Compilation of

Grades 1 and 2
(riddles, songs, stories, poems)

Submitted by: Jeny Rose F. Bediores

RIDDLES
1. Give it food and it will live; give it water and it will die.
Ans. fire
2. What goes around the world and stays in a corner?
Ans. stamp
3. I look at you, you look at me, I raise my right, you raise your left. What is this object?
Ans. Mirror
[Link] as a feather, there is nothing in it; the strongest man can't hold it for much more
than a minute.
Ans. Breath
[Link] the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, throw away the inside.
Ans. Corn
[Link] you have it, you want to share it. If you share it, you don't have it. What is it?
Ans. secret
[Link] book was once owned by only the wealthy, but now everyone can have it? You
can't buy it in a bookstore or take it from the library.
Ans. Telephone book
[Link] off my skin, I won't cry, but you will. What am I?
Ans. onion
[Link] as a biscuit, deep as a cup, even a river can't fill it up. What is it?
Ans. strainer
[Link] can fill a room but takes up no space?
Ans. Light
SONGS
 Stand up, Sit down

When you hear the music, do you feel the rhythm

If your feet start moving
Stand up, sit down
Now that you are moving
Music all around you
Everybody's grooving
Stand up, sit down
Stand up, sit down
You got to move your body all around
Stand up, sit down
You got to move your body all around
Stand up, sit down
You got to move your body all around
Stand up, sit down
You got to move your body all around

HANDS UP, HANDS DOWN

Hands up, hands down

Hands up, spin around
Hands up, hands down
Hands up, spin around!

Apart, together
Apart, together
Apart, together
Apart, together, apart, together, apart, together, apart, together
Hands up, hands down
Hands up, spin around
Hands up, hands down
Hands up, spin around!
Touch your eyes, clap your hands
Touch your nose, clap your hands
Touch your mouth, clap your hands
Touch your ears, clap your hands
Hands up, hands down
Hands up, spin around
Hands up, hands down
Hands up, spin around!

Wiggle like a worm

Wiggle like a worm
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
Wiggle like a worm

Hands up, hands down

Hands up, spin around
 Open shut them, Open shut them

Open shut them, open shut them

Give a little clap, clap, clap.
Open shut them, open shut them.
Put them in your lap, lap, lap.
Big and small.
Big and small. Big and small.
Big, big, big, big. Small, small, small.
Big and small. Big and small.
Big, big, big, big. Small, small, small.
Please. No, thank you.
Please. No, thank you. Please. No, thank you.
Please, please, please, please. No, thank you.
Please. No, thank you. Please. No, thank you.
Please, please, please, please. No, thank you.
Fast and slow.
Fast and slow. Fast and slow.
Fast, fast, fast, fast. Slow, slow, slow.
Fast and slow. Fast and slow.
Fast, fast, fast, fast. Slow, slow, slow.
Loud and quiet.
Loud and quiet. Loud and quiet.
Loud, loud, loud, loud. Shh…quiet.
Loud and quiet. Loud and quiet.
Loud, loud, loud, loud. Shh…quiet.
Peek-a-boo.
Peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo.
Peek-a, peek-a, peek-a-boo!
 Peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo.
Peek-a, peek-a, peek-a-boo!

