Excuses Contest Winners!
The Excuses, Excuses contest challenges students to use a spinning-wheel widget to come up with three random words (gleaned from entries in contests earlier in the year), and then create an excuse that includes those three words. The excuse must be about why they are late to school, or why their homework was late. The students got very elaborate and creative in their excuses!
Winner: 10 Points
Words: Wifi, Hotel, Bottle
My wifi was glitching on Teams, so I went to a nearby hotel but, they refused to let me borrow their internet password unless I bought something. I bought a water bottle, but then they said that unless I bought something over a hundred and fifty dollars, the wifi password would not be available to me. I tried to rent the cheapest hotel room, but they were all booked for the next three months. And, I'm still waiting on the refund for the water.
—Dhruti, 7th, Green
Second Place: 7 Points
Words: Pig, Cube, Creaking
Hello, I am dearly sorrowful for not bringing my homework to class. I was at my house today when I heard the attic stairs creaked. I leaped up, startled. I grabbed a baseball bat and headed towards the attic. The creaking increased in volume as I approached. I cocked my bat and reached for the doorknob. Except the doorknob started turning by itself. I shrieked, and went downstairs to grab a catchers helmet, chest guard, kneepads, and cleats. In addition, I grabbed my spare bat. I went upstairs and shoved the door open to find.... a large cube. It was a perfect cube, as the measurements were a 100'' by 100'' by 100'' side lengths. Strangest of all, it was glowing a metallic blue. I thwacked it, hard with the bat. It cracked slightly, and I smashed my bats over and over until it finally broke apart. And inside, I found, 3 pigs. And they were not happy I had just broken their cube. They snarled and charged, tackling me. And even before I went to check the mystery of the attic, I had my homework in the backpack that was on my back when the pigs assaulted me. They were merciless, and despite my desperate wails and moans to stop tearing my backpack and its contents, they ignored me and kept chewing. So that is why I don't have my homework.
—Richard, 6th, Green
Third Place: 5 Points
Words: Dollop, Pterodactyl, Therapist
I'm sorry for being late to school! I had a therapy session this morning, but the therapist showed up fifteen minutes late because she couldn't wake her son in the morning for his school. During the session, she could only rant about how annoyed she was at her son for being so attached to his pterodactyl shaped bed and refusing to get out. "I'm a dinosaur! Dinosaurs don't go to school!", is what she had to deal with this morning. Confused, I decided it would be best to cut the session short and reschedule for another time, maybe after school. I was getting ready to walk out the door when a dollop of sour cream was suddenly flung at me. There was a little kid standing right outside the door with a dinosaur backpack. Guess who! My therapists child snuck in the trunk of her car and followed her to work. He kept flinging dollops of sour cream at me, yelling "How dare you make my mom get up so early in the morning for your stupid appointment! Now I have to go to school even earlier! This is all your fault!". I was rushing to get my things, trying to avoid sour cream at all costs since I'm allergic. When I finally made it out the building and into the car, there was sour cream smeared all over my hair, and I was getting rashes on my forehead. We had to go to the doctor's to get it treated before coming to school, so that's why I'm late today.
—Siyona, 8th, Green