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The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

Page 8

by Laura Shovan


  who was invited.

  No one knows

  where all the paints, markers, and poster board came from.

  No one knows

  who figured out the Board of Ed was visiting Emerson today.

  No one knows

  who thought of doing a poster protest.

  No one wants

  Mrs. Stiffler to blame you, Ms. Hill,

  so it’s better if you don’t know.

  March 18

  HOW IT STARTED

  Sloane Costley

  So it’s lunchtime

  and I’m eating with Hannah Wiles,

  who happens to be my new best friend,

  when the principal does her fast walk

  into the cafeteria.

  Her nose is all purple

  (it does that when she’s mad).

  She clears her throat (gross),

  and I can tell she’s trying

  not to yell about the posters

  and how we defaced school property

  when Very Special Guests

  were touring the building.

  Blah blah blah.

  But then Mrs. Stiffler

  says something about

  taking away

  our Moving Up ceremony.

  Hannah and I stare at each other

  with our mouths wide open in shock.

  Can a principal do that?

  March 19

  RAJ’S RANT

  Rajesh Rao

  Ms. Hill picked me for Captain of Patrols.

  I wear a badge and help kids cross the street.

  It’s like I’m older brother to the world

  when I tell students, “Hey! Slow down those feet.”

  I’m always quiet when I ride the bus.

  I get straight As. My homework’s never late.

  But I got mad when Stiffler yelled at us

  and told us that we might not graduate.

  She left the room. Somebody threw their snack.

  At first I ducked when food began to fly.

  But then I thought, Why not? and with a crack

  I popped my bag of chips into the sky.

  I laughed inside when people said, “How cool!

  I never thought that Raj would break a rule.”

  March 20

  LUNCH

  Newt Mathews

  Our class was bad.

  We broke the rules.

  Everyone threw food.

  It was loud.

  After lunch, Mrs. Stiffler came to fifth grade.

  I didn’t like it when she yelled.

  And then Ms. Hill said

  we know better ways

  to solve our problems. She said

  she was disappointed in our class.

  I got upset.

  I left my seat without permission.

  I went to the cafeteria.

  Mr. Dutcher is the janitor.

  I helped him clean up.

  I swept the mess with his extra broom.

  I heard him tell my aide, Mr. Ron White,

  “Nothing wrong with this kid.”

  I want to save our school

  so I can always visit Mr. Dutcher.

  March 23

  INSUBORDINATE

  Rachel Chieko Stein

  My father made me brownies

  to celebrate

  the fact that I marched

  into Mrs. Stiffler’s office

  (I told him

  I wasn’t marching,

  but he said permit him

  to embellish),

  burst through the door

  after the fifth-grade

  food fight,

  and said

  (actually,

  asserted,

  according to

  my father)

  that the fifth grade

  would not have to protest

  if she actually

  listened to us.

  (That’s when Mrs. Stiffler

  called Mom’s work

  complaining about

  a fifth-grade mutiny.)

  I got my first

  detention ever

  for being

  “insubordinate.”

  (I looked it up.

  In means “not.”

  Subordinate means

  “inferior.”)

  I like the way

  that sounds.

  24 Marzo

  HACIENDO EL PAPEL DE LA BELLA

  Gaby Vargas

  En casa, me miro en el espejo.

  Mi hermana golpea la puerta del baño.

  Piensa que me estoy peinando

  pero estoy ensayando para la pieza de teatro.

  Recito mi parte

  en la escena donde la Bestia se muere.

  Miro en el espejo.

  Pienso en Mark con maquillaje

  y una peluca muy peluda. Debo decir

  “Te amo, Bestia!”

  Mark siempre se ríe

  cuando la practicamos.

  Por mucho tiempo yo hacía

  como si sintiera algo especial por Mark.

  Pero quizás fue sólo un medio-amorcito.

  Quizás yo y Mark sólo somos buenos amigos.

  March 24

  PLAYING BELLE

  Translated by Gaby Vargas and Mark Fernandez

  In my house, I see myself in the mirror.

  My sister hits the door of the bathroom.

  She thinks that I am combing my hair,

  but I am practicing for the play.

  I recite my part

  in the scene where Beast dies.

  I look in the mirror.

  I think of Mark with makeup

  and a very hairy wig. I have to say,

  “I love you, Beast!”

  Mark always laughs

  when we practice this part.