I said a Boom Chicka Boom

I said a Boom Chicka Boom
I said a Boom Chicka Rocka Chicka Rocka Chicka Boom
Uh huh
Oh yeah
One more time ______ style.
Janitor Style:
I said a Broom Sweep-a Broom
I said a Broom Sweep-a Broom
I said a Broom Sweep-a Mop-a Sweep-a Mop-a Sweep-a Broom
Valley Girl Style:
I said like boom chicka boom
I said a totally boom chicka boom
I said like boom chicka like rocka chicka like gag me with a spoon
Baseball Style:
I said a boom chicka boom
I said a boom chicka boom
I said a boom chicka rocka hit that softball to the moon.
Barn-yard Style:
I said a moo chicka moo
I said a moo chicka moo
I said a moo chicka watch your step, don't track it in the room.
Race Car Style:
I said a vroom shifta vroom
I said a vroom shifta vroom
I said a vroom shifta
 Deep, deep, deep
Let's discover
Let's explore
Your creation and so much more
It’s exciting;
Can't wait to see
What you have in store
Surrounded by waves of your mystery,
Lord, show me what you want me to be
Let's go deep, deep, deep
Deep as the ocean blue
Deep, deep, deep
Deep in my faith with you
Deep, deep, deep
Deep in my heart I see
Your love is endlessly
Deeper than the sea
Let's dive deep in our faith
Let's dive deep in our walk
On, In, Under, By
On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
Where is the spider?
On!

On, in, under, by.

On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
Where is the spider?
In!

On, in, under, by.

On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
Where is the spider?
Under!

On, in, under, by.

On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
Where is the spider?
By!

On, in, under, by.

On, in, under, by.
On, in, under, by.
Buh bye!
STORIES
 Mystery of the Broken Pie

The sun was shining on the sparkling grass. It was morning, and the grass was still wet
from the dew. We were excited to see the sunshine after days of rain! Sydney and I were
tired of being stuck inside.
“Mom, can we go out and play?” I shouted.
“You and Sydney need to clean your rooms first. I’m excited to get some fresh air in the
house, it’s time for a good spring cleaning!” Mom answered.
Sydney and I looked at each other and groaned. We wanted to get outside, not be stuck
inside cleaning. But we knew we could go play as soon as we finished cleaning. We
decided to make it a race to see who could clean their room the fastest. But we had to
clean up the right way, otherwise Mom would make us redo it.
“3… 2… 1… GO!” we shouted. I picked up all my clothes and put them in my hamper. I
tucked in my sheets and pulled the comforter over my bed so it looked like a magazine
picture. All of my books went back on the bookshelf, and my toys and games went back
in the closet.
“DONE!” I heard Sydney shout from her room down the hall.
“Aw, man, I was just about to shout it out. Good job, Sydney,” I said. Sydney jumped up
and down. “I never finish cleaning before you, Aiden!” she exclaimed. She looked so
excited I couldn’t even be mad at my little sister.
“Let’s go outside,” I said. We walked into the kitchen, where my mom had all the
ingredients out to make her famous apple pie. “Can we go play now?” I asked Mom.
“Sure! I’m just going to get this pie in the oven and start cleaning. Make sure you stay in
the yard, and if you play nicely, you’ll get some pie in a few hours!” she replied.
Sydney and I played in the yard. We rode bikes, played on the swing set, and made up
adventures to go on. A couple of hours later, we could smell the pie in the air.
“Mmmmm,” Sydney said. “I’m hungry. Let’s go see if that pie is ready.”
When we got in the house, we could hear Mom vacuuming in the living room. Sydney
and I walked to the kitchen to see if the pie looked ready. Mom had set the pie to cool by
the kitchen window. We peered up at the pie and gasped. It was a mess! The crust on top
had holes in it, and the filling was all over the place.
“What happened?” Sydney asked. “Mom’s pies never look like that!”
“I don’t know, but we’d better figure it out before Mom sees the pie and thinks we did
it!” I answered. We ran back outside and sat down under the tree. “What do you think
could have happened, Sydney?”
“Hmmm… maybe Mom dropped the pie when she took it out of the oven.” Sydney
replied.
“Is there evidence for that?” I asked.
“I don’t remember, we’d probably have to go back and check around the oven to see if
there’s a mess.”
“Let’s think of other possibilities first, then we can go back and search the scene of the
crime. I would say that maybe the cat got into the pie, but we don’t have a cat, so that
can’t be it…”
Sydney and I sat outside for a while, trying to think of ideas. Birds kept flying in and out
of the tree above us. They gave me an idea. I looked toward the kitchen, with the wide-
open window.
“Hey, I bet that some birds smelled the pie and wanted a piece! It’s right by the open
window! We should go check for little bird footprints,” I said.
“You’re right!” Sydney exclaimed. “And if there aren’t any footprints, we can look for
other clues while we’re in the kitchen.”
We walked back into the kitchen. Mom was still vacuuming. Sydney and I tiptoed over
to the pie to search for evidence. Next to the pie, we saw the filling, and one small
footprint.
“That looks like a bird footprint, right?” I asked Sydney. She agreed. We heard the
vacuum turn off, and Mom walked into the kitchen.
“What are you two doing by the pie?” she asked.
“We came back in from playing outside and wanted some pie, because it smells
delicious. But when we got in here, the pie was a mess!” I said. Sydney added, “We had
to solve the mystery of why it’s broken in pieces, because your pies are always beautiful.
Aiden had an idea that some birds might have gotten into it! Look, there’s a little
footprint!”
“Oh goodness,” Mom answered, “you guys are right. I guess I’ll have to get a screen back
on this kitchen window. Well, what do you guys think about going out to get ice cream
since the birds ate our pie?”
“Yay!!!” we shouted, and dashed off to the car. Solving mysteries sure makes you
hungry!
Curious About Careers: Teacher

