Hello and welcome back to a very special edition of…Hall of (home learning) Fame! “HOHLF, HOHLF, HOHLF!”
Today, we have a special entry. Usually, this is a compilation of learning. Today, it is not. Today, one person can hold their head high. Today, one person can feel proud. Today, one person has made history.
Yesterday, I received a piece of writing from one member of 56OB. I was blown away! So blown away that I had to share. People of the world, I give you our first ever solo entrant in the Hall of (home learning) Fame #HoHLF…Harry!
Well done, Harry – this writing is amazing! Welcome to the Hall of (home learning) Fame.
Check out Harry’s writing:
She pulled down on the chain with her left hand, steering herself towards her target. It was supposed to be the most exciting 13th birthday present ever; a hot air balloon ride. However, Alice had been hanging on for dear life for over 100KM (since the basket of the hot air balloon had fallen off). She was now getting used to steering the huge balloon by maneuvering her body, leaning to the left or to the right.
Terrified yet excited at the same time, Alice could just about make out her house and garden far below. It was the one surrounded by trees straight ahead, wasn’t it?
Alice was a young thirteen-year-old from Chicago, USA. She didn’t have many friends but had 2 friends since she was 6. She liked reading, playing with her friends, and going to her local park on a weekend. She had light brown hair (nearly blonde) and twinkling blue eyes. She can speak a bit of Spanish and Mexican (may help her in this story) and She’s curious and quite nosey too.
She took a deep breath and focused… She got closer. Closer. It was not home but she recognised the place like she’d been there before. Alice was thinking where she could be while slowly but dangerously falling to the ground. She landed in a tree. “Great!” she said sarcastically.
After about an hour of getting down without injuring herself, she finally got down with a couple of scratches on her arms and legs – nothing major. Alice was going through déjà vu. She was hallucinating because of a lack of hydration and kept going from actual life to flashbacks from years back. The town looked deserted to what she could remember: shops boarded up, cars so dusty they looked they hadn’t been touched in years, an old park filled up with weeds coming from the ground and bushes growing through the gates; Alice didn’t get close no matter how curious she was.
Alice started searching the village for any sort of human life, hours and hours but still nothing. Dehydration was kicking in. Her brain was screaming at her to find something to drink but she was already in a home finding a water tap that still functioned cold, filtered water. House after house (with no sleep at all) she finally found a fridge with some water bur little food. She took it as a win and for the next week settling in the same house. There was a small mattress with a small quilt that looked dirty and damp but worked for now.
The water had started to run cloudy and had a strange smell, she needed to move on so she attempted to go out and find human life to tell her where she was. Alice started the trek for her own safety and walked days on end without finding anything. She was about to give up when she saw what looked like people in the distance. At that moment in time, she was in a forest and could see a couple of huts as well as people. She started running as fast as she could until she got there. “Hello,” she said. “Do you speak English?”
They looked at her for a minute or so. Silence and confusion were the words to describe that minute. Finally came an answer. “Hola mi nombre es Pablo,” one boy said. Alice knew Spanish and translated in her head, “Hello, my name is Pablo.” She replied in Spanish and she started explaining her situation while thinking in her head “Thank goodness I started listening to my Spanish teacher in the middle of Year 7.”
After talking for a bit, they asked if she was hungry and fed her and gave her water. After her meal she was given a fresh pair of clothes and somewhere to freshen up, it had been a while. That night she had a good sleep in one of the huts preparing herself for the journey ahead… Alice woke up. There weren’t many kids there but she didn’t mind because she wasn’t that social towards people. She got herself ready for her trip back to Chicago.
She asked finally where they were and they replied saying somewhere close to Chicago and they moved from Mexico. After she said her final goodbyes, and she headed West towards Chicago. Some days after setting off she saw her village and also her house. She sprinted harder than she did last time she saw human life and saw her mum and dad talking to the police about her, they all cheered and the look of relief was a picture. Alice was home. She ran to hug her mum and dad with her eyes filled with tears.
That night, she told her mum and dad the entire story. Luckily it was the weekend so plenty of time to rest. Monday came and she went to school and saw her two best friends and got back into her normal life. Her best friend laughed and said to her “So what’s next year’s birthday plans? To which Alice replied, “I think we’ll just stick to a movie and pizza.”
WOW! I think you’ll agree that’s incredible. Why not give Harry a message and celebrate this great effort with him?
If you haven’t already, send in a picture of you, or your learning, accompanied by #HoHLF, and you could be in the Hall of (home learning) Fame, too. *
*Terms and conditions: you must send a picture to be entered into the Hall of (home learning) Fame. Winners will be posted on this section of the website and will receive their prize as soon as they read it. The prize is a virtual high five from the Year 5,6 team.