All About Attitude (Book One)

Ch. 3: Tootsie Rolls!

It was the last class of the day- craft time! Katie was sitting with Lily and Sarah at their table. Everyone was excitedly buzzing about to each other; for craft time was usually very, very fun! "What will we build today?" asked Lily elatedly. "I don't know!" replied Sarah. "I wonder when Ms. Bubzy will get here?" "I just hope we don't build anything totally useless!" said Katie.

Finally, their teacher rushed into the classroom with her glasses crooked. "Oh, children!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "I apologize for being late. I was making copies in the teacher's lounge, and the mean and ugly Late Monster seemed to have come and attacked!" The class laughed at Ms. Bubzy's silly joke. She certainly was late!

"Now that I'm here," said Ms. Bubzy. "Let's begin with Craft Time!"

As she began to take craft items out of the supply closet, she said, "Today's craft will be a bit different. It will be all about working together!" Now she set a bucket on her table. "But Ms. Bubzy," said Lily. "We always do craft time together as a table. Wouldn't we all be doing teamwork every day?" "Well, this will help you to work together with different people," Ms. Bubzy said. "And, as you would assume, today we will be switching members of your table to different groups! You will all move to a new spot today." The class gasped in shock. Wow! Sitting with different people at a whole different table... this sounded fun already!

"Once I pair you up with new people," Ms. Bubzy explained. "You will construct a model out of playing dough with your group! Whoever builds the biggest and best model gets some Tootsie Rolls!" The entire class gasped and smiled. They all loved Tootsie Rolls! Katie made a commitment to have the biggest and best construction model of all time!

Ms. Bubzy began putting together people at random from picking out their names that were written on sticks in a purple can. "Jayden... Jordan... Kaitlyn... and Jason," she announced the first group. "You guys can sit at the Purple Table!" The 4 children stood up and went to the table with the purple bucket of supplies that was set in the middle of it. Next, Ms. Bubzy called the next group. "Toby... Alyssa... Ella... and Sarah," she said. "You will sit at the Orange table!" "It's too bad we can't work together," said Sarah. "But I'll have fun with my group, too. Good luck!" Sarah said good-bye to the girls, and joined her classmates at the Orange Table. Lily noticed that Katie almost looked a little worried!

"Okay, next group..." the teacher began. "Lily, Katie, Landon, and Sophia join the Green Table!" Lily smiled. Katie was going to be in her group! Lily and Katie didn't move because they were already sitting at the Green Table, and they waited for Sophia and Landon to join them. "Hello, Sophia!" greeted Lily as she sat down at the Green Table. Landon sat down, as well. Landon gave Katie a frightened look. And Sophia decided not to speak to her. Katie did not know why. Why were they acting like this? What was wrong with Katie?

Soon, Ms. Bubzy came to their table and gave them 6 cans of playing dough- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. "Make sure to use every color, and work together!" she said. "If you follow my directions, I bet your tower will be very good!" She also gave them some toothpicks. "Also, if your tower has a hard time staying together, you can use the toothpicks to help it stick back together!" she explained. "Okay!" said the group.

Then they all had ideas spurring up in their heads; forming a plan for the biggest and best playing dough tower!

"Hey, I have an idea!" said Katie. "What if we make our tower look like the Empire State Building? It would be very cool, because I have seen it in real life before!" "Really?" said Lily. "That's interesting, Katie." "Thank you," said Katie with a prideful smile. Then she waited for Landon and Sophia to say something about her great idea. But they didn't! They only ignored her idea, and just came up their own ideas. "Hey, what if it looks like the Leaning Tower of Pizza?" said Landon. Lily giggled. "No, Landon!" she said. "It's the Leaning Tower of Pisa, not pizza!" "Well, a tower made of pizza sure sounds cool!" said Landon. Lily, Sophia, and Landon laughed. Without Katie! She began to feel very left out. She decided she did not like Sophia and Landon.