Do you enjoy working with kids? Do you like helping people? Is learning fun for you?
Teaching could be the career for you!
Teachers need to graduate from college and get their teaching license in whichever state
they would like to teach in. This requires taking some tests and working with another
teacher for a few months to make sure they understand the best ways to work with
students.
Teachers need to be able to work well with other people. They need to work with
students, parents, other teachers, and other staff members at the school. Sometimes the
students may get frustrated if they don’t understand the work, so teachers need to know
how to help them calm down and work through it. Other times the students might have
something unpleasant going on at home, so teachers need to be able to listen and
provide a safe place for those students. Teachers may plan lessons with other teachers in
the same subject area or grade level, so they have to be able to work well with their
colleagues. There are many other staff members in schools who teachers also need to
work with, including principals, coaches, secretaries, and custodians.
As most kids know, teachers also have to do a lot of grading. They grade math tests,
spelling tests, and many other papers. But did you know that a lot of teachers also have
to create their own lessons, worksheets, projects, and tests? Most teachers are told what
information they have to teach, but they may get to choose how to teach it. Teachers
may use technology, art, books, and experiments to teach their topics, among other
ways! They take a lot of time to create lessons that will help their students learn.
Teachers have to continue to learn throughout their careers. They attend workshops,
take classes, read books, and research teaching topics online. All kids learn a little
differently, so there is always new information to learn about the best ways to teach
students!
Not only do teachers have to get along with many different types of people, plan lessons,
and keep learning, but they also have to keep track of how students are doing so that
they can offer extra help to any students who are having a hard time learning. They look
at test scores and other data constantly to make sure their class is keeping up with how
students across the country are performing. They want to make sure that students in all
of the schools are learning as much as they can, no matter where they live or which
school they attend.
There is a lot of work to do as a teacher, both during school and after school, but
working with students is a lot of fun, too! Luckily teachers get some time to catch up on
all of their work over breaks. Many teachers use their breaks to learn more about
teaching, or create fun activities for upcoming units. They also take some time to relax,
too, so they have more energy to share with their classes when school begins again!
Teaching is a great career for people who love to help others, who love to keep learning,
and who want to make the world a better place.

