by Laura Shovan
Rennie’s mother
volunteers there
every morning.
I love shelving books
with Rennie
and her little sister Phoenix.
When we’re done
Mrs. Rawlins lets us read
anything we want.
Some cold mornings
I pretend we all live together
in the library.
Rennie and Phoenix
are my sisters,
and Mrs. Rawlins
is my real mom.
December 5
DIFFERENT DOORS
Rennie Rawlins
Some mornings I like to watch
the middle schoolers
go in their separate door
when I walk my sister Phoenix
into Emerson.
My mother says hold tight
to Phoenix’s hand.
Don’t let her hear
the big kids cussing.
Don’t let her see
the big kids kissing.
Sometimes I wonder why
Montgomery Middle students
don’t say anything
about saving their school,
saving both our schools.
My mother says they’re too busy
cussing and kissing,
too busy being middle schoolers
to help us. We may share a building,
but we’ve got two different doors.
December 8
MACMESS: AN EXPERIMENT IN POLLUTION
Jason “The Fifth-Grade Bard” Chen
A science classroom.
In the middle, a plastic bowl frothing.
Laughter.
Enter the four Lab Partners.
HANNAH: Three cups of water from the tap.
BEN: Three spoons of coffee, mixed clockwise.
KATIE: Ms. Hill calls—pour in Kool-Aid!
JASON: Stir it round our plastic bowl,
in the pencil shavings throw.
Make this water look polluted.
Add more gunk and don’t dilute it.
ALL: Double, double, science trouble,
water churn and Kool-Aid bubble.
HANNAH: Ms. Hill’s got a fish-shaped sponge
to drop in our liquid grunge.
BEN: Put the sponge fish in our cup.
KATIE: How much junk will get soaked up?
JASON: Stir the sponge fish round and round.
It’s stuck in the coffee grounds.
ALL: Double, double, science trouble,
water churn and Kool-Aid bubble.
JASON: Why should we stick to our list?
Experiments should have a twist.
Piece of shrimp swiped from Ben’s lunch.
Apple core and Nestlé Crunch.
Now our water’s looking foul.
Whoops! I need a paper towel.
HANNAH: Ugh. There’s potion on my dress.
Jason, you are such a mess.
KATIE: Hannah, Jason didn’t do it.
You grabbed the spoon and almost threw it.
ALL: Double, double, science trouble,
water churn and Kool-Aid bubble.
JASON: Clean our desks off carefully.
(Katie M. was nice to me.)
December 9
THINGS THAT ANNOY ME
Katie McCain
Jokes about vomit—too lame to laugh at.
Anyone who quotes Shakespeare at me.
Sitting next to a boy who chews pencils.
Odd habits like making flip books where people get squashed by a bulldozer.
Not being allowed to change my seat.
Calculator borrowers—get your own!
Hamster lovers (snakes are way better pets).
Everyone saying someone’s crushing on me.
Nachos…kidding! I love nachos. Names that start with J.
December 10
NICKNAME RAP
Sloane Costley
Sloane, Sloane.
I’m no one’s clone.
That old rhyme?
You’re making me groan.
I’m sweeter than
an ice-cream cone.
Strawberry,
chocolate chip,
cookie dough
Sloane.
Sloane, Sloane.
My name’s well known.
I’m one of a kind,
a twin, not a clone.
When I rhyme
I’m in the zone.
I’m skinny-jean,
fashion-queen,
never-mean
Sloane.
December 11
TRY HARD
Rachel Chieko Stein
My mom says I should try hard,
get straight As.
“You’re smart,” she says.
My dad says I should try hard,
speak up more.
“You’re too quiet,” he says.
When I came
to Emerson Elementary
in kindergarten,
I tried hard
to get the best grades
and raise my hand.
But it was like the popular kids
overheard what my parents said.
So they called me “Try Hard.”
At recess, I played with girls
who don’t fit in, like Sydney and Katie,
my best school friends.
If our class gets split up, sent to new schools,
will the kids be nicer?
Probably not.
When you do all your homework,
ace every test,
and teachers always choose you,
someone is going to make fun of you,
no matter how hard
you try to fit in.
