Back to School

It's time to head back to school!

INTRODUCTION
As everyone begins a new year of school and becomes familiar with what happens during the day, it’s time to imagine what happens in the school building at night. What if all the objects in the room came alive at night? What do you imagine they would do?

POEM

By Carol Diggory Shields

Do you know what happens in the school at night
When the teachers all leave and turn out the light?

The math books count out, “3,2,1!”
Then the clock on the wall shouts, “Time for fun!”

The erasers start to race around the floor.
The rubberstamps stamp right out of the drawer.

The scissors cut up, and the stickers peel out.
The paper clips twist, the globe spins about.

The flag waves, “Bye-bye! Don’t be late.”
As the wall calendar goes out on a date.

The telephone gives the map a ring.
The rule gets bossy and acts like a king.

So if something in your desk doesn’t look just right,
Maybe it’s because of what happened last night.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shields, Carol Diggory. 2003. ALMOST LATE FOR SCHOOL: AND MORE SCHOOL POEMS. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
ISBN 0525457437

EXTENSION
Take another tour of the entire school. What is something that you saw on the tour that you think could become active after the lights are out and everyone has gone home? If the school could write a poem about us, what do you think it would say that we do after school?

Photo courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo.com/images.