The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary Read online

  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