Excuses, Excuses! Contest Winners 2024

In the excuse-writing contest, students pulled three random words from a fishbowl and had to incorporate those into excuses for why they were late to school, or why their homework was late. Unsurprisingly, students excelled at the task! 

Winner: 10 Points | Words: Spilled, Chicken, Heart

My homework is late because I was working on my math homework when I heard panicked squawking. My pet chicken had a heart attack! We tried to save him, but there was no saving my dear, dead friend. Instead of letting him go to waste, we made chicken soup, which I accidentally spilled on my homework. Oops! —Diya M., 7th

Second Place Tie: 7 Points | Words: Computer, Crashed, Flew

My homework is late because my computer crashed, my printer broke, my Internet was down, I broke my finger, my cat ate my pencil, and my homework grew wings and flew away. — Isabel, 7th

Second Place Tie: 7 Points | Words: Encased, Voice, Screech

I was late to school because I woke up encased in a block of ice. I probably don’t need to tell you that this wasn’t a comfortable experience. I screeched for help, obviously, but nobody could hear my voice through the ice! It took a while to thaw, but I’m here now. Better late than never, am I right? — Diya M., 7th

Third Place Tie: 5 Points | Words: Species, Application, Journey

I was late to school because I went on a journey to find a new species, and I saw an application form to sign up for dragon training. I completely forgot about school, and that I would have to drop out to become a dragon trainer, sorry. —Ellie, 6th

Third Place Tie: 5 Points | Words: King, Wings, Ketchup

I was late to school, for a very good reason, you see. You should know; my father is the king, and as I was getting ready for school, he had sent a flying cow with wings to my window to bring me to school, because I’m just better. But as I got on the cow, it suddenly took off at an alarming speed, and I fell off into a ketchup pool. “Eww!“ I got out, covered in ketchup, and angrily watched as my cow landed all clean next to me. Finally, after sorting out everything, I made it to school ten minutes before it ended.  P.S. Oh, my homework? It got lost in… the ketchup pool, of course. –Diya R., 7th

Image Credit: Flickr user Girl.in.the.D