Winning Dragon Colouring Story Competition Entry

Once upon a time there lived a dragon that lived in the ocean. This dragon was no ordinary dragon. Its skin was made of colourful scales and whoever looked at the dragon would get blinded by the colours that it had. The dragon's skin was worth millions and millions of dollars because they said the skin was made of precious metal that no-one had ever seen before and that was worth even more than gold. They said that the dragon lived in an ocean no-one had ever heard of before, the Dragonopia Ocean. Story had it that whoever went in search of these dragons never came back. The myth also said that whatever the dragon touched would turn into the colour of the dragon's body. The dragon ate sea animals and sometimes weeds.

This myth went on for hundreds of years until a young man named Michael, from a little town called Rangladesh, decided that he had nothing to lose for he was very poor and needed some money. When he told his mother his idea she said that it was ridiculous. As the weeks went by Michael's family became poorer and poorer until one day his mother said it was the only hope for them and to take the family sword just in case. This sword was the sword of hope, war and bravery. His mother said goodbye to him and the ship took off.

At first Michael was enjoying himself but then the food ran out and they didn't know where they were because they had lost their maps in a terrible storm. Then, as they were sailing they heard this rumbling noise in the sea. It was the dragon! They tried to kill it with their swords but it was no use because when the swords touched the dragon they would turn into colourful ones and blinded the people. Then the dragon touched the boat and it all turned colourful. Nearly all the sailors were blinded except for Michael for he had some goggles in the cabinet and he put them on for safety.

After nearly all the sailors had gone blind Michael finally killed the dragon with his magical sword. He was very proud of himself. To test the myth he looked carefully at the scales. Sure enough, there in front of his eyes were the brightest colours he had ever seen. Then Michael put the sword into the dragon's stomach but no blood came out.

Instead rich, thick gold came pouring out of the dragon's body like an overflowing river. Michael thought this was fantastic because he could become even richer. But he didn't really want to make holes all over the dragon as it was very beautiful so he just squeezed the hole and poured the gold into three barrels. As he was squeezing the gold out of the dragon's body he felt something in the hole. As he squeezed it was not more gold that came out. Instead a golden egg popped out of the hole. This egg was no ordinary egg. It was as huge as a baby elephant and it also had a very hard shell.

By now Michael had gone crazy with delightment but he felt sorry for the egg because he had killed its mother. So from that day on Michael cared for the baby dragon and worked as a waiter and earned enough money for his family and never hurt another dragon again.
by Helen 5/6C

Stepping Out

By Erin 5/6Q based on a Stepping Out exercise

They are blue, they don’t look like shoes and they are sitting at the bottom of my cupboard gathering dust.

I got these shoes for my birthday. I pretended I liked them. They don’t even look like shoes! I have worn them once. They gave me blisters. They were too small and I was totally humiliated when I wore them to school. My mum made me. Luckily I brought an extra pair of shoes to put on. I now have the nickname funny feet.

I am now in my bedroom taking my shoes out of their box. Instead of being blue they are grey with dust. What was worse, they smelled bad. I was about to take them out of the box to chuck them out the of window when mum came into my bedroom. She was saying that she was sad and wanted me to put on my shoes. I knew I would have to so I told my mum I would put them on.

She left! I wasn’t going to put them on ever again. I told my mum that while I was looking for something that would match my shoes and that I had lost them. Its not a good excuse but it will do because I think my mum bought it. Or at least another pair of shoes.I got my other pair out of my hiding place. The best place in the world. Under the bed.

My mum brought the other pair back and started again on how sad she was that I didn’t wear them. Blah blah blah. I said I would put them on tomorrow. Of course that would never happen. I put them back in the box and went to sleep even though it was the middle of the day. It sort of seems appropriate to go to bed after something so horrible as putting on the ugliest pair of shoes in the morning.

Anyway in the morning I went to school early. Or at least the tip. I chucked the shoes as far as I could which wasn’t very far so I carried them to the back of the tip. I felt guilty after school so I went back to the tip and got them. They smelled worse than they did yesterday.

When I got home I washed them. They sort of stretched and the colour came off. That was bad until I saw what had happened. Underneath the blue were rainbow colours. They looked sort of cool. I had a matching colourful dress I could put on. A few minutes later I went down stairs. I showed my mum and told her what happened. She was disappointed and said if I didn’t like them she could have brought them back. All well. I now wear them every weekend when its hot with my dress.

Every year when my feet become too big my mum buys me another pair for my birthday.

Support this program

If you feel inspired to help ensure that almost five hundred primary school students in Melbourne's northern suburbs are actively encouraged to develop their writing and creative thinking skills you can send donations or products to:

Mrs Heather Blakey
The Writing Passport Program
La Trobe Secondary College
Wairora Road,
Macleod West,3085
Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia

Alternatively you can email heatherblakey@iprimus.com.au
for more information about supporting the expansion of this program.

Donations received from

The following businesses and organanizations have actively supported the writing passport program by providing realistic inducements to encourage students to engage and improve their writing and creative thinking skills. This support is gratefully received and acknowledged.

Hoyts Cinema Northland
Ivanhoe Bicycles.