A Picture Book Writing Lesson from WritingFix
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Three-Meal Weather

food-inspired adjectives drive organized writing

The writing of authors Judi & Ron Barrett inspired student writers to try new techniques with the traits of organization and word choice. Join us in teaching (and adapting) this on-line lesson and sharing your students' work.

New! You can publish up to three of your students' edited and finished stories at this page to be entered in a semi-annual contest for free classroom resources from the Northern Nevada Writing Project.

Use these samples to inspire your student writers! Discussing the strengths of published student samples before, while, and after using this on-line assignment is important. If your students are engaged in trait- or skill-inspired discussions about any of the samples we've posted here, they will produce better writing, especially if you help them take their writing all the way through the writing process.

Thank you, those who share their students' writing with us.


Additional Student Samples Being Sought:
Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12

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WritingFix is currently seeking additional student samples from this writing assignment that can be featured in this space. Submitted student work must show evidence of revision, editing, and the final draft must be typed and sent through e-mail. Teachers: if you can help us obtain up to three student samples, along with a digital photo of the student(s) and a signed permission slips, we will send you a complimentary copy of one of the Northern Nevada Writing Project's print publications.

To have us consider your students' writing for inclusion on this page, you must post the writing to our Ning page dedicated to this lesson. Click here to access that page. You must first be a member of the Writing Lesson of the Month Network in order to post.

Student Samples: Early Elementary

Cloudy with a Chance of Candy
by Jack, first grade writer

Once upon a time there lay a town of Candytown. Here the clouds are made of cotton candy, grass is made of licorice and all the houses are made of all kinds of candy.

For breakfast they ate mints, for lunch they ate M&M’s and for dinner they ate donuts and swallowed that down with hot chocolate.

But the weather came out bad. The next day at breakfast, ice cream flooded the town. At lunch, an earthquake came in and left behind chocolate milk shakes. At dinner, a tsunami of hot chocolate flooded the town!

Everyday the weather was terrible. Lakes flooded, tornadoes came and all kinds of things happened. So Candytown had to be abandoned. No one came back to see what happened again.

(Click here to view and print Jack and one of his classmates' Three-Meal Weather stories.)

A Day Full of Food
by Niko, second grade writer

In the town of Chew and Swallow, food falls from the sky for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

At breakfast, the pancakes were sticky. The scrambled eggs were hot and cheesy with pepper. Also, melted strawberry strudels fell from the sky.

At lunch, squishy peanut butter sandwiches fell from the sky. Smokin’ hot dogs steamed the town. Yellow juicy apples tumbled on the roofs.

Later that night, sweet cheesy hamburgers fell on each door, and they had little hands that rang the doorbell and said, “Food is here!” The stinky fish fell onto people’s plates. Mac and cheese dropped only to the children because they liked it.

For dessert, chocolate covered strawberries dropped into people’s mouths.

I wonder what food is for tomorrow.

(Click here to view/print Nico and another second grader's Three-Meal Weather stories.)

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
by Marissa, third grade writer

Breakfast fell fast on the ground in the morning. The sky served delicious eggs, pancakes and a giant hash brown. Everybody in the land of Chew and Swallow ate all the food on the plate. The scrambled eggs were cheesy. The pancakes were fluffy, and the hash brown was golden and chewy. Everybody in the land of Chew and Swallow ate breakfast with their friends and family. They were full of energy until lunch.

At lunch, the food fell silently on the sidewalk. For lunch they had a hotdog, a soda and strawberries. The hot dog was smokin’. The soda was sugary and the strawberries were fresh. Once again the whole town ate all of it. And they were all happy and full of energy… until dinner.

For dinner in the town of Chew and Swallow, they had spaghetti. It fell gushy and hard. For a beverage they had lemonade. The spaghetti was so good. No chef could make it in a thousand million years! The lemonade was like it was in an igloo for three years. This time they only ate half and saved the other half for later. They all had a good night sleep.

(Click here to view and print Marissa and two of her classmates' Three-Meal Weather stories.)

Student Samples: Upper Elementary

I'm Tired of Cheesy Bread!
 by Sophia, fourth grade writer

In a land far, far away, there was a town called Deliciousness. There was something different about that town because it never snowed snow, and it never rained rain. It rained, snowed and hailed food! Food always came down for breakfast, lunch and dinner--but one day it was different.

It was time for breakfast when suddenly red, juicy bacon blew in from the north. Shortly after that, scrumptious bagels burst from the clouds. Finally, there was a shower of delightful orange juice. The people rushed outside to catch the delicious food. After breakfast was over, the people went back inside, full.

Not too many hours later, lunch came along. Lots of green juicy pickles rolled in from the south. After that, there was a storm of crispy popcorn chicken. Lastly, there was a chewy burrito tornado. When the people went outside to catch the food, the tornado plopped a burrito on their plates as it went by. There were lots of leftovers, so the people took them inside--just in case they got hungry in between meals.

