Bright, Shiny Skylar

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.