2 Ch2-Finger Painting with Ms. Hannah

Chapter 2 Finger Painting with Ms. Hannah Emily was the door holder. My friend Michael who never ties his shoes was the line leader. The art room was all the way on the other side of the school. We had to walk about a million hundred miles to get there. Michael told Miss Daisy it was like walking across the Grand Canyon, so

she let us take drinks from the water fountain outside the art room. That's where Ms. Hannah was stand- ing. She was the funniest-looking lady I ever saw. She was wearing a dress that looked like it was made from a bunch of different-colored washcloths that were sewed together. On her hands were these big mittens that my mom uses when she has to take hot dishes out of the oven. Ms. Hannah looked weird.

"Good morning second graders," she said as we filed into the art room. "Do you like my new dress? It's made from

used pot holders that I bought on eBay. I stitched them together." Ms. Hannah spun around so we could get the full effect of her new dress. "It's beautiful!" Andrea said. She is always complimenting (that's a big word!) grown-ups on everything. Andrea was born old. Personally I thought it was the stupidest-looking dress in the history of the world. I went to sit with my friends Michael and Ryan, but Miss Daisy stopped us. She told Ms. Hannah that certain people should not sit next to other cer- tain people. I knew what that meant. "Boy-girl-boy-girl," Miss Daisy said,

pointing to where we should sit. I had to sit at a table between Andrea and her cry- baby friend Emily. Miss Daisy gave each of us a name tag to wear so Ms. Hannah would know our names. Then she told Ms. Hannah she would be in the teachers' lounge in case there was any trouble. The teachers' lounge is where the teachers go when they don't have to teach. I've never been in there. No kid has ever been in there in the history of the world, because kids aren't allowed inside. The teachers' lounge is like a secret club- house for teachers only.

My friend Billy from around the corner who was in second grade last year told me that they have big parties in the teachers' lounge all day long. He said the teachers dance around and play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and eat cake and take target practice with BB guns. Then they try and think up new punishments to give us kids when we misbehave. That sounds cool. Maybe when I grow up, I'll be a teacher so I can hang out in the teachers' lounge all day and have fun. After we sat at our tables, Ms. Hannah