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????????????????????????? The Funniest Why and How Stories ????????????????????????? You ’ll Ever Read ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? Division 4’s Pourquoi Folk Tales ?????????????????????????

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WHY? HOW? WHY? HOW? WHY? HOW? WHY? HOW?

This book was created by Division 4, Ms. Kenon’s grade 3/4 class, at Mount Pleasant Elementary in the spring of 2014. The Writers’ Exchange makes literacy exciting and accessible for inner-city kids through free mentoring and creative writing projects like this chapbook. All Writers’ Exchange programs are free for the children and families we serve, so we could not exist without the support of generous donors, including Bernard MacLeod, Megan Abbott, Marily Mearns, the Vancouver Foundation, Nancy and Ted Maitland, TELUS, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, the Central City Foundation, Lindsay Mearns, Claudia Casper and James Griffin, The Home Depot Canada Foundation and the Hamber Foundation. Thank you. And thank you to the amazing volunteer mentors who work with the kids in all Writers’ Exchange programs so that each child can succeed to the best of his or her ability.

Writers’ Exchange 881 East Hastings Vancouver, BC V6A 1R8 To read more great student writing, visit vancouverWE.com. Writers’ Exchange mentors: Amanda, Carissa, Katie, Kyla, Mira, Molly, Sarah and Stacey Editorial support: Mira Design and layout: Michelle Hooey, sparkleandsparkle.co

Writers’ Exchange in-school projects are made possible by the Vancouver Foundation and Coast Capital Savings Credit Union.

The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society.

Printing for this chapbook was generously donated by Hemlock.

As an author of a Writers’ Exchange book, you are invited to sign up for our FREE after-school and summer programs at the Writers’ Exchange home base at 881 East Hastings Street.

We run programs for kids in grades 1 to 3, 4 to 7, and 8 to 12.

Ask your teacher for a signup sheet, go to vancouverWE.com or call Jennifer at 604-428-8228 for more information.

Introduction

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In the spring, Division 4 of Mount Pleasant Elementary made folk tale stories. That means they are fiction stories about how something got to be some way or why something is the way it is. Writers’ Exchange mentors helped the students write the stories and the kids believe that Writers’ Exchange is a fun program!

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Table of Contents Why Are Baby Pandas Pink? By Kali 3 Why the Sun Is in the Sky By Tristan 4 How Did the Cheetah Get Its Spots? By Gordon 5 How Was the Unicorn Invented? By Caitlynn 6 Why Do Crocodiles Have Hard Skin? By Mayo 8 How Jakey and the Mikey Twins Defeated the Evil Computer By Caleb 10 How the Fox Got His Bushy Tail By Naoli 11 How Stars Got in the Sky By Kayo 12 How Life Started for Humans By Angie 13 Why Do We Have Day and Night? By Nathan 14 Why Kittens Are Blind By Kishwar 16 Why Does the Owl Come Out at Night? By Ciera 17 How the Pink Dolphins Turned Blue By Clara 18 Why Ravens Are Not Common By Vimal 19 How Did the Sun Get in the Sky? By Ryan 20 What Are Aliens Made Out Of? By Shimei 21 How Space Got Stars By Sonya 22 What Happens to Food We Eat Once It Is Inside Our Bodies? By Theo

Why Are There Seasons? By Bushra 25 Why Does the World Have Colours? By Tracy 26 Why Elephants Are Pink By Hailey

How Did Kings and Queens Come to Be? By Tristan

Why Are Baby Pandas Pink ? By Kali In Cambodia, Asia, a female panda named Mira and a male pig named Wilber were getting to the age where they had to get married. Mira looked everywhere but she never saw a panda she liked. Meanwhile, Wilber was having the same problem with pigs. One day, Mira was walking in the forest and accidently bumped into Wilber. The next day, they both went to the meadow and watched the bright pink, yellow, blue and orange sunset together. They fell in deep love, but their parents would not let them be together. So one night, they snuck out and met in the meadow where they had watched the sunset together. They thought of a plan. So they next day they ran away to the meadow. Their parents were worried sick, but eventually found them and agreed to let them get married. It took a few days to set up, but the two did get married. Two months later, they had a baby, and the baby was pink like her father and grew up to look like her mother. 3

Why the Sun Is in the Sky By Tristan Once upon a time in space, Creeper—who has a green body—and Nyan Cat—who has a Pop-Tart body—were floating in space and saw two balls of rock, so they floated towards them and Creeper had an idea. Creeper landed on the rock and exploded. When he exploded, the balls of rock turned into the sun and Earth. Creeper chose to explode because he wanted light and doing this caused him to ignite the rocks so that it made light and a habitat on one ball of rock, and the other ball of rock became the sun. Nyan Cat was so sad, so he drifted in space forever. 4

