She never said my art projects were the best, even if they were. At first I thought it would be cool having Mom as a teacher, but I soon learned there weren't any benefits. So Mom got to be the art teacher officially. Kimmel wanted to stay home with her baby. Last year, when I was in fourth grade, Mom substituted for our art teacher who was on maternity leave. It ran the entire length of the living room, leaving no space for the Gypsy Club. She'd set up a makeshift table out of plywood and two sawhorses. Her drama coach asked Mom to create it since she was the art teacher at the elementaryschool. Mom was busy painting the backdrop for my big sister, Tori's, middle school play. The Gypsy Club was due at my house any minute. "They attract the Viceroy butterfly."įinally Saturday arrived. "We planted purple coneflowers today," she told me. Lindsey and had already started working in the butterfly garden. It was exactly like last year, only Nicole wasn't there.
#Party planner book how to#
We reviewed fractions, learned how to write in different tenses, and studied our vocabulary lists. That first week dragged like an ant climbing Mount Everest. The first day of school loses all its specialness when you get last year's teacher and have to sit in your same old seat in the same old classroom. I picked up my new notebooks and newpencil case and walked to my old desk. Gordon," Kami said, prancing to the same seat where she sat last year. Just then, Hailey entered the classroom, followed by show-off-know-it-all Kami. Gordon, this is a fifth-grade class now." You two need to take your former seats, where I can keep an eye on you." "Sorry, Michael and Piper," she said, "but that's not going to work. How could a teacher forget it was the first day of school? Maybe she forgot something in her old desk drawer. Watching birds wasn't like watching butterflies, but it was better than the blackboard.Ī moment later, Ms. Outside, a cardinal landed on a branch of the huge tree.
We rushed to the back of the room and chose seats in the row nearest thewindow. It even smelled the same-old paste mixed with stinky sneakers. "I'm in room 405," said Nicole as she headed toward the real fifth-grade hall. On the way to class, I ran into Michael and Nicole. Instead of watching butterflies, I'd watch squirrels and birds. Then I remembered the tree outside the window. I wouldn't be able to see the butterfly garden. Getting room 308, again, meant I'd have to change my plans. We have more fifth-graders this year, so we had to put one class in the fourth-grade hall." "There must be a mistake-308 was my room last year," I said. You're famous at Blue Angels Elementary School." She handed me a piece of paper. There were hundreds of kids at our school. "Good morning, Piper Reed! How was your summer?"
#Party planner book registration#
The school secretary grinned at me from behind the registration table. Then I walked inside the school and everything changed.
It was going to be a get-off-the-bus kind of year. That way I could watch butterflies dart around the salvia in the garden. Gordon, made me do last year, I planned to pick a seat at the back near the window. Instead of sitting in the front of the class like my teacher, Ms. Her students got extra time outside to take care of the garden. She designed the butterfly garden outside the fifth-grade wing. He gave out treat coupons when students got the correct answers. This year, the first day of school meant new notebooks, new pencils, new shoes, new teacher, and a new seat at the back of the class. Not like last year, when we moved to Pensacola in October and I was the only new kid in class. Especially when it was everybody's first day of school. There was something exciting about the first day of school. I turned off the alarm, threw off my covers, and popped out of bed.