Horses

Horses are beautiful creatures. They can be different colors, and can run quickly. People
like to watch horses because they are strong and powerful.
Horses are mammals. Mammals are animals that have hair or fur, are warm-blooded,
and usually give birth to live young. The mother horse generally has one baby in the
spring, and feeds the baby milk. Horses have long legs, and big eyes that can see almost
all the way around them. They can walk, trot, gallop and jump.
Young horses that are one-year-old or younger are called foals. A young female horse is
called a filly, and a young male horse is called a colt. After 4 years, a horse is considered
an adult. Many people think that a pony is a young horse, but that is incorrect. A pony is
a type of horse that does not grow very large.
Horses can live up to 20 or 25 years. Sometimes people can tell how old a horse is by
looking at its teeth! They generally sleep standing up, so that if a predator approaches,
they can run away quickly. Horses only need about three hours of sleep per day! Their
hooves need to be taken care of. Horse hooves are like our fingernails, which need to be
trimmed. If a horse is doing a lot of walking on hard ground, people put horseshoes on
them, then take off the horseshoes when the hooves need trimming. New horseshoes are
then put on.
For food, horses eat foods such as grass, hay, oats, corn, apples, and carrots. They are
herbivores, meaning they do not eat other animals. Their stomachs are small, so they
need small, frequent feedings.
There are wild horses, but many people have horses as pets, too. They ride the horses
and may teach the horses tricks. When people first started to take horses as pets, they
were just used for work. The horses would pull carriages so people could ride places, or
plows so the farmers could more easily tend their fields. Horses were also used to move
goods from place to place, by carrying objects on their backs. Some horses now work as
therapy horses. These horses help people with disabilities become more calm and
comfortable, or work muscles they might not otherwise be able to work.
When these strong creatures are treated with care, they make wonderful companions.
What else do you know about horses?

After the Flood

Reading about weather in books is one thing, but living through a natural disaster was
another. Even though the flood was not too bad, I was not prepared for what it was
really like!
It all started two days ago. It was a rainy day; like every other rainy day I’ve ever
remembered. The only unusual thing was how anxious the adults seemed to be getting. I
started to pay more attention whenever I saw the news on at our house, at a restaurant,
or anywhere else. The meteorologists kept saying that the rain hadn’t stopped in a long
time, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. I didn’t really know what
that meant for us, since Mom was always saying that rain was good for all the plants.
The next morning, however, I began to understand.
I woke up and went down for breakfast. Usually Mom or Dad was already eating by the
time that I woke up, but neither of them was at the kitchen table, and the lights all over
the house were off. This is weird, I thought. I went to get out the milk, but there was a
note on the refrigerator telling me not to open the door. As I was wondering what I
could eat for breakfast, I noticed that the rain was still going, and that I could hear
noises coming from the basement. I went to investigate. Peeking through the basement
door, I immediately stopped. There was water down there! It didn’t look like a lot, but
there were toys and things floating by! I could hear Mom and Dad’s voices.
“Hello? What’s going on down here?” I called down the stairs.
“Good morning, Vicky. All of this rain is causing some problems. The power all over
town is out. Our basement is flooded, and so are some of the roads. A lot of houses have
water in them, too,” Dad called back.
A little water didn’t seem too bad, and the power had gone out before, so I wasn’t too
worried. Mom and Dad seemed to be taking care of it. They were talking about a pump,
so I think they were getting the water out of the basement. I went to go play in my room.
Not too long after, Mom and Dad came back upstairs, changed their clothes, and washed
their hands using hand sanitizer. I asked them what was going on.
“Well, we pumped the water out by hand, but there’s some damage downstairs. We’re
going to have to find some fans once the power comes back to try to dry out the
basement as much as we can, but we might have to tear out the drywall and replace it.
There are things that got all wet that we’re going to have to replace, too. It’s quite the
mess,” Mom said. “We’re also going to have to see if we can get a generator, it looks like
the power will probably be out for the rest of the day.”
We decided to drive around to see how other people in our town were doing. There were
a lot of roads that were closed because of water covering the road, so we couldn’t get to
the store. One bridge over the river was closed because water was rushing over it! The
houses by the river looked like they were in the river. We stopped to help people who
were filling bags with sand. The bags helped to keep the water away. They said their
neighbors across the street were in another town living with relatives until their house
could be repaired. I couldn’t believe how much the flood was affecting us! When we
finished filling up sandbags, we drove back home.
“I can’t believe those people lost all of their clothes and household items. We should go
through our stuff and see what we can donate. We’re lucky we only had a couple of
inches of water in our basement, it could have been a lot worse,” said Dad. Mom and I
agreed. Even though we didn’t have power and fixing the basement could get expensive,
we were lucky.
 Fossil Mystery