How Did the Cheetah Get Its Spots ? By Gordon Once upon a time there was a yellow, small-as-a-dog, no-spots cheetah and a sniper who shot black paintballs and wore a hunter’s hat. It was summer in Africa at the Egyptian pyramids. It was sunny at 12:30 p.m. The hunter wanted the cheetah, so he shot the cheetah with paintballs. Then the hunter left the cheetah and then the cheetah ran after the hunter and bit him. Then the cheetah left but didn’t notice that he had spots on his skin. He ran to his group and they told him that he had spots. Then when the cheetah went close to the group, the rest of the group evolved into cheetahs that had spots that did not come off. And that’s why the cheetah has spots. 5

How Was the Unicorn Invented? By Caitlynn Once upon a time there lived a wild, white horse who lived in Africa. Her name was Stampy Stampylongnose Jr. She lived right next to the rhinos. One rhino was named Cultus. Stampy looked really close and she noticed that he was more shiny than the others. She thought it was water that was making him shiny but she waited until the next morning. He was still shiny. The zookeeper took Stampy past Cultus and they fell in love. The zookeeper moved them to the same shelter. A couple months later, the zookeeper noticed Stampy’s stomach had got bigger. When it was time, the twins would come out. The zookeeper rushed Stampy to the vet with a time machine as soon as he could. When they arrived at the vet, they waited for the twins to come out. She waited to give birth. The twins didn’t come out of Stampy’s belly when she wanted them to. Her vet told her she might die. And then a miracle happened and the twin horses came out and they had a horn like a rhino, and that’s how the unicorn got invented.

Why Do Crocodiles Have Hard Skin? By Mayo One morning there was a saltwater crocodile named Saltie, a tiger named Tigey, a bald eagle called Eaga and a crab named Crabie. They were all friends. One morning when Saltie was sleeping, a bald eagle was poking him. Then Saltie woke up, so Saltie scared it away and then he went back to sleep.

The next day, Saltie, Tigey, Eaga and Crabie were walking in the town. Saltie told Tigey, Eaga and Crabie that he wanted something to protect himself and they all said, “OK.” They all went to different places. Tigey went to the tool shop. Tigey said, “Do you have anything to protect yourself?” The duck said, “Sorry, no.” So Tigey went to another shop. Then Eaga went to the shield shop and said, “Do you have anything to protect yourself?” Then the racoon said, “Sorry, all the shields won’t be back for three years.” “What? Why is it three years?” “I don’t know. I’m not the manager.” So Eaga and Crabie went to the underwater crab shop. Crabie said, “Do you have anything to protect yourself?” And the other crab said, “No, sorry.” So Crabie went to another store. They all searched for hours and still didn’t find anything. They told Saltie they didn’t find anything yet. But Saltie told them he had an idea. Saltie said, “I need something to protect my body because that’s where they always poke me. It hurts so much.” So they all made Saltie a blue cover. He wanted the colour green so they painted it green. Saltie thanked them so much. Then Saltie was happy forever.

How JakeY and the Mikey Twins Defeated the Evil Computer By Caleb One hot summer day in August, it was so hot that you could cook a pancake on the sidewalk. The Mikey twins said, “Hey, we got pancakes so let’s go inside to eat.” So they went in Jakey’s house. Jakey asked, “Hey, who wants to play some videogames to cool off?” The Mikey twins both said, “Yeah,” so they went upstairs and played some videogames, but, at that moment, they got sucked into the videogame. “Where are we?” When they looked around them, a deep, deep, deep voice told them, “You are in a video game. You start at level one.” “But we need to get home to eat our pancakes!” the boys said. “Well, too bad! You must complete the game.” The boys got on their TRON Cycles and defeated all their enemies, and turbo burst through the evil face of the computer. Then they sat down for their yummy pancakes and said, “Well, that was a trip.” 10

How the Fox Got His Bushy Tail By Naoli In a forest by the Fraser River in what was called the Lower Mainland, there were two foxes. One was red and one was white. Because of the colour of their coats, they were nicknamed White Fox and Red Fox. Red Fox was big, had no manners and was jealous of White Fox’s tail. This was because White Fox had a big, bushy tail, but Red Fox didn’t. White Fox was nice. The forest animals like Honey Badger and Hummingbird had the things that could help Red Fox have a bushy tail. Unfortunately, Honey Badger and Hummingbird didn’t really like Red Fox. So White Fox helped by showing Red Fox how to be nice. Hummingbird got Honey Badger and they went to where Hummingbird saw a bushy, toy fox tail in the forest. Hummingbird wasn’t strong enough to pick up the tail, so she asked Honey Badger to carry it back to the foxes. Then Hummingbird picked off a leaf and used it to pick up some honey from a fallen honeycomb. Then they used it to attach the tail to the red fox. Red Fox had his tail and was now nice. Honey Badger and Hummingbird accepted Red Fox because he was nice. And that’s how Red Fox got his tail. 11