  For much time I was thinking

  that I feel something special for Mark.

  But perhaps it was a half love.

  Maybe me and Mark are only good friends.

  March 25

  BEING THE BEAST

  Mark Fernandez

  I put on a hairy mask.

  You can still see a little skin around my eyes

  so Sloane’s mother covers it

  with brown makeup.

  I have whiskers and furry gloves with claws.

  It doesn’t look like me at all.

  I am the Beast.

  This whole school year

  I’ve been acting like someone else.

  Pretending to be funny

  so no one would feel sorry for me.

  My friends Tyler and Gaby

  don’t mind when I’m sad.

  And Jason draws those flip books

  to make me laugh.

  Laughing feels strange.

  Bad and good.

  Before the last song of the show

  I have to run backstage,

  take off the mask and the hairy gloves.

  Sloane’s mom brushes my hair,

  wipes the makeup off my face.

  I let out a big breath.

  That costume is hot!

  It feels good to see my curly hair

  and a human nose.

  I feel like myself

  for the first time

  since my father died.

  Sloane’s mother calls it

  my transformation

  from Beast to boy.

  March 26

  BEASTLY ME

  Jason Chen

  Dear Ms. Hill,

  I am sorry I put on Mark’s Beast costume,

  jumped out of the coat closet,

  and started singing at you

  in the middle of quiet reading time yesterday.

  I thought you were going to be someone else.

  I’m sorry you didn’t think it was funny.

  Mrs. Stiffler is already mad

  at the whole fifth grade for interfering

  with plans to close this school.

 
; Please don’t send me to her office.

  This is not my best poem of the year.

  I’ll put a good rhyme at the end.

  I hope my joke did not offend.

  March 27

  STARGRAMS

  Mark Fernandez

  My sisters spent a whole bunch

  of their babysitting money

  so I’d have the most Stargrams

  of anyone in the cast.

  When the show was over

  and we were done taking bows,

  I went into the hall and saw

  the walls covered in paper stars.

  Twinkling, yellow. I read them all.

  “Hey, Mark. Way to go, bro!”

  “You may be the Beast

  but you sing like an angel.”

  My sisters thought

  I was embarrassed. They didn’t know

  about me and our Papi

  looking at las estrellas.

  April 7

  SPRING BREAK FIVE SENSES POEM

  Norah Hassan

  I hear my mother chattering Arabic into her cell phone.

  I smell the jet engines when we arrive at the airport in DC.

  I see my grandfather! Jaddi looks tired, carrying his luggage,

  but I feel him squeeze me tight and shake from laughing.

  This is what happiness tastes like.

  April 8

  MARVELOUS MATZO

  Rachel Chieko Stein

  Passover is my favorite holiday.

  I love matzo for lunch, spread thick

  with cream cheese and strawberry jam.

  I love how the matzo crunches

  around the soft cream cheese

  and gooey jelly.

  I promised my dad I would eat

  at the allergy-free table during Passover

  even though people eat bread there,

  because the janitors

  keep that table really clean.

  But when I sit at the allergy-free table,

  my friends think I am mad at them.

  “Why aren’t you sitting with us?”

  “Why do Jewish people eat weird food?”

  “You have to eat that for a whole week?”

  “Don’t you miss bread?”

  I told my dad I wanted a thermos of soup

  instead of a delicious matzo, cream cheese,

  and jam sandwich for lunch.

  He took out a recipe

  covered with chocolate streaks.

  “Aunt Jennie’s Matzo Candy.”

  We buttered matzos, baked them

  until they were hot, spread them

  with chocolate and butterscotch chips.

  Melting, crispy, buttery, sweet. Mmmm.

  Dad said, “I think this is the right medicine.

  See the bottom of Aunt Jennie’s recipe?

  To stop teasing, administer

  one dose to classmates.”

  I didn’t see anything written on the recipe.

  But when I shared Aunt Jennie’s candy at lunch,

  no one said matzo was weird.

  April 9

  YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND

  Tyler La Roche

  I liked the song

  we listened to this morning.

  Music always gives my day

  a dose of sunshine

  (as my mom likes to say).

  That song was the helping hand

  our class needed

  to get us smiling again.

  It’s good to know

  we’ve got a friend-

  ly teacher.