December 15
CRACK THE WHIP
Sloane Costley
December 15
THE POETRY PROMPT JAR
Katie McCain
For Ms. Hill
I am stuck.
I cannot rhyme.
My words are weak
as tadpole slime.
I dip my hand
into the jar
of poem starts
from near and far.
There’s tanka poems
from Japan,
Shakespearean sonnets
(I’m not a fan).
A limerick?
No. They’re too rude.
Why not an ode
to my favorite food?
When writer’s block
has made me pout,
the prompt jar’s here
to help me out.
December 16
ME TOO
Shoshanna Berg
If you’re going to be friends with Hannah Wiles,
better practice repeating “Me too.”
Get used to wearing the clothes that she likes
and sticking to Hannah like glue.
She’ll always ask your opinion on stuff
and pretend that she likes something new.
But if she says, “Do you like skiing?”
you should shrug and ask Hannah, “Do you?”
One day, we played Truth or Dare at lunch.
Hannah dared me to make Rachel cry.
She said it would be really easy
because Rachel is quiet and shy.
So I sat by Rachel at Hebrew School
and told her, “Your nose is so flat!
There isn’t a Jewish girl I’ve ever seen
whose nose is so wide and so fat.”
I know that Rachel Stein’s mother
was born and grew up in Japan,
but I didn’t know that I would cry, too.
That wasn’t in Hannah’s plan.
So when Hannah sat next to Norah Hassan
during gym class and gave me a wink,
and said Norah’s head scarf looked like a dishrag,
and asked, “Shoshie, what do you think?”
I said, “I’m done being your friend, Hannah Wiles.
I’m done with saying ‘Me too.’
Norah can cover her hair if she likes
without getting permission from you.”
Now Norah and I sit together at lunch
and Hannah has somebody new
to like what she likes and dress in her style
and follow her saying “Me too.”
December 17
SENRYU: SHOSHANNA SAYS
Rachel Chieko Stein
“You can’t be Jewish.”
But I’ve never even
been to Japan.
December 19
SNOW DAY
Tyler La Roche
Snowball fight at the Emerson playground!
Norah, Ben and Jason, Brianna and me.
Ow! It was cold. I’ve never touched real snow before.
Whoosh! Look out! Ben found a place to hide, under the slide.
Don’t knock down our snowman. We spent
All day building him, me and my friends.
Yesterday, I finally felt like I belong here.
December 22
WINTER TANKA POEM
Newt Mathews
We have indoor recess.
It is too cold to go out.
Snow covers the ground.
Raj asks what I am writing.
He says, “Ugh! More poetry!”
December 23
JERUSALEM
Norah Hassan
In Jerusalem my grandfather had a lemon tree.
Every day, we went to his house and picked lemons.
My sister squeezed them. I added sugar and soda water.
We said, “We are drinking sunshine.”
In my new country, I see bare winter trees. No lemons.
Every day after school, my sister goes next door.
She watches our neighbor’s baby.
Our apartment is so quiet, so small.
At school, I feel quiet and small.
But when Shoshanna sits with me at school,
I can’t stop talking. She wants me to tell her
about Jerusalem and the lemon tree.
Shoshanna has invited me to her house
during winter break so I can teach her
how to make fizzy lemonade.
I hope our whole class goes to Montgomery Middle.
If we’re sent to two different schools,
how will we stay friends?
I want to go back to Jerusalem one day,
and tell someone who never came to America
about my friend Shoshanna.
January 5
PHOTOGRAPH
Edgar Lee Jones
For Christmas
Grandpa gave me a photograph
of his great-grandfather
Benjamin Jones, infantry soldier
in the Civil War.
He stands for a portrait,
pistol in one hand,
Bible in the other.
Benjamin Jones looks tall
in his slouched cap
and dark jacket.
From a family of slaves
to fighting for our country.
His face looks scared and proud.
Grandpa knows that Rennie, George,
and Norah asked me
to help them write a petition,
so our whole class will sign up
to save Emerson Elementary.
But I didn’t say yes
until Grandpa gave me the photograph
of my great-great-
great-grandfather
Benjamin Jones.