“What is that?”
“It looks like a fossil.”
“It looks part-human.”
“It can’t be…”
The archeologists all started talking at once. I listened to snippets from each of their
conversations. The words “animal” and “human” were argued about, with half of us
thinking it looked like one while the other half was thinking it looked like the other.
As the chatter started to dwindle, I spoke. “What if it’s neither human nor animal? What
if it’s something we haven’t discovered yet? Maybe even something from out of our
world…”
There was silence as my colleagues digested what I was saying.
Frank said, “I think you might be right. It’s not a dinosaur or any other animal we’ve
encountered. It’s not a human. What else could it be?”
The other scientists started talking with one another again. They were talking about
tests they could run, and about species of animals they could look up to compare this
fossil to. They began to head back to their laptops to begin researching.
Frank and I stayed behind. We continued to examine the fossil. It was hard to describe
the creature that was fossilized. It was smaller than a human, but looked like it would
have stood on two legs instead of four. Its head was large and it had 6 fingers on each
hand, and 8 toes on each foot.
“Do you think it could have been a human from long ago?” Frank asked.
“Maybe, but I’ve never seen one with that many fingers and toes,” I answered. “It could
be a new animal species. Maybe it just looks like it would have stood on two legs, but it
only looks like that because of the way it was fossilized. I really don’t know.”
Frank and I headed back to our rooms to think it over and get some sleep.
The next morning, I rushed straight to the fossil. There were already other
archaeologists there, with confused looks on their faces. As I headed closer, I began to
see why. The fossil was different. It had changed overnight! Now it looked like a small
bear.
“What happened?” I asked. No one had an answer. None of us could understand how a
fossil we had dug up yesterday had just changed. We spent time examining it again. We
took pictures and videos of it. We searched to see if anyone had ever come across a
changing fossil. No one found anything that was helpful in solving our mystery. What
kind of fossil was this?
When night fell, we set up a rotation to make sure two of us were with the fossil at all
times. We wanted to make sure that someone wasn’t playing a prank on us by switching
fossils somehow. All was quiet for my watch, which was in the middle of the night.
In the morning, I went by the fossil to again find my colleagues puzzling over the fossil.
It had changed again! No one had seen or heard anything on their watch. How and why
did it keep changing? To this day, no one has found the answer to the mystery, but it is
very interesting to see the creatures the fossil dreams up!
 Jump Around