How Stars Got in the Sky By Kayo Once upon a time there were two cats. One cat was named Fuzzy. She was white with a pink nose. She had a small tail. She had a boyfriend. He was black with a brown nose. His name was John. They were playing marbles. The marbles were too shiny, like a sun, and they hurt the catsâ€™ eyes, so they threw them very far away. Then they realized it was beautiful when they looked up in the sky. Now the shiny marbles were far away from the two cats. Thatâ€™s why the stars are in the sky. 12

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How Life Started for Humans By Angie

Chapter 1 Once there was a huge ocean. In the afternoon, there was a threeinch crab in his tiny shell. When he was just about to get out of his shell, there was a tidal wave and it washed him onto the shore. He hit a magical seashell that made him approximately five inches long and two inches high. Then an eagle said, “I’m going to eat you and use your shell as a ball.” Then the eagle took off with the crab in his feet and took him to a cliff. The crab saw a chimp eating a banana. All of a sudden, the chimp threw his banana peels at the eagle, and the crab was confused because he thought the chimp was friends with the eagle and would help eat him. The eagle explained, “That chimp is my arch nemesis.” While the eagle was explaining the reason he was there, the chimp helped the crab escape.

Chapter 2 When the chimp and the crab escaped, the eagle turned around and screamed, “Caw, caw. I will get you for this, you little brats! Then I will search for what life is!” The crab and the chimp heard him talk about life and wanted to find it before he did. The chimp said, “If we find life before him, we might enjoy it before he finds us and then we will be free to take revenge on the eagle. The crab agreed with him and they searched for life. After that, the eagle called his friend and they searched for life, too. When they caught up with the crab and the chimp, they all agreed to be friends and search for life together. To be continued. . . 13

Why Do We Have Day and Night? By Nathan

Narrator: They were slowly processing the dark magic in Zeus’s body. Two hours later, at noon in a random grass field. . . Cupid: Ares, where’s Zeus? Ares: I have no idea. Narrator: They find him in a small patch of long grass. Zeus: What’s happening? Why? Cupid: What happened? Ares: Yeah, what happened? Zeus: I think Lord God used his dark magic. Narrator: Back in hell. Lord God: Wait. . . Did Zeus create day and night? The raven: Why don’t we have a fight about it? Lord God: Let’s do this. Zeus: Let’s get him. (Split screen) Cupid: Wait. . . What does he want? Ares: Whatever! Narrator: Off they went to the God Dungeon Arena. The raven: Go, Lord God! Woohoo!

Narrator: Long ago, in the— Stupard: The start! Narrator: In the year 0, on a foggy red morning in heaven. . . Everybody: Good Morning, Zeus. Zeus: Hello, everybody! Cupid: Off to start my day, but first, I need my love cologne. Ares: I love wisdom. Narrator (in a Morgan Freeman voice): In hell, in the God Dungeon. . . The raven: Another day in hell, Lord God. Lord God: Yes, it is. I wonder how Zeus is doing. The raven: Let’s look in the misadventurous globe. Lord God: He’s probably miserable. Slave: Help me! Lord God: Never! Narrator: Back to heaven. . . Zeus: Ow. . . Ow!. . . Owwww! Lord God: Why do we have day and night? The raven: I don’t know, sir.

Lord God: Let’s battle! Zeus: Oh yeah! Narrator: They used all their might to defeat each other in a second. Zeus was knocked out. The raven: Yeah! Ares: Zeus, are you OK? Cupid: Huh? Narrator: They rushed to save Zeus. Lord God: Easy. Zeus: Take my power and do day and night. Take it! Ares: But we are healing you. Cupid: Yeah. Zeus: Just use it!