January 6
PETITION
George Furst, Edgar Lee Jones, and Rennie Rawlins Typed by Norah Hassan
We the People of Ms. Hill’s Fifth Grade,
in Order to give a more perfect Understanding
of the importance of our student voices
here at Emerson Elementary,
seek to establish a Protest by our Classroom,
which hath Studied the U.S. Constitution and Civil Rights,
to Provide our United opinion
regarding the fate of our beloved Emerson Elementary,
and Demand that the Board of Education
promote general Knowledge about its plans,
and share the Blessings of Facts
with ourselves and all Emerson
and Montgomery Middle Students.
Thus we do create and Submit this Petition
to halt the razing of Our School
indefinitely.
Signed in Equality on this 6th Day of January
January 7
CAREER DAY FIBONACCI POEMS
Katie McCain
My
mom
is an
architect.
I asked her to speak
to the fifth grade on Career Day.
Oh, no! She brought drawings of the new supermarket.
Her
work
wants to
build the store.
She didn’t tell me.
Some surprise! My class glared at me.
I couldn’t even talk to her. My mom, the traitor.
January 8
BIG YELLOW DOZER
Jason Chen
(Thanks, Joni Mitchell!
Inspired by the song: “Big Yellow Taxi”)
They’re paving our school
to put up a grocery store
with a sushi bar, a valet,
and weird food like wild boar.
Don’t it always seem to you
that the grown-ups never ask if we care?
They’re gonna pave our school,
put up a grocery store.
They’ll take all our desks,
put ’em in a huge landfill,
and they’ll tax our parents,
’cause someone’s gotta pay the bill.
Don’t it always seem to you
that the grown-ups never ask if we care?
They’re gonna pave our school,
put up a grocery store.
Hey, Katie’s mom,
put away those supermarket plans now.
We’ll keep our leaky roof,
but don’t throw us out in the street,
please!
Don’t it always seem to you
that the grown-ups never ask if we care?
They’re gonna pave our school,
put up a grocery store.
They’re gonna pave our school
and put up a grocery store.
January 9
RUMORS
Brianna Holmes
Is it true?
Shoshanna’s
ignoring
Hannah?
Is it true?
Rachel’s
crushing
on Ben?
I heard
George’s
parents
have split up
and
somebody
likes
Jason Chen.
I heard
that
Ms. Hill
is retiring.
I heard
Edgar’s
granddad
is sick.
I heard
Katie’s
mother
is hiring folks.
Is that true?
My mom
needs a job
quick!
January 12
HUNGRY YELLOW BULLDOZERS
Rennie Rawlins
I can picture them
sitting at the edge
of our kickball field.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat our school
in one greedy gulp.
I can picture them
staring at our
rickety old school,
ready to pounce.
They plan to tear up
; the parking lot first,
rumbling closer and closer.
Then the basketball courts
will be gobbled up.
And when the old school
is abandoned…POUNCE.
Well, look out, bulldozers.
We are Ms. Hill’s fifth grade,
and we’ve got plans for you.
January 13
SIGNATURE
George Furst
All I did was ask
the kids in our class
to sign the petition.
I thought everyone would sign,
like a fifth-grade
Declaration of Independence.
But Katie said
could she please go last.
I guess she had to think about it,
whether it was worth
going against her mom.
“You don’t have to sign it,”
I told Katie.
Bam! She slapped her desk.
“Give it here, George,” she said.
“Just because my mom
wants to tear down this school
doesn’t mean I automatically agree.”
Then she signed the petition
in giant cursive letters.
I wasn’t trying to make her mad!
I will never understand girls.
January 14
FREE SPEECH?
Norah Hassan
Dear Ms. Hill,
You are right.
We shouldn’t blame Katie.
Her mother is doing her job,
and what she thinks
is right for her family.
A daughter should be loyal
to her mother.
As my father says,
we all have opinions,
but a family, like a school,
is not a democracy.
Children may speak,
but adults may choose
not to listen.
January 15
REPORT: NUTRITION WALK
Rajesh Rao
Pizza
Fried chicken
Snowballs
Slurpees
Taco truck
Donuts
Coffee