Later, when it was time for dinner, a hurricane of crunchy nachos came from the west. Then a wind of spaghetti blew in. Suddenly, at the very end, there was a monsoon of tongue-tingling cheesy bread. It came down for days and days and it wouldn't stop. The town became flooded. The people had to leave the town of Deliciousness and no one ever came back.

Everyone sailed on the sea for days until they found land. It was different for them there because they had to grow their food. From that point on, everyone had to learn how to farm and harvest. But no one knew what happened to the town of Deliciousness.

(Click here to view and print Sophia and another fourth grader's Three-Meal Weather stories.)

The Problem in Friedsville
by Timothy, fifth grade writer

On a planet, nearly the size of Earth, there lays a little town known as Friedsville. In that town was a boy named Timo Schab. He was ten years old, but was very courageous. Timo’s planet is not like Earth, mainly because his planet produces processed foods naturally. Usually, everything safely enters Friedsville and is able to be eaten without harming the citizens in any way. But weather changes.

On what seemed like a normal day, Timo and all the other Friedsvillians went outside for breakfast, ready to collect some food that fell from the sky. Timo hoped for waffles and juicy sausage. But what Friedsville received wasn’t sausage or waffles, it was a downpour of oversized foods.

Giant, mushy oranges the size of a car pelted the city, acting like bombs as they exploded on the impact of the ground. “What’s going on?!” yelled Timo as he ran back into his house. Burnt bagels the size of a small house blew in from the south and crushed houses scattering the debris of the house all over the city. There was not much Timo could do. He improvised and put on some toy armor.

Timo did not know how it could get any worse. But it did get worse. Very, very sour juice flooded lakes of yogurt. The rest of it covered the city. It was so sour that it was a very powerful acid. Timo’s toy armor melted away, leaving him without protection.

When the juice started to melt away his shoes, Timo looked around, looking for a place to go. About one hundred feet away were people gathered on a hill. He started to run. Luckily, the juice started to stop falling, giving Timo a breath of relief. He made it to the hill, his shoes almost completely gone.

“I wish lunch and dinner will be better,” Timo said desperately. Then he lay down and fell asleep.

“Timo, wake up!” screamed one of Timo’s best friends, Don Drino. Timo sat up, looking around. At first, he thought he had gotten his wish. All the juice, bagels and oranges were gone and only a few houses had been destroyed. He looked up, and finally noticed that he had not gotten his wish.

It was never like it had ever been before. First, there were clouds of hot chocolate. But that wasn’t the bad part, the clouds literally fell from the sky, hit the ground, and let the hot chocolate flow around in the city. At first everybody on the hill was safe.

Now here was the most unusual part. Frozen pieces of salad fell out of the sky, shattering into pieces. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, their jaws dropping. And super stuffed ravioli fell everywhere, pelting the citizens. Everyone on the hill was hit. “There has got to be something wrong,” Timo suggested. “We need to get to the sky.”

All of a sudden, a tiny earthquake started to rumble. The top of the hill started to open up. Timo went into the hole. Inside the hole was a personal spaceship. “I’ll be right back,” Timo said.

“Good luck,” everyone muttered.

The engine started, making a loud gurgling noise. Then the spaceship left the hole and headed up toward the sky. Timo flew up over the clouds and threw a penny out the spaceship. He went back to the hill, into the hole. “I’ll just have to wait until dinner,” Timo said.

It was time for dinner, and everybody looked anxiously to the sky. A light snow of skim milk started to fall and all the children jumped for joy. Many different types of pizza dropped from the sky. Sausage, pepperoni, cheese, supreme, the works – you name it. And to finish it off, shrimp slowly floated down from the clouds.

Friedsville was finally back to normal.

(Click here to view and print Tim and another fifth grader's Three-Meal Weather stories.)

Feastopolis
by Taylor, sixth grade writer

This might sound a little crazy, but where I live food falls from the sky. Whenever I travel anywhere else, I wait for the food to fall from the sky, but it never happens. When I ask somebody why the food isn’t falling from the sky, they say I’m crazy. In Feastopolis, we have a population of 50,000 people, but it’s very rural so we have plenty of room. Some features that we have are a Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid lake, and a sandy brown sugar beach. The soccer and football fields are made of delectable Sour Punch Straws.

Let me show you what last Sunday was like in Feastopolis. On that sunny morning at 7:00 a.m., everybody woke up to see what was going to fall out of the sky for breakfast. The townspeople came out to find delicious, beautiful bunches of food falling from the sky. These foods were buttery toast, pancakes smothered in warm, sticky, golden syrup. We also had some orange juice with a little bit of pulp and some fluffy, yellow eggs. When breakfast was over, everyone agreed this has been a wonderful breakfast.