Ares and Cupid: OK, here it goes! Narrator: The raven turned into filthy feathers and Lord God disintegrated. Zeus: Finally! The world is free. There is nothing to worry about now! Everybody: Finally! Zeus: Yes, I spammed the other power they were using. We have day and night. He was holding it in. We have day and night now! Narrator: The En— Stupard: The End! Narrator: The End. 15

Why Kittens Are Blind By Kishwar Once upon a time there was a big castle and inside the castle there were two kittens, one cat, a good king and a scary ghost. One day the ghost wanted to kill the kittens and he went to the kittens’ room. Suddenly, the king came and the ghost ran away from the kittens and the king. Four months later, the ghost said, “The kittens are still blind, so I think I have to wait until they can see.” The ghost did not like when kittens were blind. The king told the kittens to pretend they were blind. The ghost pretended to be a cat to trick the kittens, but the king understood he was a ghost, so he got rid of the ghost forever. Then the king said to the kittens, “You’re safe.” And then the kittens and the cat said, “Yea!” And they lived happily ever after. 16

Why Does the Owl Come Out at Night? By Ciera It is night time and it is warm and it is summer. There’s a baby owl. The owl is a girl and she is two years old. And her name is Owly. She is brown and white. She is a very nice owl but she’s not the only one. She has a mother. She wants to come out during the daytime but she is scared because she doesn’t know what’s out there. Maybe a hunter. She doesn’t know. She misses her mother a lot so she takes a peek during the day. She finds people to be nice. But owls don’t come out during the day, because they’re scared.

How the Pink Dolphins Turned Blue By Clara Once upon a time, on a rainy, foggy winter night in the water, there lived three pink dolphins and some more friends, the otter and the seal. The first dolphin is big, the second one is medium and the last one is small. They’re all siblings—a boy, a girl and a girl. The small sister wanted to go to a very cold place where her friend Seal had moved. Then the other sister and brother said, “Sure,” so they moved to Antarctica. And the very next day they decided to go to school, so they did and when they were coming back, they wanted to play in the water. Then they went in the water for so long that they turned blue. They didn’t hate being blue and they were thankful that they changed and that everyone still like them. 18

Why Ravens are not common By Vimal Long ago, on a cloudy evening in the year of 1099, there was a wolf hunting for ravens. Since ravens were common at Beaver Lake, the wolf went to Beaver Lake and found thousands of ravens. The ravens were trying to steal the food and the wolf was trying to guard the food. Then Wolf found Owl and told him what happened. Owl said, “Get ’em back for stealing your meat by eating them.” Owl tried to fool Wolf by telling him to go at dawn, but Wolf didn’t listen to what Owl said. At night, Wolf snuck up and ate one thousand ravens. Only one hundred ravens flew up and survived the attack. And that’s why ravens are not common.

How Did the Sun Get in the Sky? By Ryan Once upon a time there was an alien named Aully. He had a pet cat named Nyan Cat and Nyan had a pet named Flappy Bird. One day, Aully was bored and cold and his pet was too cold to move. Since Aully had nothing to do, he thought of going to the wizard tower where the wizard lived. Aully told Nyan he was going to the wizard so he could get a hot ball to have fun and be warm. When Aully got there, he asked the wizard for the hot ball. The wizard said, “OK,” and started making the ball. When the wizard was done, he gave the ball to Aully. Aully said, “Thank you,” and went home to play hot ball with his pet. While Aully was playing, he threw the ball so high and far that the ball went to the sky and evolved to a bigger form of the ball. The pets were amazed. Aully said, “Let’s keep it this way. I’ll name it Sun.” “I feel warm,” said everyone, “and it’s a little brighter. I like it this way.” “It’s the way I wished Uranus would be,” said Aully. “I’ll get a new ball. Bye.” “Bye,” said Nyan. 20

What Are Aliens Made Out Of? By Shimei Once upon a time, there was a scientist named Stien. When his neighbour died, he asked the people if he could make him alive again and they said yes. Then he went to his lab and tried it, but Stien got mixed up because two parts of the recipe were the same colour and he put in the wrong one and made his neighbour into an alien. Then Stien got an idea. He would creep in the cemetery and then take the bodies to his lab. He made so many aliens that his lab was full. Then he looked for an astronaut to take them to another planet. When he saw an astronaut, Stien said he would give him a million dollars if he would take the aliens to another planet. The astronaut said yes, but the people began to notice that the bodies weren’t buried anymore and the dead people weren’t there. So they put up a camera to see who was taking them and when they looked at the camera, they saw Stien. In the morning, they went to the lab. They saw Stien making an alien and they said, “So, it’s you!” They called the police and got him arrested. When he was old, he died. 21

How Space Got Stars By Sonya Once upon a time there were three bunnies. Two were white and one was black. They lived in a bunny field in the middle of the country. One day they sat down in the grass and one of them wondered, â€œWhat is the reason that space has stars?â€?

