Serena's story - Up, up, up and away. Where is the balloon going?
Hi everyone, Serena here. I love writing stories using Claire’s activity sheets. Here are my story ideas and my actual story.
My story ideas
What fun another activity sheet. This one has a balloon and the words ‘Up, up, up and away. Where is the balloon going?’
Where would I go in a balloon? Who would I go with? I’d travel to new places and have adventures. I love to meet new people.
Hang on a minute there is a smiling and waving character inside the balloon I hadn’t noticed before. I wonder where they are going and why they are so happy?
Now let me think. I have it! The character is a young girl going on a balloon ride as a special treat for her birthday. Now where is she going to? I know she is going to the Cloud City for a special party, her birthday party. She doesn’t know this until she gets to the Cloud City, thought, her friends have arranged the party as a surprise.
I love this. I can see the sky filled with lots of balloons all floating upwards towards the clouds. Each balloon is a different colour too. Fantastic, now a name for my character, I think I’ll call her Ellie. Excellent now to start.
Here is my story.
Ellie waved excitedly to her parents on the ground as the balloon rose up into the sky. She was so excited. This was her first time she had been in a balloon all by herself. Normally she was with friends. She had asked to go in the balloon by herself as a special birthday treat, it was her birthday today. Her parents had agreed and here she was.
She was heading up to the Cloud City on her own. She wasn’t alone in the sky, all around her balloons with other people in of various colours amongst them reds, blues, greens and oranges were also flying up to the Cloud City. This was her dream come true.
Ellie was going to meet her Cloud City friends today and had her birthday cake, which her mum had made in a box with her in the balloon. Ellie hadn’t told them it was her birthday and wanted to surprise them and share her birthday cake.
The ground got smaller and the clouds bigger. Ellie loved coming up to the Cloud City. The edges of the white buildings invisible from the ground, turned into solid lines and a fantastic city appeared as the balloons reached the landing points. Sunlight bounced off the building walls.
Ellie gazed in wonder every time she came to the Cloud City, which was very often as the people from the ground and the people from the Cloud City had been friends for a long time. Ellie usually came to play with her Cloud City friends.
The balloon came to a halt at the landing point gently rocking the basket Ellie was in. There to meet her were some of her friends. She picked up the box with the birthday cake in it and climbed up the steps inside the basket and onto the landing point.
They all set off for where they usually went when Ellie came to see them. Her friends asked lots of questions about what was in the box but Ellie refused to tell them saying she would once they had got to where they were going. She couldn’t wait to share her birthday cake with them.
Her friends began to grin at each other as they all approached the building they were heading to. They seemed to be getting excited about something but when Ellie asked why they were grinning they’d tell her when they got inside the building.
Ellie pushed open the building door to a loud cheer and a chorus of ‘happy birthday’. Smiling faces greeted her surprise and the box with the birthday cake was taken from her hands. She was the one getting the surprise not them! She was led to a table covered in brightly covered boxes and told they were all her presents.
She hugged everyone around her and then started opening the presents. She had no idea how she was going to get them home, her balloon wasn’t big enough to hold them all.
She asked her friends who had met her later, as everyone was chatting, how they knew it was her birthday. They told her that her parents had told them, her mum even telling them how much space to leave on the table of food for the cake. Ellie had noticed how well the cake had fitted into the food table. Even getting her birthday presents back to the ground had been organised. They were to have their own balloon all to themselves.
Ellie had a great time at her surprise party.
Ellie waved good bye to her friends when it was time to leave the Cloud City. She had loved her time in the Cloud City and her surprise party. She would remember this birthday forever.
The ride back to the ground was as exciting as the ride up to the Cloud City. Ellie saw her parents waiting or her as he approached the ground and gave them a huge hug once she was out of the basket. It had been a wonderful birthday.
I hope you liked my story. I’d love to know what you think. Please contact me using the Contact page on Claire’s website. More activity sheets can be found on my page, called Serena, on Claire’s website.
Thanks for reading.
Serena