SO-Paige+B.

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By: Paige Bernhardt “Paige it is a really nice day out,” called Zach, “The lake is calm and the sun is rising.” What a fantastic day to play outside, and most importantly we are up at Bass Lake, the best place in the world. Bass Lake is not a huge lake, but a good size. It has enough room for pontoon boats, speed boats, kayaks, sail boats, paddle boats and canoes all at the same time; swimmers too. “Paige, come on get dressed,” Zach complained. “I have been up for three hours.” “Sorry Zach, but I just got up and am not ready to come outside,” I replied. Even though I was still tired and in my pajamas I got dressed and went outside with my younger brother, Zach. First we got all our gear including a net, a bucket, and a piece of cardboard to cover the bucket. We were going to catch frogs, so we went down to the beach where the frogs hide out. The beach was sandy and cold because of the water splashing up onto the beach during the night. It smelled fresh outside; it must have rained last night. The birds were chirping and flying all around. Now was our time to go catch some frogs. “Come on Zach, lets go,” I said. “We need frogs to build a house for in the sandbox.” Zach said, “Ok, I am coming.” “Quick I see one coming,” I said. “Let’s get it.” We crept up behind the frog that I saw and took our net. //Whoosh// the net flew right over the frog. It was a slimy frog; green with tan spots. Now we had a frog to make a home for in our sand box. The home for our frog would be in the sand box down by the lake. There was a big log down at the bottom that kept the sand from washing into the lake and the water from the lake going into the sand. Trees with big leaves and immense trunks surrounded the sand box. We were going to dig a hole with our shovel. Not only a hole, an enormous hole with tunnels and hallways, stairways and rooms galore! So instead of just talking about it we decided to get started. First we took the shovel and dug one big living area for a lot of frogs to live in. It was about two feet long and one foot deep. Then we placed the frog that we had captured into the hole so that it did not have to stay in the bucket any longer. After that we started digging some other holes so that we had rooms to connect with tunnels or hallways. There were five smaller rooms that were about the same size. They were approximately ten inches long and still one foot deep because if you made them shallow the frog could get out. Now it was time to make tunnels and hallways. A tunnel is covered, a hallway is open on the top. The first hallway we made connected room number two with the main room. We decided that rooms one, two, three, four, and five would not be connected to each other but only to the main room. The main room would be the area that connected everything together. Since Zach and I started with room two we just kept digging around the circle. We alternated between tunnels and hallways. That means that room three had a tunnel, room four had a hallway and so on. This is a mansion for frogs! Zach and I were getting tired so we decided to take a break before we tried to catch more frogs. Before we could take a break though we needed to fill up some sort of flat bucket or bowl with water so that when we got back from our break the frog was still active and alive. Zach started looking in the big bin with all the buckets. He found a big flat bucket that we could fill up with some lake water for the frog to refresh in and keep it hydrated. Now so that we could stop calling it “It” we needed to give it a real name. The name that we decided on was Spotter because the frog had tan spots. We were also going to attempt to build a second floor on our frog mansion later after we take our break. For now we decided to go swimming. Today was a perfect day to go swimming. It was 80o and sunny with basically no clouds in the sky. Butterflies were flying around. My dog Libby was also swimming too. She has a ball that my family calls purple ball because it is purple. Anyone that walks by just picks up her ball and throws it to her. The lake looked great for swimming, there were not many boats. That made it calm. Since there were not many boats, the loons made their way out of the bay to the bigger part of the lake. They were calling back and forth. //Woooooooooo. Woooooooooo.// The raft was just sitting there. It wanted us to swim out to it so that it could have some action, I just knew it. I convinced my dad to come out and throw us some balls that we could catch as we jumped off. “Look,” Zach said, “There are some blue gills under the raft.” “Yeah there is Zach,” I said. “Are you scared? I bet you are!” “Break it up guys,” my dad said. My mom walked out on the dock. She said that she wanted to take some pictures of us swimming. Zach and I are both good swimmers because we are on swim team for the Eau Claire YMCA Marlins. My mom took some pictures of us jumping off the raft and then she took some pictures of us doing swimming races. “It has been about two hours now,” I informed. “I think we should sit in the sun for a while and then go back to our frog project.” “Ok, that sounds like a plan,” Zach agreed. “So are we done now?” Dad asked. “Yep I think so,” Zach and I stated together. We dried off a little in the sun and changed out of our suits. Our clothes were more comfortable to play in the sand than our wet suits. We made our way back outside and grabbed a snack on the way. Zach and I turned our mind back to the frog project we had started earlier. Spotter had moved into room one which means he had gone through the hallway we had built. I was sort of afraid to go back and work on the project because I did not want to see Spotter gone. Luckily Spotter was still there. I wanted to find Spotter some friends so I went down to the beach and looked around for some more frogs. I spotted one in the weeds. Instead of using a net I decided to just use my hands. Just like last time I got the frog. I looked for about thirty more minutes and I found three more frogs. Now including Spotter and the second frog I caught I had captured five frogs. I brought them back to Zach and placed them in our frog mansion. Zach had built the stairs and started building a second floor. We were going to build only one room on the second floor and Zach had started building a small wall around it. We couldn’t really dig a hole because then it wouldn’t be a second floor so we just built up a one foot wall. We heard my mom call to come in for supper so we had to let the frogs go for the day. Tomorrow would be a whole new day for us and we could catch some new frogs, maybe even some of the same frogs, but for now it was supper time. Since it was about seven o’clock we would not be coming back out. We said good-bye to nature for the day but we knew tomorrow would be an even better more amazing day on Bass Lake!
 * A Day at Bass Lake **

Questions for Peer Reviewers

(Think in terms of questions you would like to ask the author.)

1. Think of plot—is it original? (If an adaptation, is it creative or interesting to you?) What suggestions do you have for the author(s)?

2. Think about problems that the characters face. Are there complications that add enough suspense, tension, or interest? Is there a climax that satisfies you? Is the resolution satisfying? What could be added or changed?

3. Think of characterization—are the characters life-like? Are characters likable and enjoyable? Do we get a good sense of character from many of these: description, dialogue, narrator's opinion, discussion from other characters, the character’s own actions?

4. Think of imagery and details. Do they help you //see// and //hear// and //experience// the story? What details would you like to see in the next revision of the story?

5. What areas of the story need the most improvement? What suggestions do you have for the author?