“Whee!” I could hear kids cheering all around me. It was Nicky’s birthday party and we
were all having fun in the bounce house. We were jumping up as high as we could, and
falling down to let the soft ground catch us. I loved jumping in bounce houses! I wish I
could have one of these in my backyard, I thought.
I decided to look up the price of a bounce house when I got home. It was too expensive
for me. Maybe if all of my friends and I put our money together, we could buy it! I found
them playing outside and asked.
Jake said, “That would be awesome!”
“Yeah, I’m in,” replied Kate.
“I’ll see how much money I have at home,” said Janie.
The next day, we all gathered to see how much money we had. After counting it, we
found out we had enough! I talked to my parents about my idea.
“That would be a lot of fun for you and your friends. We do have space in our backyard,
but there are some things that I don’t think you’ve considered. We would have to use our
electricity to blow it up every time someone wanted to use it. That would cost more
money, and it would cost money to fix it if it ever got a hole in it or anything. Are you
going to pay for the electricity and repairs yourself?” Dad asked.
“You’re right, I didn’t think about that…” I replied. “I could ask everyone to pay a little
bit every time they use it, I guess.”
“That could work. But do you all have enough money for that?” asked Mom.
“I’m not sure…” I said.
“Maybe something besides a bounce house would work better, then. You like the bounce
house because of how fun it is to jump high and not have to land on your feet, right?
What about a big trampoline?” Mom suggested.
“That’s a great idea!” I exclaimed.
“Great! Before we agree to something like that, that all your friends in the neighborhood
could use, we need to make sure everyone will be safe. That means we need to see if
there is extra safety equipment we could buy for the trampoline, and we need to create
rules. Does that make sense?” Dad asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll talk to my friend’s tomorrow to make sure we all agree on the rules,
then we’ll all have our parents look the rules over to see if there’s anything we missed.”
“Perfect!”
The next day, we all sat down and developed, or came up with, rules. We decided that we
should not crash into each other, we should not jump off the trampoline, and we should
not land on our heads or necks.
Our parents all looked over the rules, and added one more: we needed an adult to be
outside with us. That seemed fair to us, so we pooled our money together and got a
trampoline!

“Everything Will Be Okay”

