Billy couldn’t wait for school to begin. He spotted the nametag on his new desk. B-I-L-L-Y, he mouthed to himself.
“Welcome to first grade, Boys and Girls. My name is Mrs. Rodriquez,” his teacher said. “Let’s all get to know one another.”
They sang songs, learned each other’s names, and looked at all kinds of books.
“Hop ra…rabbit hop,” Billy read to himself.
At recess, Billy spelled raddit in the sand with a stick.
“What’s a ‘raddit’?” asked a second grade girl.
Billy looked down at his writing and sighed. Oops, I mixed up the b’s. He wiped the sand clear. “Just fooling around,” he said.
It happened again in art class. “Paint a picture of your favorite kind of animal,” said the art teacher.
Billy painted a picture of his dog. Underneath he wrote, I have a dlack lad.
The art teacher clapped her hands. “Okay kids, it’s time to show your work.”
When it was Billy’s turn, he held up his painting and read, “I have a black lab.”
While everyone was busy cleaning up, the art teacher squatted next to Billy and whispered in his ear. “I like your black lab’s long tail.” She pointed to his sentence. “Would you like me to help you turn those d’s into b’s?”
He shook his head. “No thanks. I can do it.” When the teacher walked away, Billy tried to erase the d’s but he made a hole in the paper. He rolled up his painting and shuffled to the end of the line. Billy followed 20 pairs of feet down the hallway.
The last part of the day was free time. The kids could choose any activity around the classroom. Billy looked at the writing center, but went to the art corner instead.
“What are you gonna draw?” Tyrone asked from the other side of the easel.
“I haven’t decided,” Billy said. “How about you?”
“I’m gonna make a soccer poster to hang in my room.”
“Then I’ll make a baseball poster.”
Both boys drew and drew until….
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Billy squealed.
Tyrone came around to Billy’s side of the easel. “Got what?”
“Take a look; b is for baseball,” Billy explained. “You pick up the bat before you hit the ball. So to make the letter b, you draw the bat, the line, before the ball, the circle.”
Tyrone gave him a high five. “Cool!”
Billy swung an imaginary bat in the air. “You can call me ‘Baseball Billy’ ‘cause I just scored a homerun!”
~The End~
Illustration Copyright © 2010 Samantha Ball
Copyright © 2010 by Lisa Versaggi