It is through imagination that children are able to grow
– to strengthen their abilities and make their dreams become
realities.
A local third-grader’s imagination propelled him into the
regional finals for a state-wide story writing contest blending
grammatical acuteness and basic agricultural themes.
It is through imagination that children are able to grow – to strengthen their abilities and make their dreams become realities.
A local third-grader’s imagination propelled him into the regional finals for a state-wide story writing contest blending grammatical acuteness and basic agricultural themes.
Devon O’Hare, a student in Janet Caldera’s class at Tres Pinos School, was one of 48 finalists for the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom’s 10th annual Imagine This… Story Writing Contest.
His story was chosen out of more than 10,000 entries throughout the state.
O’Hare’s story, which focused around Farmer Brown and his giant turnip, wasn’t hard for the 8-year-old to write – it just came to him, he said.
“I just wanted to write a story about a turnip… But I don’t really like turnips. My grandpa has a garden… he grew them once,” O’Hare said. “I thought of Old McDonald and then I thought of Farmer Brown.”
With help from his mother, Susan Miller, he wrote the story in about two hours. She helped him type it on the computer and assisted with some of the organization.
After he submitted the story in November, they got busy with the rest of their lives and Miller forgot about the contest until O’Hare surprised her with the exciting news one day, she said.
“I picked him up from school one day and he said, ‘My teacher said I won the story (contest),'” Miller said. “Me and his dad are extremely proud of him – I hope he writes me stories.”
The contest’s judging was based around eight areas of criteria, including originality, grammar and reflection of an appreciation of agriculture.
After the 48 finalists were chosen, they were then narrowed down to six. Although O’Hare’s story wasn’t chosen as one of the six state winners, just getting to that point was impressive.
When he turned the story in, O’Hare wasn’t sure if it was good enough to win or not, but his mom had a more optimistic outlook.
“My mom was hoping it would win,” O’Hare said. “Because it was a really good story.”
Caldera has had O’Hare as a student for two years, and his ability as a writer and a student has been progressing quickly. Winning the story-writing contest has been great for O’Hare’s self-esteem, as well as the overall attitude of the entire class, she said.
“At this age it’s always me first,” Caldera said. “By the time he won the contest, all the boys in the class said, ‘Good job, Devon.’ And that to me is just awesome.”
The attention from his friends has been welcome and appreciated.
“They like it really, really, really, really, really a lot,” he said. “They wish they had it.”
O’Hare likes to spend some of his free time writing stories, but his favorite hobby is drawing. The drawings included with his story were all done by him.
By making it to the finals and being able to slowly glean the recognition every child needs for his or her efforts has been one of the best rewards for O’Hare, Caldera said.
“His creative ability is just amazing, and this really gave him a lot of confidence,” she said. “He’s a really bright boy… and I’m really glad this happened to him.”
Even though O’Hare didn’t win this year, he can have something to look forward to next year when it’s offered again for fourth graders, Caldera said.
Being able to use his imagination when writing is a great draw to O’Hare, who is excited about participating in more story-writing contests, he said.
“Some people think it’s really hard, but I don’t think so,” he said. “Because you can do anything you want.”
Farmer Brown’s turnip
By Devon O’Hare
Once in a land of cities big and pretty there stood one piece of land that was just itty-bitty. And in this piece of land there was a little farm owned by farmer Brown. It was known as the Brown farm by everyone around.
Now, everything that was at the Brown farm was very small, and Farmer Brown wanted everything to be bigger. And that is just what happened. One day when he woke up he went out to feed the sheep, and when he went out he saw that all of his vegetables had grown to eleven feet! Farmer Brown thought “Wow, I could charge admission and make a fortune by letting people come in to see my turnips.” Farmer Brown also thought, “Now I have to pull up these giant turnips, to let the people see the whole turnip. But the leaves at the top are much taller than me. I will need a ladder” he thought. So he went to the store and bought the tallest ladder he could find and brought it back. He put the ladder next to the giant turnip and started climbing when he got to the top he pulled with all his might but he couldn’t pull it out. Then his wife came out and said “what are you doing” “Trying to pull this turnip up that’s what!” He said. “Can I help” she said “Sure, step up on the second step and pull me as I pull the turnip” so the wife got up on the second step and pulled as hard as she could. But the turnip wouldn’t move a bit. All of a sudden their son came home from school and asked, “What are you doing mother and father?” “Trying to pull this turnip up, that’s what” they both said at the same time. “Can I help?” He said. “Sure” Farmer and Mrs. Brown answered. So the boy got up on the third step and pulled his mother as his mother pulled his father as his father pulled the turnip. But the turnip sill wouldn’t move then farmer Brown had an idea. He went into his house and brought out a big stack of paper and wrote something on all of them, and this is what the paper said: GIGANTIC TURNIP: BROWN FAMILY NEEDS HELP PULLING THIS HUMONGOUS VEGETABLE OUT OF THE GROUND. IF YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER CALL – 950-9549.
Farmer Brown went to the city and tacked the papers all over the land. Farmer Brown was tired and had run out of ideas so he went home to wait.
As soon as He got home he had many phone calls by people that wanted to help him with the turnip. The next morning ten people who called came to help and they all lined up single file behind the turnip. Farmer Brown yelled out, “PULL!” All the people, including Farmer Brown’s wife and children, pulled on the turnip with all of their might. The turnip slowly inched out of the ground. Farmer Brown yelled again, “PULL HARDER” and the turnip went hurtling into the air like a big pink and white rocket. The turnip kept going, as the people watched and wondered where it would land. It finally disappeared up into space as the people stood and stared. A few seconds later the turnip came back down to earth and hit that little piece of land so hard that it exploded into a million pieces. Everyone from far and wide got to have some of Farmer Brown’s gigantic turnip.
After that, Farmer Browns’ farm became the most famous turnip farm in the entire land, everybody knew about his tasty, gigantic turnips and came out to help him pull them.
