Strawberry and the Attack of the Self-Exploding Vacuum Bags

By the Second Grade Music Class at Bloomington Montessori School, with the assistance of Ms. Phillips

Strawberry and the Attack of the Self-Exploding Vacuum Bags.m4a

Once upon a time in a land far, far away lived a pygmy puff named Strawberry. Strawberry loved the meadow where she lived, its tall trees and its trickling brooks. She shared the meadow with her best pal Incher the caterpillar. Incher was a painted lady caterpillar. Now, I don’t know if you know anything about caterpillars, but they almost always change into butterflies.

On this day in particular, Strawberry and Incher were playing a game of Bow Wow Wow in the meadow with some of the other animals. They were having a good time as always.

Oh, while I’m on the subject of introductions, I should also mention the neighbors that live in the really old, old castle next to the meadow. The SELF-EXPLODING VACUUM BAGS… and their pet dragon, Fire. The Self-Exploding Vacuum Bags lived down in the dungeon of the really old, old castle. Their names are Octoped, Explody, KlingKlang, and Kaboom! The Self-Exploding Vacuum Bag’s favorite activity is destroying the environment by sucking up all of the trees and grass, and turning it into scrap metal. If they suck up animals, the SEVBs then turn them into robots that they can control.

So, back to the meadow, Strawberry and Incher are playing and frolicking when they hear a rumbling off in the distance. The rumbling sound starts to get closer and closer and then louder and louder. Soon, Strawberry and Incher can see who is causing such a commotion in the meadow. It is the SEVBs!

The SEVBs decided that morning that they were hungry for trees and grass from the meadow right next to them.
So, they began a day of destruction. Strawberry and Incher devise a plan to build a barrier to prevent the SEVBs from destroying all of the resources in the meadow. They decide to use sticks, rocks and mud to build their barrier. They know that if the SEVBs sucked up the loose rocks, it would mess up their inner workings and cause them to get sick and possibly explode. So they worked hard and fast to make this barrier really strong with lots of loose rocks inside of it. As soon as Strawberry and Incher applied the last bit of mud to hold it all in place, the SEVBs were upon them, and they quickly dove into the first available burrow they could find.

Above them they could hear all of the destruction and carnage. Then, all of a sudden, the SEVBs stopped dead in their tracks. Peeking out from the burrow, Strawberry could see that the SEVBs were groaning in pain. The plan seemed to be working, but the question lingered in Strawberry’s head, “ Would they stay, or would they go?”.

Incher, who was still down in the burrow, realized it was time to start his metamorphosis (when he changes into a painted lady butterfly). So, he began weaving his cocoon all around himself. By the time she turned back to him, Incher was completely encapsulated within the cocoon.

Strawberry didn’t understand what had happened to her friend, and she began to cry. While her tears were falling, she started to hear explosions. She peeked out to see that the SEVBs were exploding into a million pieces, but then coming back together. The SEVBs hate when this happens because it just makes them sicker and sicker.
They call for Fire their pet dragon, who also serves as their transportation in these types of situations, to help them back to their safe castle dungeon so they can get better. They collectively decided that there are too many rocks in this meadow, so they are not going to return.

Strawberry overhears them and is jumping for joy, “We did it!” She comes out of the burrow, happy as ever, but then she remembers Incher and begins to feel sadness again. “Why are you sad?” a mysterious voice asks.
“I’m sad because my best friend Incher is no more. He has turned into a white shell and I didn’t get to say good-bye.”
“No more?” exclaimed the voice.
“Hardly!”
Then, from the burrow, rose a beautiful painted lady butterfly with Incher’s head on it.

“Incher!” screamed Strawberry, “I thought you were gone.”
“No, no,” said Incher. “it was just time for me to change. Sorry I didn’t have time to explain this to you.”
“It’s ok, I’m just happy you are back with me.”
“Hey do you think we can still play and have a good time together?”
“Of course,” said Incher, “and we can now do this…”

Incher the butterfly picked Strawberry the pygmy puff up with his legs and began to fly all around the meadow.

In time the trees, and grass of the meadow grew back and all the animals felt safe again. The SEVBs stayed in their castle dungeon and never returned to the meadow again.

The End