Joshua ran back to town yelling “Townspeople I know what has been happening these past few days.” The people of Gingsville didn’t want to believe that the principal would do such a thing. But they were so desperate that they followed Joshua to the principal house. The principal told them that they should be ashamed of what they have done to the town. All the garbage that is stuck to you is what you have littered our town with. The townspeople started shouting that they were sorry. They begged the principal to help them get the garbage off their bodies. The principal told them that the only way to get rid of the garbage would be to go home and throw the garbage in their trash cans and to never litter again. So the townspeople rushed home to do just what the principal said.

The people of Gingsville really did learn their lesson because it is the cleanest town in the whole wide world.

 

New York State Learning Standards

English Language Arts
Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding.
Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression.
Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction.

Technology Benchmarks
Standard 4: The student is an effective communicator through a variety of appropriate technologies/media