Togher N.S.

A fifth class pupil in this school, has had her story published in this years, Dear Grace Book 2011. To celebrate this and to acknowledge the high standard of the other entries, fifth and sixth classes were invited to the Helix, Dublin on Tuesday 3 May 2011. All the pupils were treated to a great day out.



Here is the award winning letter to Grace.

Dear Grace,

I would like to tell you everything that happened to me during the year. At the start of the year my Mum died so I had to move to live with my Dad in the countryside. Although I miss my Mum a lot I love living with my Dad in the countryside. It is beautiful. We live near woods and a very long, shallow stream. It’s great for paddling. One day I put mud from the stream on my hands. Then I rubbed it all off. My hands felt just like a baby’s hand.
I am so sorry you died Grace. I would like to have met you because you sound like a nice person.Now I will tell you some more about my mother.

My Mum is called Brigitte or B for short. Her favourite colour is purple and she knew everything there is to know about gardening and things like that. She loved to get surprises. She made cakes for everyone. If you ate her cakes you would fall asleep afterwards because they were so good. Her best cake was called coffee cake, people used to fight over it. She loved all animals. She would always be fashionably late but she never meant to be late. She always wanted to skateboard for some reason. We loved to walk on Tragumna beach together. When I think of my Mum, I think of a bumble bee. When she died we all wore bumble bees on our wrists to remind us of her. She had the best sense of style ever. She was a very funny lady.

I moved to a new school after my Mum died as I went to live with my Dad. I made up lots of stories for my teacher. My teacher loves my stories. She wrote on my copy that she really loved this one.

Why I Was Late For School
The reason why I was late for school one morning in November was I saw a pink stretch limo parked outside my house. As I walked over to it and knocked on the window, the window rolled down and I gasped when there inside sitting proudly was my favourite singer Lady Gaga. I fainted. When I woke up I was in Lady Gaga’s house or pad as she would call it! She asked me for my autograph and from that day on we were best friends. Each day as Lady Gaga picks me up from school my teacher stares gob gaped in disbelief at my new friend.

I hope you enjoyed that story Grace.

When I lived with my Mum, Ruthie lived near me. Ruthie is a little girl in a housing estate I used to live in. She is eight years old and has blond curly hair. There wouldn’t be a dull moment when Ruthie was about. Ruthie was such a funny girl. She would always wear really nice clothes and was a tomboy at heart. She loved to play in mud. She had three sisters, one younger called Ella and two older ones called Cassis and Kia.

All my class are writing stories about Halloween at the moment. I am going to tell you the one I made up.
As I walked down a gloomy ally way one foggy Halloween night I saw the figure of a lady fly up into the night sky on a broom stick. She had some kind of animal with her, when it meowed I realised it was a cute black cat. She swooped down on her broomstick to where I was and she said, “Are you coming?” I looked around and then realised she was talking to me. I said, “Yes, I would love to”. So we flew off on an adventure through the night sky. When we landed I said, “thank you”. She said, “You are very welcome Misty” as she pushed back her hat. To my surprise I realised it was Mrs Keane my teacher.

Valerie my S.N.A. helps me to write the stories. She says I am a great storyteller. What do you think?

My Dad, Patch my dog and I go for walks together in the wood.
Patch is my dog – he is a small puppy only a few months old. He is very strong! When he sees something he wants, he will run his hind legs off. I like to take him for walks in the forest everyday after school. Patch loves to be cuddled. He is quite fond of steak like me. He likes to have his photograph taken and will pose when asked.

We were walking in the forest one day when we decided we would hunt for rabbits. We searched high and low but unfortunately we couldn’t find any. We sat on a log for ten minutes when suddenly Patch growled furiously. He had just noticed a hare searching for food because it was winter time and he was hungry. We chased after it as quickly as we could and the hare went into a hole. Patch and I crawled into the hole. The hare was very sly and escaped through another opening. Eventually we found a passage and we were glad to get out and got home safely. We didn’t tell anybody when we got home because they wouldn’t believe us.

Would you believe that story Grace??

We learn a lot of Science in my new school. We spent a week learning about mushrooms. We gathered some mushrooms and made a display, some are poisonous.
Guess what! I made up another story called, Mushroom Attack. Once upon a time when there were humans around, mushrooms grew and destroyed all other growing plants. One day a big man with white pimply spots and a red face screamed at a mushroom. The mushroom was called puff ball. The puff ball grew and swallowed him whole. He spat him back out and strangely he wasn’t a man anymore. He was a mushroom called flygarrick. This is how flygarricks were born.
I was happy when my teacher wrote, I could read your stories all day Misty. They are really super, in my copy. I think Valerie was happy too. One day I brought a nice story book to school to show Valerie. She liked it.

Sometimes my teacher reads out my stories for the whole class. They give me a big round of applause. I am so happy then. I play with all the girls in my class well actually we talk a lot at play hour.
They girls are very good at making up plays. They even make up plays in Irish. They made up some very good Irish ones about a restaurant. I made up a story called, The Deaf Waiter while they were doing that.
Ms Mc. Nulty my resource teacher tells me that I have a great imagination. She helps me with reading and writing too. Oh here is one last little story for you called, The Balloon.
Once I had a friend who could fly very high. He had a very big brain. I called him Brian!! Until the bully came once again he popped his head, with a big bang my little friend was dead. That was the end of my friend Brian.
A little sad but I don’t mind! My year has been sad too but I am getting through it with my Dad, family and friends.

Welcome to my life Grace – I always wanted to use this line!!
This is me.
Hope you like my letter.
Goodbye for now.