Just Grace and the Double Surprise (6 page)

Make a map of anything you can think of:

Make a map of your kitchen:

WHAT MR. FRANK DID NOT WHAT

Mr. Frank did not want us all to be making the same map. He said we should feel creative and playful. Then, to help us start feeling those things, he gave us a list of unusual map ideas.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE A MAP OF

1. Your kitchen table at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
   
2. Your walk to school.
   
3. A room in your house.
   
4. Your favorite playground.
   
5. Your front yard and how it changes with the seasons.
   
6. Your dog's favorite walk.
   

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

I could tell that most of the class was starting to feel better about the project. It can be easier to think of an idea if you get a little push in the right direction. Of course some kids picked stuff right off the list, but not everyone did. Mr. Frank was especially happy with the people who were coming up with their own new original ideas.

Mimi decided to draw a map of all the fun places to play in her yard, and what games you could play where. I knew she was making it for the new sister. Even though three-year-olds probably can't read maps, she could for sure save it for the sister until she got older. I wanted to think of something interesting and original. I wanted Mr. Frank to be proud of me too.

I had lots of thoughts in my head and not one of them was a good idea.

But then...

MAP OF ME

Sometimes when you have a great idea your brain suddenly feels like a huge fireworks show, with hundreds of different thoughts exploding all at once.

My brain was thinking, "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I just thought of this! This is the best idea ever! YAY!!!! Wow!!!! I am totally going to do this! I am so excited!" And with all this going on in my head, it just seemed crazy that the whole class could not be noticing it, because for me it felt so big and so everything! I looked around, but everyone was just quietly working away. Sammy looked up for a second, but it was obvious he couldn't tell that my head was almost exploding.

WHAT IS TRUE

If you are waiting for something, time goes by really slowly. If you are not waiting and instead you are having fun, time goes by really fast. It seemed like only two seconds had gone by and then Mr. Frank said it was time for lunch—about half the class groaned. This kind of thing must make teachers super happy. Mostly kids want to get away from schoolwork, not stay and do more. It's the kind of thing a teacher would for sure write in their journal if they kept one.

MY MAP SO FAR

Mr. Frank said we would have to finish our map projects at home. After lunch Miss Lois was coming back and he was leaving to go upstairs and be an afternoon substitute for a fifth grade class. The class groaned again, but this time it was for a totally different reason.

WHAT I WAS NOT EXPECTING

"Hey, that's a great idea. Can I do that too?" Those words were from Sammy, and they were a surprise. He was standing right beside me, looking at my map. I was in such a good mood and so happy that without even thinking about it I said, "Sure." That was a surprise too. My mouth surprised my brain. If my mouth had not moved so fast my brain might have thought to say, "No, that's my idea. Think of your own." But it was too late. "Thanks," said Sammy, and he walked off. Well, his map is going to be nothing like mine. Both my brain and my mouth were happy and sure about that.

WHAT WAS SURPRISING AT LUNCH

Even though I was having turkey and cheese AGAIN, for like the six hundredth time, it tasted amazingly delicious. It was almost the best turkey and cheese sandwich I had ever had in my whole entire life. For sure it was not because Mom had cut it into four pieces, but there was
something
extra good about it.

WHAT MIMI SAID

At lunch Mimi and I talked about our maps. I couldn't believe she was already finished with hers. "How can you be done? I still have tons to do!" I didn't mean to, but I was kind of complaining. "I always pick simple things," said Mimi. "You like to make things more complicated. You think more than I do." "No, I don't," I said. "Everyone thinks the same. I mean, they think about different stuff, but the thinking part is the same, right?" I had never thought about this before. See! That is proof. I'm not always thinking.

"No, I don't think so," said Mimi. "You're definitely more of a thinker than me. Sometimes I don't even think about anything." "Really?" I said. "You can think about nothing?" I couldn't believe it. My brain is a nonstop chatterbox. I thought all brains were like that.

Suddenly one of the lunch ladies was yelling. "Did you throw that carrot? You! You in the blue shirt." She was pointing at a boy and her face was turning red. It was a nice break from all the thinking about thinking, because that kind of thinking was giving me a headache.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER LUNCH