By James Howe
The kitten is a scrawny thing with burrs and bits of wood caught in its coat where it still
has fur, and pus coming out its eyes and nose. Its big baby head looks even bigger at the
end of such a stick of a body. I found it in the woods at the end of my street where I play
most days with my friends. This time I was alone. Lucky for you I was, I think.
Otherwise, David or Claude might have decided you’d be good practice for their
slingshots. Those two can be mean, I think to myself. I don’t like playing with them
really, but they live at the end of the street and sometimes you just play with the kids on
your same street, even if they’re mean, sometimes, even to you.
The kitten makes a pitiful noise.
“Don’t worry,” I tell it, stroking its scabby head until the mewing is replaced by a faint
purr. “Everything will be okay. I’m going to take you home, and my mom will give you a
bath and some medicine.”
I tuck the kitten under my jacket and run out of the woods, across the street, down the
sidewalk toward my house. I feel the warmth of the kitten through my shirt and start
thinking of names.
I’m only ten, so it will be five or six years before I work for Dr. Milk. My two oldest
brothers worked for him part-time and summers when they were teenagers. Now my
other brother, Paul, works there. Dr. Milk is the vet out on Ridge Road. He takes care of
our dogs, and he will take care of my kitten. I never had a pet that was my very own. A
couple of years ago, my father got a new beagle to replace the old one that had died.
Patches was his name. He called the new one Bucky and said that Bucky could be mine.
But saying a thing is so doesn’t mean it is.
Bucky lives in a kennel out back, keeping his beagle smell, which my mother hates, far
away from the house. I feed Bucky some days and play with him, but I am not allowed to
bring him inside to sleep at the end of my bed or curl up next to me while I do my
homework. Bucky is an outdoor dog; he is a hunting dog.
He is my father’s dog, really.
When I am older, I will go hunting with my father the way my brothers have done. I try
not to think about this. I want to go, because I want my father to like me. But I don’t
want to kill animals.
One time when my father and three brothers went hunting, one of my brothers killed a
deer. Most times they kill rabbits or pheasants if they get lucky. Most times they don’t
get lucky. But this time one of my brothers, I don’t remember which one, killed a deer.
The deer was hung by its feet from a tree just outside the kitchen. I could see it hanging
there when I sat at my place at the table. My father urged me to eat my venison and
talked about the slippers he was going to have made from the hide. I couldn’t eat. The
thought of the venison made me want to throw up.
I could see the deer’s eyes, even from the kitchen table. There was life in them still. Only
the deer and I knew that there was life the bullet had missed; it was in the eyes.
I pushed the venison away.
My father said, “That’s a waste of good meat.”
My brothers teased me. One of them called me a sissy.
My mother said, “You don’t have to eat it,” and took the slab of gray meat off my plate.
My mother reaches into my jacket and removes the kitten by the scruff of its neck. She
tells me to go down to the cellar and take off all my clothes and put them in a pile next to
the washing machine.
“This animal is filled with disease,” she says. “We can’t let it touch anything in the
house.”
“We’ll take it to Dr. Milk,” I say. “He’ll make it better.”
“We’ll see,” she says, pushing me toward the cellar stairs, the kitten dangling from one
of her hands.
I can feel tears welling up. “But that kitten is mine,” I say. “I found it, and it’s going to be
my pet.”
She doesn’t say anything. Looking up from the cellar stairs, I see her shaking her head at
the kitten. Its eyes are clamped shut. I can see the pus oozing out of them.
“You are a sorry sight,” she tells the kitten in the same soothing voice she uses with me
when I’m sick. “A sorry sad sight.”
I feel in the pit of my stomach what the future of that kitten is. The feeling spreads
through me like a sudden fever. Down in the cellar taking off my clothes, I cry so hard
my body shakes.
When I return upstairs, my mother wraps me in my bathrobe and holds me until I can
speak.
“Where’s the kitten?” I ask.
“Out on the back porch in a box. Your brother will be home soon.”
Paul will be going to college in the fall. Right now he’s a senior in high school. I can’t
decide if I’m going to miss him or not. He’s the brother I know best because he’s been
around the longest. The others left home when I was even younger.
Paul is the brother who taught me to ride my bicycle and the one who spent an entire
Saturday with me and not his friends building a real igloo out of snow and ice. He’s the
brother who tells me how to be a man.
He is also the brother who plays tricks on me and sometimes the tricks are cruel. When I
get angry, he says I don’t have a sense of humor. He twists my arm behind my back
sometimes until I say I’ll do what he wants me to do. He makes promises he doesn’t
keep.
Paul is seventeen. He shaves every day and kisses girls right in front of me like it was
nothing. He works at Dr. Milk’s part-time and summers.
I am sitting on the back porch, waiting for Paul to come home and talking to the box
next to me.
“Don’t worry, Smoky,” I tell the kitten inside. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you, I
don’t care how sick you are. My big brother will take you to Dr. Milk’s and give you shots
and medicine and stuff and you’ll get better, you’ll see. My big brother can fix anything.”
The kitten is awfully quiet. I wish it would make even a pitiful noise.
We sit in silence. I daydream that I am seventeen. I am big and strong like my brother
and I can make Smoky better. I see myself driving to Dr. Milk’s out of Ridge Road,
carrying the kitten in its box into the back room (which I have never seen, really, only
heard my brothers tell stories about), giving it some medicine, reassuring it. . .
“Everything will be okay, Smoky, everything will be okay.”
In the kitchen behind me I hear my brother and mother talking in low voices.
Dr. Milk is not there when my brother pulls the car into the parking lot. It is after hours.
My brother has a key. I am impressed by this.
“Come on,” Paul says in his take-charge voice, “get that box now. Bring it on in here.”
He flicks on the light in the waiting room. “You’re coming in back with me,” he
commands. “I’ll need your help.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask. I am holding the box tight against my chest. I feel
Smoky moving around inside.
“What do you think?” he says. “You heard your mother. That kitten is sick, bad sick.”
“She’s your mother, too.”
“Well, she happens to be right,” Paul tells me. “With an animal that far gone, you don’t
have a choice. It’s got to be put to sleep.”
I think the tears I jam back into my body are going to kill me. I think if I don’t let them
out they will kill me. But I won’t let them out. I won’t let Paul see.
“You do have a choice” is all I say. I hug the box for dear life and move to the door. Paul
moves faster.
“Come on now” he says, gently taking hold of my arm, “be a man.”
“I’m not a man,” I tell him. “I don’t want to be.”
“You’ve got to do what’s right. That kitten is half dead as it is.”
“Then it’s half alive, too.”
He shakes his head. “You always have to one-up me, don’t you?” he says.
I don’t know what he means, but I do know that no matter what I say he is going to do
what he wants to do.
A few minutes later, we are in the back room. The box is empty. Smoky is inside a big
old pretzel can with a hose attached, clawing at the can’s sides as my brother pumps in
the gas. He is telling me it is good for me to watch this, it will toughen me up, help me be
more of a man. Then he starts to lecture me about different methods of putting animals
out of their misery, but all I can hear is the scratching. And then the silence.
At the supper table that night, I don’t speak. I don’t look at my brother’s face or my
father’s or my mother’s. I look at the tree branch outside the kitchen window where the
deer once hung. My brother is saying something about taking me to the driving range
tomorrow. He will teach me to hit a golf ball.
I won’t go with him. I don’t want him teaching me anything anymore.
In the fall he will go off to college. I will be eleven. I will be alone with my parents, alone
without my brothers.
I get up from the table and no one stops me.
In the living room, which is dark, I sit for a long time thinking. I think about my kitten. I
think about the pretzel can. I think about what it will be like not having any brothers
around. I feel alone and small and frightened. And then all of a sudden I don’t feel any of
those things. All of a sudden it’s as if Paul had already left and I am on my own and I
know some things so clearly that I will never have to ask an older brother to help me
figure them out.
I will never work for Dr. Milk.
I will not go hunting with my father.
I will decide for myself what kind of boy I am; what kind of man I will become.
POEMS
 Rainy Day

