Badgerblog

With words, we can remake not only our experiences and memories, but our entire selves. We can re-sculpt and replace and give ourselves all the glory or absurdity we demand. This week’s Badgerblog selection invites us to do just that—to discard our usual appearances and revise ourselves however we choose. Many thanks to Brandon at Hornsby-Dunlap Elementary for reminding us that we are what we choose to become, and we can reinvent ourselves whenever we like.

Any Face

What’s the matter with the sun as your face?
And books as eyes?
And a nose made of dimes?

If you had the right to make your face,
What would your face have?
Would it be like mine?
Or different?

You decide what it will be
And if you don’t like it,
Make a new one.

Brandon, third grade, Hornsby-Dunlap Elementary School

This week’s Badgerblog selection is an overdue reminder to take a few minutes and imagine your hero-self. If you woke up and found your cape hanging in the closet, where would it take you? Which symbol would you plaster across your chest? How, exactly, would you set out to save the world? For Malia at Baty Elementary School, being a hero means providing sustenance to people across the globe and riding in an airplane with big stash of scaly fish.

Hero

I am a hero who likes to eat fish.
I throw fish out to people,
and my outfit has this fish on it.
I’m not just in one place,
but all over the world.
I travel in a fish plane
and hand fish out
to the places that have bad rain.

Malia, third grade, Baty Elementary School

We’ve all stumbled upon traces of those who’ve come before us—in photographs, letters, artifacts. Such things leave us with proof that someone else has passed this way, but they rarely explain who and why and what those moments were made of. This week’s featured poem, “Footprints,” beautifully embraces those ruminations and the reality that we can only find the answers sometimes.

Footprints

I am curious about the footprints
They make me think—
Whose are those?
Who was riding the bike?
Was it a woman?
A man? A child?
The little pond reflects the Earth’s
Living things and living creatures,
Its trees and plants.
I wonder what kind
Of car it was? A truck?
A minivan?
I guess I will never know.

Brenda, fourth grade, Hillcrest Elementary

Click here to see the M. C. Escher image that inspired Brenda’s poem.

Photo courtesy of Lanie Anderson.

Burgers tend to sell themselves, but the idea of becoming a burger is a little harder to buy into (or bite into). Maria from Bluebonnet Trail Elementary, however, offers this excellent sales pitch on the perks of leaving behind your human life and moving into the realm of burger. Congratulations to Maria on her surprising and delightful piece. Maria clearly has imagination to spare!

Being a Burger

Being a burger is fun because you get to have a spirit. When someone takes his first bite of you, your spirit comes out. You can also take a bite of yourself, and the person who’s going to eat you won’t know. They won’t know because the burger is still visible to them, so when they try eating you they’ll be confused. Being a burger is also fun because you don’t have to go right back to being a burger, you can do whatever you want.

I hope if you ever get the chance to be a burger, you take it and have lots of fun.

Maria, fourth grade, Bluebonnet Trail Elementary School

Alongside last week’s aberrant snow storm, we also get those reminder days—the days with just enough sunshine and warmth to signal the coming spring (which only means summer is closer than we’d like). This week’s Badgerblog selection by Aned from Smith Elementary reminds us what’s ahead as we leave behind the rain and snow to usher in blue skies and green leaves. In this poem, Aned has populated a park with an assortment of sunbathers and fun-seekers. Her lines “The sun is so hot” and “The grass is so green” very simply capture the nostalgia for those days when the world seems almost cinematic. Congratulations to Aned on an excellent poem!

The Park

There are people in the park.

Women with skirts and their mini umbrellas,
Sailors sailing their sailboats,
Dogs and children playing,
Men laying down in the sun.

The sun is so hot.

Dogs are running around,
The children are chasing the dogs,
Picking flowers, swimming,
A lady staring at the sea.

The grass is so green.

A grandma and grandpa dancing in the park,
Tall trees the children can climb on,
Ducks in the pond,
People on their picnic blankets.

Families walking, families running.

Hats with flowers, little animals,
Children with little hats, grass in the pond,
Colorful flowers and beautiful dresses,
Children playing tag and hide-and-go-seek.

There are people in the park

Aned, third grade, Smith Elementary School

Dear Umbrella,

You are so wonderful.
Will you marry me?
You are so cute.
I know you are a girl.
You smell like a strawberry.
Your hair is so cute.
Your body smells like a jasmine flower—
A flower called jasmine.
Can you kiss me?
You are my little star.
You are so nice.
I am going to see you next time.
I am going to bring you a wonderful thing.
You are my cute girlfriend.
I know you’re my friend.

Love,
Pancakes

Jasmine, fourth grade, Barrington Elementary School

It was boiling outside one day when I decided to take a drive. I got in the car, and I turned it on and put on the air conditioner. It made my hair flow. I started to drive, and at first I went a little slow, then a little faster.

When I went faster, I rolled down the window. The air outside made my hair go wild like when you sleep on an ant pile.

As I went faster, my hair got crazier than ever. I went so fast I had to drive in a zigzag because of the other cars.

When I came to an empty road, I went faster than a jackrabbit on a rollercoaster.

Magdalena, fourth grade, Creedmoor Elementary School

On the planet Naboo, Clone Trooper George of the 501st was on an important mission and armed with a rifle. But he aborted the mission. As he ran, he had no memory of anything that had happened, and yet he saw the future. He had a plan. He started his plan. It looked like this: Sixfivefourthreetwoone. That was the plan. So, he began. But he tripped and was badly hurt.

The leader said, “Ha ha ha ha ha.”

George said, “I’m . . . I’m in danger.” And he was.

* * * * *

To be continued immediately: Fox heard his calls for help and so did Rex and Gree.

George wasn’t in the ship for three hours after the battle on Naboo. It is a mystery where he went.

Logan, fourth grade Wooldridge Elementary School

My cousin Lauren has a heart because she is always nice. She is always like, “You want water?” She is only three years old, I think.

When someone falls or cries, she goes and says they hurt themselves. I love my cousin so much. She is like my little hero. We always play together.

When my cousin first wakes up, she is grumpy. When I go get her, I ask, “You want to come with me?” She always says yes. I love her so much. I want her to always be my cousin. She likes to dance and go outside.

When my cousin goes outside, she likes to play tag and do cheers. My sister and I bend our knees and my cousin Lauren gets on top of our knees and stands up. She also says, “Go! Go!” She has brown hair. She is short, and most of the time I see her she has new shoes.

Zianne, fourth grade, Bluebonnet Trail Elementary School

My aunt has hair as curly as two waves atop each other. It is as short as a cat’s tail. It is black like a crow’s feather. It smells like earth, just like her. When you smell it, you can also smell the cocoa butter on her neck. It is sweet.

I love to play with the many curls in it. It feels like silk bunched together. It reminds me of a lion’s mane, short and curly, just like hers. It moves like a palm tree in the wind—slow, steady, and beautiful.

Rylie, fifth grade, Popham Elementary School