‘An unexpected friendship’ is one of those themes a student can go off point when planning and writing. Students may see the word ‘friendship’ and start to plan a story about two friends, missing entirely the word ‘unexpected’ found in the title.
When students take note of the word ‘unexpected’ they will realise that their story should be one about a friendship that was not likely to happen and then start to plan from there.
We work on this theme every year with our TF P6 students, reminding our students the importance of studying the theme and planning around it.
The model composition for this theme is from one of our PSLE 2024 AL1 students. When she joined us, her main aim was to improve her compositions. One of the areas I felt she needed to work on was her theme development. While she was a descriptive writer, she would go off-point and develop parts of the story that were not relevant to the theme. So, I was very pleased to see how well she had managed this theme of An Unexpected Friendship.
We hope that all Primary 5 and 6 students will take time to study the themes given to them and plan around them.
An Unexpected Friendship
“Bye! Have a good time with your friends Twinkle!” I cried, waving at the little robin as it flew away with the other birds into dusk. Silent tears trickled down my cheeks as I watched them disappear from sight. I would surely miss Twinkle, the remarkable little bird that I had formed an unexpected friendship with. As I returned to my house, memories of how I met Twinkle filled my mind…
It was a mundane Wednesday. The sun was scorching hot and beat down mercilessly on me. My school uniform clung onto me like a second skin, while beads of perspiration trickled down my forehead and occasionally into my eyes, blurring my view.
“Why must it be so hot?” I muttered. I dragged my legs in a languished manner, sluggishly walking home.
Just then, as I was passing the neighborhood garden, I suddenly heard a faint chirp coming from a bush. I immediately stopped in my tracks and pricked my ears, straining to hear what it was. Then, it came again, slightly clearer this time. Yes, it was definitely a bird that was as if calling for help.
Being the curious girl I always had been, I followed the sound and came to a nearby bush. I knelt down and peeked to look for the bird. Not long after, I spotted the poor thing. It was a little robin with big incredulous eyes. One of its wings was caught and tangled at an unnatural angle between the mess of stalks and leaves. It peered at me and gave me a helpless little tweet. That was when my heart melted. I simply could not just leave the little robin there struggling in pain. Without hesitation, I pushed aside some branches and fallen twigs and gingerly picked the robin up. I held it with cupped hands and after coaxing it for a moment, I placed one hand on top of it and raced home, no longer exhausted.
I flew through the open front door upon reaching home and went to show the robin to my mother. At first, my mother was alarmed at the sight of a bird in my hands, but after I told her what happened, she nodded and went to ‘fix’ the robin. We made a fuss over the little bird. We cleaned its feathers, fed it some seeds, and gave it some water to drink. We even made a splint for the bird out of an ice cream stick and some medical tape. After that, I placed the tired robin into the former cage of my hamster, Flower, alongside some soft bedding.
Since then, whenever I went to check on it, the robin would chirp at me enthusiastically, and its black eyes would twinkle joyfully at me. That was how I came up with the name “Twinkle” for the robin. We were good friends, accompanying each other when we were alone. I took care of it with all my heart. I played with it and even put it near the window and opened the cage door for it to have some cool, fresh air. Twinkle was frustrated that it could only walk around at first as it was not used to being unable to use its wings. Slowly but gradually, Twinkle did eventually recover. It was extremely thrilled to be able to fly again!
However, one typical day, when I let Twinkle out of its cage, it just kept flying and flying until I could not see it anymore. It did not even return when it was dark. At that point, I finally realised with sadness that it was probably never coming back. I was sad to lose a friend, but on the flip side, happy for it that it has finally found its true home.
However, as the days passed, I could not deny that I felt a certain emptiness in my heart. Every time I saw the still, empty cage, I was reminded of my dear friend Twinkle. We were so different, yet so close.
One day, I heard a familiar chirp when I was just as finishing my homework. I looked out the window and—”Twinkle!” I exclaimed in delight. I dashed down the stairs and was out in no time. Seeing the few pieces of medical tape that still stuck onto some of its feathers, there was no doubt that it was Twinkle, my beloved friend and pet. Twinkle chirped one last time and looked at me thankfully, before fluttering off to join its friends.
Twinkle had come to say a proper goodbye.
As I went in the house, I was filled with pride and joy for Twinkle. We may be different, but our friendship will be unbreakable. No matter how far we are apart or what happens, I will always remember this special friend of mine—a bird named Twinkle. After all, who would expect such an unexpected friendship?