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The Terror of Kansas

Student Model Print

Fifth-grader Ashley begins her story in the middle of the action. After the first paragraph, the reader is hooked and needs to know . . . “What happens next?”

The Terror of Kansas

It was 1:00 a.m. on a warm spring Wednesday, and it was storming outside. Casey was sleeping in her bed when she was awakened by a loud blast. It was the tornado siren. Just then her parents rushed in and said, “Grab your pillow and one thing you want to save!”

She decided to grab her dog, who was sleeping in her room. Most of her other things she could replace, but she couldn’t replace a living thing. Then she heard a loud crash and ran downstairs with the trembling dog in her arms. When they were all downstairs, they started listening to the weather radio. The weatherman said that an F5 tornado was heading straight for Silver Lake Trailer Park, and, unfortunately, that’s where Casey lived. Soon Casey could hear the loud rumbling noise of her house being thrown this way and that. The basement door was shaking like a giant was trying to get it open. She put the pillow over her head and tried to forget what was happening.

Many of Casey’s things were blown away—her bed, her dresser, her bookshelf, her books, and the painting her grandma had given her. Some of her books were found far away from her house, and her broken-up dresser was found a half mile away.

Thankfully, her dog and her family were okay, but many neighbors were not okay.

The tornado had lasted 20 minutes. So much had been lost in this terrible storm. Casey felt she would never be the same. She knew she would always remember the night that Mother Nature showed her destructive powers—the night Casey called Kansas Terror.

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