7. Ship Building

7 Ship Building Friday morning Dear first-grade journal, We have been working on our play for the whole entire week. We already wrote some of our words. And ha! I am going to say, Land! Land! We landed on Land! Only bad news. On account of

Herbert is Land. And today Herbert got sick with the virus. And so NOW what am I supposed to do? Just sail around and around the whole livelong day? Without Land, explorers are nothing. From, Junie B., First Grader Just then, the bell rang for school to start. And so I quick put away my journal. And I got ready to work on the play some more." 'Cause hurray, hurray! Today we were making our costumes! Mr. Scary got out costume supplies from boxes he brought from home. He gave me and May cardboard to make our ships. Plus also, he gave us ship patterns!

He gave Sheldon a ship pattern, too. Because guess what? Sheldon was going to be the Ni.a! He said he didn't even care that the Ni.a was the smallest ship. On account of he liked the little squiggle over the n! "The little squiggle makes the Ni.a look special," he said. "It looks like a little bird." Mr. Scary smiled at that comment. Then he told us how to tape our ship pieces together. Plus he showed us how to make banners and sails. "I'm going to color my ship banner red. 'Cause red is my favorite color," I said. May looked down her nose at me. "I'm going to color my ship banner gold," she said. "'Cause gold means you're the golden best. And the Santa María had to be the best. Or else why would Columbus

choose it?" I tapped on my chin very thinking. Then I did a little grin. "Maybe he liked big old tubs," I said. After that, I laughed and laughed at my own joke.

I see nothing wrong with that. Pretty soon, Mr. Scary went to help Lucille. She was not working on her costume. "My richie nanna is going to hire her sewing lady to make my costume," she said. "Plus she's also going to buy me a crown of fake jewels." Mr. Scary said no. "We're all making our costumes in class, Lucille," he said. "It's part of the project." After that, he got an encyclopedia from the shelf. And he found a picture of Queen Isabella. Lucille did a loud screech. "Eeeesh! She's not even cute!" she said. "And what is that ugly hat thing on her head? Look! It has ear flaps!" Sheldon ran over to see the ugly hat thing.

"Maybe she just got back from snowboarding," he said. Lucille started to cry. Mr. Scary said to please calm down. Then he brought her a fake velvet towel she could use for a robe. And he gave her gold glitter to make a paper crown. Lucille stopped crying. "Glitter?" she said a little perkier. "I get to use glitter?" After that, she got right to work on her golden crown. A little glitter can turn your whole day around. At the end of the afternoon, our costumes were almost done. Mr. Scary let us go to the front of the room and show the other children what we made. And what do you know?