Something strange was afoot at the American International School of Cape Town, in Constantia. Large footprints were all over the floor and the big green monster cushion was missing. An announcement was made to the whole school asking if anyone had noticed anything untoward. Teacher Megan Sivewright’s Grade 2 class had an idea of what was going on. As part of a creative writing exercise they were asked to investigate a “monster break-in”. The monster appeared to have broken into their class and stolen a few items, one of which was a monster cushion.
“The monster thief is still at large,” Ms Sivewright said.
This is what some of the children’s investigations yielded:
Akshat Kundal: The footprints in our class were from a monster. It had wings (big ones) and big feet. It was like a dinosaur and a snow monster (like the Yeti) mixed together! He was enormous and huge. He can blow fire and snow. He can break the roof open and he is strong! He has angry eyes and huge horns.
William Storey: One day a monster came from a land far, far away. It was cold there. The monster was called Yeti, and it lived on a planet called Bongeti. It had wings and it had horns. One morning, he woke up and he went outside, and his friends started bullying him, so then they weren’t really friends anymore. He decided to betray everyone on his planet. So he travelled to a planet called the Worlven, but he didn’t like the creatures there either. At last he became tired so he travelled to a planet called The World. He went into a classroom in a school called AISCT. The teacher in the class was named Miss Sivewright. People had said that the Yeti was real, but I didn’t believe them. I didn’t think the Yeti was real, but then it left footprints in our classroom. In fact, it left two footprints. The Yeti then switched around a curtain because he liked it that way. The Yeti then took our green monster cushion which has orange horns. He flew out the door and went to sleep with the cushion under his head.
Jeffrey Oghene: He is furry,
He has sharp fangs,
He smells bad,
He is big and black,
He has yellow eyes,
He is scary,
He lives in a theatre,
Jumps high,
Climbs buildings,
Eats a lot!
Emma Wyer: Once upon a time, there lived a class. On Thursday morning, one girl saw a footprint, so she asked her teacher if she could get a magnifying glass. “Sure,” said her teacher, “Go and ask Miss Rose if you can use one.” Later that day… “Hey look, I found our green monster cushion!” said Emma. “Wait, there are more footprints…hey, I found the monster! She looks so cute, can we keep her?” “Sure, yes,” said Miss Sivewright. So we kept her and we named her Sweet-Pea.
Sona Chagharyan: Once upon a time, there was a land that was in space. That land was called Dino-Dini. On that land lived nine families of Monstericos. They each had two children, but one family only had one child and an egg that hadn’t hatched yet. It was a desert-type land. It was very empty, and there was only one tree. The tree was called The Wishing Tree. One day, the sun was shining brightly on Dino-Dini and the egg was about to hatch. It started to move around and his mother wasn’t watching it, so it rolled off the edge of Dino-Dini. He fell, and fell, and fell, and fell. The egg fell until it found itself sitting on the roof of my classroom, half-cracked open. It was still a small egg, but the important thing is that when you come out of the egg you become a lot bigger in about ten seconds!
The little Monsterico didn’t know that and got a surprise when he hatched out of the egg, because he had only just been born. It was cold, so he came through our classroom window and had to replace the blind afterwards. He jumped down from the top window and saw a green monster cushion. He took it and went out the window again. By that time it was midnight in Dino-Dini, and the mother was still looking for her egg. She couldn’t find it anywhere. So she went to The Wishing Tree and said “Ogla-mis-a-baba” (translation: “Please may you show me where my baby is and bring it back to me.”). “Oollal,” said The Wishing Tree and that meant “Ok”. One minute later, the baby was back in Dino-Dini. The end.
Morena Teles: Once upon a time, a dieting monster broke into our class and then he said, “I want to be friends with you guys!”
We said “Ok!”, but he didn’t want to be friends with us, he wanted to EAT US! AAAH!
Ella-May van der Merwe: Once upon a time, there was a mommy giant, a daddy giant and a baby giant. They lived in a castle in the clouds. The baby’s name was Sniffles and he was a boy. One day, Sniffles wanted a friend. Sniffles asked his mommy if he could go and find a friend. Mommy said, “Ok, Sniffles, take the magic beans with you.”
Sniffles said, “Thank you, bye!” and then he went down the beanstalk and landed in AISCT. He climbed over the roof and into the classroom. He saw a monster cushion. He wanted that one, but when he came in, he broke the door! He traced his feet to see if the cushion had the same feet. They didn’t but he took the cushion anyway. He super glued the door back together, climbed over the wall and climbed back up the beanstalk. He played with it every day and slept with it every night. Then he got bored and brought him back. The end.
Gigi-Rose Meier: Once upon a time there lived a monster called Lilly. She met another monster and her name was Stacey. They wanted to go to a school and steal a teddy, a green one. They went to AISCT and stole Miss Sivewright’s teddy. Lilly left footprints behind. That night they slept awesomely.
* Does your school have any interesting news and pictures you’d like to share with the Bulletin? If so, send an email Adri-Ann Peters at email adri-ann.peters@inl.co.za