One day it rained

And rained, every cloud would fade.
Crystal falling on the ground,
Pounding hard louder than loud.
Lightning struck a beam of light,
Booming thunder and a bit of fright.
Rain is refreshing,
Rain is a danger,
That is the cloud's way of letting out anger.
Heart's racing as fast as the wind
Even when the drops of rain were running thin.
The rain has stopped and all is at peace,
The rain that poured hard has creased.
The gray sky with little blue
Make us think what can we do?
Therefore, we say let it rain?
It can't last forever,
This rainy day.
 Winter
By Russell Blair

Winter is white as a fluffy cloud

Winter is soft as a pillow
Winter is as cold as ice
In winter kids play
In winter kids sleigh
It will freeze your hands
It will freeze your toes
It will even freeze the snowman's nose!

My Pets
By Lacey Broughton
I have a dog
But I don't have a hog
My dog's name is Missy
When she's mad
She doesn't go hissy
I have a cat
But not a bat
My cat's name is jinx
But he's not a lynx
I had a fish
 When he died
I didn't eat him on a dish
My fish's name was Freddy
He had two friends named
Eddy and Teddy
I tried to make this rhyme
Well, I did this time

Adventures
By Holly Fiato

Adventures, adventures
Are so much fun
You can meet anyone
You can take a trip to the sun
You never know what could be done
How many, I don't know
But there's more than one
That is cool
Or take a trip to the moon
Please come back sometime soon
Go as far as I can see
Let me suggest the stars are the best most definitely
But wherever you go you have to let your mother know
Now my poem is almost done
Make sure to have fun

Poem
By Sam Hamlin

When you are one it's a lot of fun

 When you are two you chew on a shoe
When you are three you learn to go pee
When you are five you learn to high dive
When you are six you learn to do picks
When you are seven you learn about heaven
When you are eight you learn to ice skate
When you are nine you learn to rhyme
Now that I'm ten I'm learning again
I Love My Mom and Dad
By Alison King

I love my mom and my dad

They never like to see me sad
They listen to me and give me food
And teach me never to be rude
When I'm bored we sometimes play
They give me kisses at the end of the day

Adventures
By Peter Minotti

Adventures are cool

Some can be scary
You can go out into the woods
Try something daring
Going rock climbing
Looking for treasure
The mountains
The ocean
No matter the weather