Great author

The kids watching the Olympics on TV.

Every month, Zachary has a "great authors" assignment in his second grade class. He is supposed to write something about his life -- an event, an experience, a toy, or something he likes. In the past he has written about sharks, army men, our upcoming move, and paper airplanes. This month he wrote about the Winter Olympic Games, and yesterday he read his paper for the class. I enjoyed his writing so much that I thought I'd share it here.

{Note: I will preserve his spelling just for kicks. The assignment focuses more on creative writing than mechanics and spelling. I have to work hard to let go...}

The Winter Olympic Games
by Zachary Bartle

I have been watching the winter olympic games. I have seen Mens short track and long track speed skating, ski jump, womens half pipe snowboarding, and the luge. There are althets from Canida, US, Germany, Finlind, Japan, Norway, Sweedn, Astria, Koria, China, Ukraine, and many other countrys.

The first sport I wachted is luge. In luge the athlets set on a certain kind of sled and then grab these bars and pull back..........forward very fast and let go. To get extra speed they paddle on the ice. They gain speed because they have a specil kind of glove that has little tiny spikes on the end of each finger tip. The spikes grab the ice and pull the athlet forward. After the athlet has let go and has paddled he lays down. During luge the athlets go about 80 to 90 miles per hour. Luge is a very fast sport.

The next sport I watched is ski jump. In ski jump the athlet sits on a bench then stands up, leans forward, and then when he comes to the little bump he stands up and crosses his skis and leans forward. The athlet who goes the farthest wins the ski jump.

My favorite winter olympic athlet is Apolo Ohno. He compets in mens short track speed skating. When an athlet compets in short track speed skating he/she dose thirtine laps on an ice track. Sometimes an athlet wipes out. If a person pushed him/her then the person who push is disqualified. Apolo Ohno is my favorite athlete because he is the best speed skater. Apolo is on the American team.

The winter olympics are only on every 4 years. I am so glad I get to watch this time!!!!!!!