  April 10

  SIXTH GRADE

  Shoshanna Berg

  My sister says sixth grade is

  no parents at the bus stop, new friends,

  drama in the hallways, tears and shouting,

  laughing so loud everyone in the lunchroom stares,

  elementary school friends acting like they don’t know you.

  My sister says sixth grade is

  crushes shorter than a phone call,

  texting under your desk and having to pay your own bill,

  Friday night dances in the gym

  feeling awkward dancing with friends,

  maybe even boys—so what if they’re shorter than you—

  tons of homework, even on weekends.

  My sister says sixth grade is

  kissing in the empty band room,

  seeing the whole thing posted online,

  hoping your mom doesn’t find out.

  My sister says sixth grade is

  hard sometimes

  in the middle of the day

  when you just need someone

  who loves you.

  “But I’ll be there,” my sister says.

  She promises, no matter where we end up,

  she’ll say hi in the hallway,

  and if I get sad, I can find her.

  Sixth grade is everything changing

  except my older sister.

  April 13

  LITTLE RIVER

  Rajesh Rao

  Some of us

  went on a trip

  to Little River Middle.

  The halls

  of that school

  made me feel like a frog

  in an overcrowded pond.

  Teachers don’t

  line kids up

  and walk them quietly

  from here to there.

  Instead

  kids jostle, push,

  yell, and rush

  across the halls

  to class. Wow!

  I can see my future.

  Little River Middle is

  no teachers

  treating us like babies,

  no younger sisters

  for me to watch over.

  FINALLY

  freedom.

  April 14

  HOLY ANGELS

  Hannah Wiles

  Holy Angels School—

  I love that name.

  Sloane and Brianna

  think the blue dresses

  Holy Angels girls wear

  are dorky. Gaby can’t believe

  I’m going to a school

  where there are no boys.

  But I told them

  if your mom was in the army,

  and she was stationed

  in a place whose name

  you can barely pronounce,

  you would want

  to go to Holy Angels.

  You would wear

  a plain blue dress

  and go to religion class,

  and you would not miss boys

  one bit.

  I unwrap one chocolate kiss

  and say a prayer for my mother

  every morning, every night,

  that she is safe,

  that she’s all right.

  I think the angels

  will listen harder

  to my prayers

  when I am at Holy Angels.

  I hope they can hear me.

  April 15

  FREE SPEECH

  Norah Hassan

  Ms. Hill,

  I don’t think our class

  understands

  the First Amendment.

  Most of them never

  lived without

  freedom of speech,

  but I have.

  I don’t think our class

  understands

  that someone can

  get in trouble

  for saying what they think,

  or lose their job

  for speaking

  against their boss.

  I don’t think our class

  understands

  why we spent

  our social studies period

  learning about

  First Amendment rights

  and how people staged sit-ins

  during the civil rights

  movement.

  But I understand why,

  when we packed up today,
/>
  you told our class

  there is a Board meeting

  coming up soon

  and it is open

  to the public.

  April 16

  STUDENT COUNCIL

  George Furst

  Student council means nothing

  If the elected students aren’t given the chance

  To make their voices heard.

  If we are determined to save our school,

  No one has the right to ignore us.

  April 17

  ODE TO MY MOM

  Rennie Rawlins

  My mom may look little,

  but she is the mighty

  Angela P. Rawlins, Esquire.

  That means she’s a lawyer.

  She does mom stuff, too,

  makes the best

  double chocolate chip cookies

  in the universe, reads books

  with me and Phoenix every night.

  But if my mom thinks

  you’ve done someone wrong…

  look out.

  I told her how Mrs. Stiffler

  said she would cancel

  the fifth-grade celebration.

  My mom’s eyes got as sharp

  and dark as pencil tips.

  She said, “We will see about that.”

  Between the two of us,

  I swear we called every single family

  with a student at our school.

  George and Norah are worried

  no one’s going to show up

  at the Board of Ed meeting.

  They are underestimating

  Angela P. Rawlins, Esquire,

  and me.

  April 20

  THE PROBLEM WITH K–8

  Sydney Costley

  Ms. Hill, I have a secret.

  I don’t want to go to Montgomery Middle.

  Crossing a hallway between schools

  isn’t going to change anything,

  no matter how much the teachers clap for us.

  We’ll still be with the same kids as always.

  The problem with K–8 is,

  I can’t take three more years

  of them calling me Sydney Kidney.

  The problem with K–8 is,

  Brianna told everyone

  I’m the tomboy twin, and now

 

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