After breakfast, my dog (Atreyu) and I watched a soccer game and afterwards we ate some of the field’s Sour Punch Straws. Later on we hiked to Cool Blue Lake to swim and wait for lunch to fall. Lunch consisted of cheesy macaroni, some heavenly crispy chicken nuggets, some yummy crunchy, onion rings with a water bottle.

Last Sunday, after lunch, we went to see my mom only to discover she had gone to the store. (She had left a note on the refrigerator saying so.) Then Atreyu and I decide to go to the park, but when we were just half a block away, dinner comes falling from the sky. I couldn’t believe I forgot that dinner falls at 6:30, and it was a good thing my mom told me to carry some plates and silverware in my backpack. I looked up to see things that would make a salad, such as crunchy carrots, leafy spinach, bits of lettuce, sprinkling cheese, some meaty ham and turkey, and my dad’s homemade Italian dressing. We also had some delicious pepperoni pizza with some Coke. For dessert we had some chocolaty monster cookies and ice cold ice cream!

So, if you are ever wishing you didn’t have to buy groceries, this might be the place for you. That was a typical day in Feastopolis. Hope you come to visit soon!

(Click here to view and print Taylor and two other sixth graders' Three-Meal Weather stories.)

Student Samples: Middle School

Mikaelaopolis
by Mikaela, seventh grade writer

One bright sunny day in Mikaelaopolis, everyone was starting to wake up and start their day. The children got ready and went to play in the warm cinnamon-sugar sand and splash in the blue Gatorade ocean while waiting for breakfast. They played as the golden sun shone over them.

For breakfast, warm light fluffy scrambled eggs floated down from the clouds. Then bacon sizzled down from the sun, cooked to perfection. Finally, a light rain of orange juice sprinkled to the ground. That concluded the wonderful breakfast weather and everyone went inside to eat.

Later, at precisely 12:15 p.m., a lasagna casserole flashed to the ground like lightning. Green beans sprouted from the ground. A soda river came right down the mountain, and everyone bent down to gather some in their cups. For dessert, light fluffy whipped cream drifted to the ground like snow. Ice cream then came down to accompany the whipped cream.

For supper later on, after everyone had digested lunch, dinner came right on schedule. Warm golden chicken nuggets came tumbling to the ground. Ketchup sprinkled down from the clouds. Buttered toast was dipped into the cinnamon-sugar sand. For a drink, people took their glasses and got Gatorade out of the ocean.

That concluded another day in Mikaelaopolis. The people came to watch as the golden sun set behind the white fluffy clouds. The red, white, and blue Popsicle fireworks soared across the horizon.

(Click here to view and print Mikaela and three of her classmates' Three-Meal Weather stories.)

Potbelly Village, Mexico
by Sienna, eighth grade writer

It was a beautiful, majestic morning. The sun was just rising over the arid desert mountain tops. Its rays were silently creeping over the ground and shone brightly on the wet grape juice dew that lay undisturbed on the sugar cane leaves. All was peaceful and quite melodious after the birds started to sing. While this was happening, the villagers of Potbelly slowly awakened. As they started their morning routines, bowls of farina (Spanish oatmeal) angelically drifted from the sky. Then, medium-sized avocados came rolling down the street as a light shower of salt slid down from the heavens, a perfect combination. As this occurred, the town’s well filled up with fresh guava juice. The villagers were delighted and quickly guzzled down their wonderful breakfast so they could get to work.

When the sun shone directly over the village and the heat was at its fiercest, all of the villagers prayed for water and food to sustain them until they were done with their work. They waited and waited. They thought they were out of luck and started to panic and wrangle with each other. Through all of the noise and racket, no one noticed the dark, heavy storm clouds that were rolling in. They were utterly surprised when a storm of mini-enchiladas poured down on them. As the storm progressed, it worsened, and lightning began to strike. With every blinding electrical blow, explosions of mini bowls filled with white rice and black beans filled the air. The villagers were frightened and fled into their huts until then storm was over. After a while, the storm lightened, and a rainbow of milk took over the sky to finish off an alarming lunch period.

As the sugar cane farmers came from the fields, tacos came two-by-two down the dirt road, rolling to each household’s doorstep. A gentle breeze of refried beans swept through the village as sweet bread drifted down from the setting abyss. This was accompanied by American Coca-Cola, which popped out of the well and landed in the people’s hands. The villagers were excited, for they didn’t get treats like Coca-Cola a lot. They were very grateful and wondered what dinner would be like the next day.

Later that night, fried ice cream crept down from the wispy clouds in the distance just as a shooting star filled the atmosphere with brilliant, sparkling light and an occasional burst of brownies here and there. Then a magnificent whipped cream fog covered the town and made dessert complete. When more than half of the village was asleep, a gentle, quiet shower of white grape juice fell from the clouds to conclude an interesting day in Potbelly Village, Mexico.

(Click here to view and print Sienna and two of her classmates' Three-Meal Weather stories.)

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