Bright, Shiny Skylar

• The Happiest Girl
• Bounciness
• Starring Skylar
• Dear Parents

The Happiest Girl

Skylar is the happiest girl in Miss Sparks’ classroom. Bright and early on the second day of school, she zooms into class and says hello to everybody. Miss Sparks smiles, and comments that Skylar looks very bright and shiny today. Skylar thanks Miss Sparks, and she spins on her feet. She’s wearing her favorite hair clips that look like little stars.

Miss Sparks tells Skylar to please be seated. Skylar puts her lunch in her cubby and makes her way to her desk. But on the way, she gets distracted by Nathan and his lunchbox. Skylar tells Nathan he was supposed to put his lunch in his cubby. But don’t worry, Skylar will do it! She picks up his lunchbox. But Nathan pulls it back. Skylar tugs harder and pulls it away from him.

Now Skylar makes her way to her desk. She notices the rainbows on the walls that are made by prisms hanging in the windows. Skylar jumps out her seat and runs to the wall. She has to touch the rainbows! Miss Sparks patiently points out that she’d like everybody to take their seats.

Skylar scurries back to her seat. Miss Sparks sits at the piano, and begins to sing “America the Beautiful.” Skylar tilts back her head and begins to sing very loudly! She looks up at the ceiling which is painted blue with clouds. She suddenly stands up and tells everybody to look at the beautiful clouds. The other children in the class are distracted and confused. Miss Sparks asks Skylar to not interrupt. Skylar apologizes and sits down again.

Bounciness

Lots of things are easy for Skylar at school. She’s good at writing, reading, and math. But the thing that’s hardest for her is sitting quietly in her seat. She just feels like she has to jump up and call out answers. Miss Sparks has to remind Skylar that she must raise her hand when she has something to say. But when Skylar has the answer for the next question, she raises her hand and says “I know! I know! Miss Sparks! Me! Me! Call on me.” And then before Miss Sparks can call on Skylar, she just shouts out the answer, like it was a soda bottle bubbling inside her and overflowing over the top.

All the children look at Skylar. Skylar realizes she jumped out of her seat and called the answer out again. Miss Sparks’ glasses aren’t shimmering like they usually are. Skylar sinks down in her seat.

Miss Sparks can see that Skylar is a smart girl. But her bounciness is getting her into trouble, and Miss Sparks isn’t pleased. And the other children don’t like Skylar’s jumping up and calling out answers either.

So, Skylar has an idea. She chains together a lot of rubber bands and loops it around her waist and connects it to her chair. Hopefully it’ll help keep her seated. But during math, Gwen makes a mistake on the chalkboard. Skylar jumps out of her seat to give Gwen a hand. And then the rubber bands go Boing! They all break and fly through the room.

The next day, Skylar makes her belt of paper clips. But when Skylar jumps out of her seat, they go Poing! and all break. The next day, Skylar puts sticky tape on the seat of her pants. But when Skylar jumps up to retrieve Razzi, who’s hiding behind the reading tub, all the tape rips. Skylar is disappointed. She’s so bouncy that nothing can keep her in her seat.

Starring Skylar

In a few days, Miss Sparks announces that their class was selected to paint a mural for the lunchroom. The children all decide they should paint a mural of the sky. For the next several days, everyone works hard on the long strip of paper Miss Sparks laid across the floor.

Some children paint a blue sky. Some attach cotton ball clouds, and others paint a rainy sky with gray clouds and silver glitter glue falling from them. Skylar is supposed to help paint a rainbow. But, she notices Spencer is painting the colors in the wrong order. Spencer painted blue where it should be red. Skylar jumps up to show Spencer his mistake. And then, Crash! Splash! Skylar knocked over a pail of water and paintbrushes. The water spills all across the mural. The whole mural is ruined.

Some of the children start to cry. Skylar wails and apologizes. But it’s too late because everyone’s hard work is washed away. Skylar has never felt so sad in her whole life.

That afternoon, when all the children go home, Skylar stays late to help Miss Sparks clean up. Skylar confesses she wishes she wasn’t so bouncy. She explains she tried to change, but she couldn’t. Miss Sparks smiles. She says that bright, shiny Skylar will change, with time and trying, just like the sky.

The next day, Skylar raises her hand, and when she’s called on, she explains she had an idea. Instead of a day sky, they could paint a night sky. Some of the children begin to paint the mural, now fully dried, black. Some of the children stay at their desk, cutting stars out of paper. All of the children work hard, but nobody works harder than Skylar. She puts sticky glitter glue on each of the paper stars to make them all shiny. The sticky glue reminds Skylar to stick to her work. She doesn’t jump out of her seat once, all morning long.

When all the stars are finished, the children all work together to stick them to the mural. When Skylar sees some of the students sticking the stars too close together, she doesn’t make a peep. She sticks to her own work.

When the mural is finished, Miss Sparks and Skylar hold it up for the whole class. It’s of the beautiful night sky, complete with a moon, and some of the stars look like they’re shooting stars! And the glitter glue makes the stars really sparkle and shine, just like real stars.

Skylar is so happy, and proud of the way she stuck to her work. Her sticky stars have shown Skylar that she can change, given enough time and hard work. Now, Skylar knows she can do it. Nathan points out Skylar has sticky glitter glue on her face, fingers, and in her hair. Skylar smiles, and rises up on her tiptoes, and spins around the room to make the glitter glue sparkle. Everybody laughs. “That’s our bright, shiny Skylar!” Miss Sparks chuckles.

Dear Parents

Discusses that children have lots of energy, and sometimes it seems the more energy they use, the more they have. So, we must find ways to help our children focus their energy. Topics include:

• Moving in order to learn
• Playing games that encourage focusing on when to move their body, and when to quiet their body
• Encouraging children to take turns talking
• Play games to encourage children to listen to others instead of doing all the talking
• Discuss how childrens’ behavior affects others