Life in School By Maeve
! Early in the morning our day starts. A riddle is on the screen and Adriana offers her idea of what it is. The riddle is one of the best. “What runs and runs but has no legs, waves and waves with no arms.” “The answer is a river,” Addy now tells us. In Leverett Elementary, Grade Five’s minds are whirring, even in the morning. This is normal for us. The day almost always starts like that. Soon we will go to music, then math.
! As shown above, math time in groups can get a little noisy and chaotic. Soon people get a little goofy, playing around a bit with the math tools. After a moment, recess will come and we will play in the snow, but for now we will remain happy and silly. Meanwhile, while I may be hard at work, that doesn’t mean it’s any fun. I feel like falling asleep. I groan, my pencil weighing hundreds of pounds, the math book becoming molasses, sucking my pencil in. I glance at the clock. Yes! 3 minutes left! I start working with renewed vigor, scribbling the answers down frantically. Finally, it’s over. I get my snow pants on and get ready to go outside. Maeve Roe strikes again with her camera of awesomeness! I think, holding up my camera and grinning.
!
! “Aahhh!” Ruby yelps as she flies down the icy slide. She will have great pain in her butt as she slams down on the hard ground. ! “Ow....,” she mutters as she stands up and brushes herself off. “That was so fun! Though it kind of hurts... A lot... You try it, Maeve!” ! I smile sheepishly and gesture towards my camera. ! “Sorry,” I shrug, grinning. “I can’t damage this!” ! Ruby nods disappointedly. ! Grant suddenly has a bright idea. He’ll climb up the slide! ! We all laugh as he slides around. After repeatedly slipping down, he gives up, grinning. Ruby’s face lights up as another idea comes to her. She bounces up and down excitedly.
! “Let’s go play tetherball!” she exclaims, and runs towards it, with me, Noah and Grant close behind. Grant and Noah start swiping at the ball and soon our first casualty happens. The ball catches Grant by the side of his head. He rubs his head and stands up, laughing.
! “I’m fine!” he smiles. I nod, thinking, ‘Well, yeah, I figured, because people don’t laugh when they’re hurt.’ I look around for another thing to do. I find the Sixth Graders. Not interesting.
!
! I find the spiderweb. ! “Hey!” I exclaim. “Let’s go climbing!” I point a gloved hand towards the half-circle of rope. We all run over, whooping excitedly. We all climb up and jump off-- Well, in Grant’s case, fall off. Apparently he doesn’t have very good balance. That said, most of us are either climbing down or tumbling awkwardly off.
! Nearby, Marla watches us like a hawk, no doubt worrying about someone breaking their neck. But all our laughs and grins must’ve been infectious, because a small smile crosses her face. This barely ever happens, but maybe even the serious teacher is a little more relaxed at recess time.
! “Hey,” Noah says. “What’s going on over there with that pinkish blob?” I focused on the squirming blob and identified it as Maddie and Tatiana, fighting again. We walk over as the argument reaches its climax. Tati slashes at Maddie’s face like a wild animal, screeching loudly.
Maddie grabs Tati’s face and starts talking slowly. We don’t stick around to hear it.
! We decide to take a ball and play soccer. Maddie runs over, grinning, and starts kicking the ball as well. Soon me, Maddie, Noah, Ruby and Grant are all laughing, playing and kicking the ball.
! Just then the bell rings. We all exchange sad glances and run towards the doors. We wait in line for the 5th grade to be called in for lunch, and wait even longer to get lunch. The smells and noises of the lunch room are overwhelming. When it is finally our turn to get lunch, we find out that today’s mid-day meal is french toast and french fries. A very French lunch. I drench mine in syrup.
! We go to our tables, talk and eat, sticky syrup and delicious french toast being devoured rapidly. Suddenly a clatter turns heads around the lunch room. For a few seconds, it’s almost quiet as people stare at the fallen tray. Then the usual buzz comes back as the lunch gets cleaned up. ! Before long, it is time to go back to class for writing. We head to the cubbies to put our stuff away, chatting and talking our mouths off.
! Mr. Stewart heads to his desk to get his papers organized, then tells us what we are doing. A writing assessment.
! The room is soon silent except the sound of graphite against paper. We are all working hard at creating the best written piece we can. I groan inwardly. I hate writing... Why couldn’t I just type! I dragged my pencil dully over the paper, forming the words Animal Jam, the subject of my report. I sighed. This hour can’t be over soon enough. As the hour slowly dragged by, the words boring, annoying, and slow as molasses formed in my mind and bounced around the empty void. Finally, I put in my last period. I looked
triumphantly down at my paper just as the hour timer went off. I sighed in relief as my classmates scrambled to finish.
! Finally, the day is done. We write down our homework from the board and get ready to go. I wish we didn’t have so much! I go to the cubbies and get ready to go home.
With our backpacks and coats on, we start talking about what we are going to do when we go home. ! “I’m going sledding!” says Maddie. “It’s gonna be so fun!” I smile. ! “I wish I could sled,” I say. “But with my yard, I’d go into the road and get hit by a car!” Maddie laughs. ! “Yeah, your front yard might not be a good idea...” We go outside to the buses and get on, still talking. We’ll get home soon and have lots of fun.
This is a day in the life of a Fifth Grader.