The other bunnies were just dreaming about how awesome it would be to eat chicken nuggets every day. The bunny shook them awake. Both bunnies stared and both said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to have chicken nuggets right now?” “Never mind that!” said the smarter bunny. “I have a better idea.” The funny bunny leaned over and whispered to the cute, small bunny, “What could be better than chicken nuggets?” The smart bunny didn’t hear. He said, “We’re going to find out how the stars got up in the sky.” But then they realized they didn’t have a rocket, so the three bunnies couldn’t go to space to find out how stars got up in the sky. The other bunnies were actually glad that they didn’t have to go up all the way in the sky without even getting one little nugget for the ride. But they were kind of keeping a secret—they knew how to go to space without a rocket. They felt pretty bad for keeping it inside, so the next day they went up to the sad, smart bunny and said, “If you want us to tell you how to get to the sky without a rocket, give us chicken nuggets and we will tell you.” The smart bunny liked the idea so he said, “Of course,” and he bought them their nuggets, so they told him how. . . They went to the mushroom fields, where they found a giant mushroom, and then the smart bunny asked them, “What are we going to do with this?” And the other bunny said, “Don’t talk. Just jump,” and they jumped on the mushrooms all the way to space. They couldn’t see that well so they just made a guess, “I think that it all started when the sun was bored all alone with no other types of herself, so she made some babies. But the first baby never grew very well and became stuck as a baby sun—a star—so ever since, that’s why baby suns come out.”

WhAt Happens to food we eat once it is inside our bodies? By Theo First you chew the food. You grind it up with your teeth. After you chew your food in your mouth, you swallow it into your esophagus. In your esophagus, it gets pushed down. The food goes down a bit and stops, and then goes down again as the esophagus stretches and pushes. After the esophagus, the food falls into the stomach. In the stomach, we add acid and other chemicals to dissolve the food into a liquid. After the stomach is the small intestine, where the food gets sucked up into the bloodstream. But the wasted parts go into the large intestine, where it comes out. Thatâ€™s what happens when you eat food. 24

Why Are There Seasons? By Bushra It’s 8:30 in the morning. The foxes are on Fox Island. (P.S. They lived there before anyone else ever lived. Back to the story.) So, their names are Scarlet and Loxy. (P.S. They have power.) They went onto their private rocket ship and went to Ice Cream Planet. They finally got there and saw their friend Jeremy, but they noticed some differences on the planet. The foxes asked at the same time, “Did the planet get colder? Are there new flavours?” Then Jeremy said, “No, now we have something called. . . seasons!” They asked, “What are seasons?” And Jeremy said, “Seasons are weather.” They asked, “What’s weather?” And they went on and on and on with questions until they finally learned, so they went back to Earth, landed on Fox Island and used their powers to make seasons. They used their powers by saying the magical words, “Abracadabra, give us seasons.” After that, everyone lived happily ever after. 25

Why Does the World Have Colours? By Tracy One morning in the dark green forest, there was a tiger named Stripes. He was kind. He was nice to everyone! But one thing he wanted was for the forest to have colours. Then his friends the monkey and a bird came along. Also, the angry elephant was stomping towards them. All of a sudden, it started to rain ink! But it was not enough ink for the forest. So the animals went to find more colour that they needed. They needed red, yellow, black and, last but not least, rainbow! The bird wanted a tomato. Then a tree with a tomato grew beside him. There was fairy dust, so if he wanted to grow more tomatoes, he could just sprinkle the fairy dust all over the forest. He asked his friends the tiger and the monkey for help. Also, he tried asking the elephant for help, but he said, “No!” and stomped on the fairy dust and when he stomped, the elephant started to make art. Every time he stomped, the fairy dust made more colours. Everyone was happy. All the animals were happy, too. Even the elephant was happy. Also, if they wanted another colour, they just asked the elephant. Soon, other forests and cities and playgrounds heard of the magical, colourful elephant. The colour soon spread all over the world. That’s how the world got its colour. 26

Why Elephants Are Pink By Hailey One day, in the jungle far away, there was an elephant named Hailey. Hailey wasn’t the only elephant around. There was another elephant named Bob. He was a bully and he bullied Hailey because she was pink. Bob started to bully Hailey again. A hunter came to Bob and said, “Stop, Bob!” and Bob stopped, and then everybody lived happily ever after. That’s why elephants are pink.

How did kings and queens come to be? By Tristan Five years ago, in an invisible castle in the sky, there was a doctor. He didnâ€™t like to be lonely. He sat on a crystal couch by himself. He really wanted a friend. One day at 9:00 a.m., he shot lightning at the clouds, and a king and queen came out of the clouds. The Sky King and Queen were wearing orange, blue and white. They were tall and old. The king and queen shot a lightning bolt into the cloud and Sky Knight came out. Sky Knight was orange, silver and gold. They were all happy, and thatâ€™s how kings and queens came to be. 28