“Mrs. Jones. Look at the floats we made for our book projects!”
Landon and Ramon stood in the door of my classroom. At their feet were two shoeboxes decorated to
look like floats. In their hands, they
each held remote controls.
“Here it goes,” yelled Ramon.
His thumb pushed on the controls. Down on the floor one of the floats came to life
and began scooting along the classroom floor.
“Mine can catch yours,” laughed Landon.
His shoebox shuddered a moment then slid off in pursuit
of Ramon’s float.
I stood watching the two miniature floats zip around my
room, bumping into walls, backing up, moving forward, and flying under desks
and chairs. Both floats had fringe stapled to the sides. As the floats raced around the room, the
fringe fluttered in the breeze.
“That is so cool!” I said, walking over to one of the
floats. Landon’s float had small
dinosaurs glued to the top of it. I
lifted the float up and saw underneath the box was a remote control car. The decorated shoeboxes were sitting on top
of the car.
“I’ll bet I get an ‘A’ for my float,” shouted Landon.
“Me too,” yelled Ramon.
“Well I love
them!” I gushed. “I’m going to be sure
and watch your presentations today.
After lunch I slipped into Mrs. Mason’s classroom just as
Landon was walking to the front of the room carrying his float. The entire counter running down one side of
the classroom was covered with decorated shoeboxes. I spotted Ramon’s float sitting towards the
end of the counter.
Landon set his float on the table at the front. Next to it he propped his book, All About Woolly Mammoths. He held his book report in front of him,
and began reading.
I nodded my head as he read about the mammoth bones found
in Siberia. I smiled as he read about
the food a mammoth eats. I watched Mrs.
Mason suppress a smile as Landon read that mammoths butt heads and make low
growling sounds during mating season.
“This is the float I made for my book,” Landon said, laying
his report down and picking up his decorated shoebox. One hand held the bottom of the box keeping
the car concealed. He set his float on
the floor, and picked up the remote controls.
“Now I’ll make my float go,” he said.
All over the room kids craned to look at the float on the
floor. Students sitting from the middle to
the back stood up so they could see.
Landon pressed on the controls, but his float sat perfectly still. The room was quiet, and everyone could hear
the low revving sound of a remote car, but his decorated shoebox didn’t so much
as quiver.
Landon set his controls down, bent over, and lifted the
box off his car. He turned the car over
and spun each of the four wheels with his finger. When he was satisfied that none of the wheels
were jammed, he set the car back down and covered it with his float.
Even though the secret behind his moving shoebox had been
revealed, the class still waited, transfixed by the promise of a moving float.
Landon picked up his controls again and began pressing
buttons. We all heard the soft revving
sound again, but now we heard soft bumping sounds along with it. All eyes were glued to Landon’s float at the
front when suddenly a shoebox on the counter fell to the floor. Ramon’s float, freed from the shoebox in
front of it, shot down the counter and launched over the edge.
Landon stared down at his controls. He lifted his head and looked back at
Ramon. Ramon calmly stood up and walked
forward carrying something in his right hand.
He walked over to the counter, picked up the two floats on the floor,
and placed them back on the counter.
Then he walked over to Landon and the two traded remote controls.
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