Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
I'd like to thank Huntress79 for giving me this idea!
Class Project
"Thanks again for coming in and helping me with this Nicky." Jackie said as she set down a huge piece of white paper down on the back table of her classroom.
"No problem." Nick assured her with a smile.
Every year, every classroom in Jackie's school did a small project about different things, this year it was about animals. Jackie decided that for the project this year they were going to do the project on the different types of pets Jackie's students have at home.
"Alright, I have to run and pick up the kids from lunch, I'll be right back, they are going to be so excited to see you." Jackie told him with a smile as she hurriedly left the room.
When Jackie returned minutes later with the students they were all thrilled when they walked into the room and saw him standing there. Nick smiled and waved at them.
"Ok boys and girls, take your seats, I'll explain what we are going to do." Jackie told them.
Once all the kids had finally gotten settled down in their seats Jackie started telling them about the project.
"Ok what we are going to do for our class project is find out what kind of animals you guys have for pets at home. So what I need you to do is raise your hand and tell me if you have a pet, I will write what you guys tell me on the board. Once the type of pet you have has been told to me you don't have to tell me it again because it will already be up on the board. Give me a thumbs up if you understand." Jackie told them.
All but one student did, instead he raised his hand.
"Camden, thanks for raising your hand, what's your question?" Jackie asked.
"Mrs. Stokes, what if you have two pets?"
"Good question, then I need to hear both of them."
"Ok." He said happily.
"Ok, let's start, raise your hand if you have a pet."
Most of the students raised their hand. The types of animals Jackie heard were: cat, dog, hamster, fish, lizard, snake, rabbit, and frog.
"Good job everyone. Now what we are going to do is take a poll of our room to see how many of you have each of these types of animals. So if you have a cat raise your hand."
8 of the students raised their hand so Jackie wrote 8 under the word cat so she'd be able to keep track of how many students had each animal.
They went through the entire list of animals the students just gave her.
"Ok good, now what I'm going to do is get on my computer and find pictures of each of these animals, then you are going to color the picture if you have that animal, and after we are done we are going to make a graph out of it." Jackie told them.
A little girl's hand shot up in the air.
"Morgan, thanks for raising your hand, what's your question?" Jackie asked.
"What if we don't have any pets?" She asked, sounding somewhat sad.
"That's a great question, and for you guys that do not have any pets I am going to give you a piece of paper with the words I do not have a pet, in big bold letters and you can color that, and I'll make sure to put a spot on our graph for it, that way everyone can be involved in our project, how does that sound?"
"Good." Morgan said happily, excited that she could still be a part of the class project event though she didn't have any pets.
"While I'm looking for the pictures on my computer, Mr. Stokes is going to read you guys a story or two, how does that sound?" Jackie asked her students.
"Yay." All of them cheered excitedly.
Jackie and Nick laughed.
"Alright, if you have blue on your shirt today, please go join Mr. Stokes at our reading area." Jackie instructed.
A few of the kids got up and went and sat down at the reading area, where Nick was sitting in a rocking chair ready to read to the kids.
"Ok, if you have blonde hair go to the reading area." Jackie told them.
A few more kids got up.
"If you like basketball go to the reading area." Jackie said.
Most of the remaining students still in their seats got up.
"If you are still in your seats and would like to hear the stories please go to the reading area." Jackie told the few remaining kids still at their desks.
They giggled and smiled at her as they got up to join the rest of their classmates so they could hear the stories Nick was going to read to them.
After all the kids were settled Nick began reading one of the books that Jackie had given him while Jackie went to her desk to look for the different pictures on her computer.
Nick was only a few pages into the story when a little girl's hand shot up.
"Yes?" Nick asked.
"I like your accent, I find it fascinating." She told him.
Nick tried very hard not to laugh and Jackie couldn't help herself she raced out of the room and into the hallway and laughed hysterically.
After she composed herself she went back into the room and finished looking for the pictures.
After she had all the pictures, and after she had typed up the words I do not have a pet. In big bold letters she wrote down how many students had each pet on a sticky note and then walked over to where Nick was still reading to the kids. After she had walked over next to him Nick stopped reading.
"One two three, eyes on…" She said to the kids.
"You." All the kids said.
"Good job, I have to go make copies, if Mr. Stokes gets done reading before I get back you need to stay here at the reading area. You may visit quietly but if you get too loud Mr. Stokes will tell you that you no longer get to visit. Are we clear?"
"Yes." The kids responded.
She turned her attention to Nick "if they start to get crazy, just read them another story." She whispered in his ear as she motioned to the book shelf behind him that held dozens of good kids books on it.
"Ok." He told her.
She left the room and hurriedly made her copies and when she returned the kids remained seated where she had left them, talking quietly with each other, just like she'd asked them to do.
"How were they?" She asked Nick loud enough for the kids to hear.
"They were very good, they quietly listened to the end of the story and then they sat and visited quietly." He told her.
"Good job boys and girls, I think that deserves three more marbles." Jackie said as she went over to the class marble jar and dropped three marbles in.
"Yay." The kids cheered happily. (the marble jar was a good behavior incentive that Jackie used with her students, as soon as the jar was completely filled with marbles the kids would get a reward, they were currently about half way to earning an ice cream party.)
"Ok guys, I'd like everyone to quickly and quietly return to their seats." She told the kids.
The kids got up and moved to their desks.
After they all had sat down Jackie said "Eyes are?"
"Forward." The kids answered.
"Lips are?" Jackie asked.
"Zipped." The kids answered.
"Very good." Jackie praised, since she had their undivided attention she continued on with her instructions "I've laid out all the different animal pictures up on my desk, I am going to call you up one row at a time and your job is to get a picture of each animal that you have, then you are to bring the pictures back to your desk and color them, then cut them out. While you guys are coloring your pictures I am going to write down all the animals on our graph, that way when everyone is done coloring and cutting out their pictures we can glue them on the graph. If you don't have any pets there is a piece of paper with the words I don't have a pet on it, for you to color. Try to make your animal picture the closest you can to your actual pet, so do I want to see a blue dog?"
"No." The kids told her in unison.
"Good, why not?" Jackie asked them.
"Because there are no such things as blue dogs Mrs. Stokes." One little girl answered, sounding as if she thought her teacher had lost her marbles.
"Very good." Jackie said with a chuckle.
"Do I want you to scribble or color it neatly?"
"Neatly." The kids replied.
"What will happen if you scribble?" Jackie asked.
"We will have to do it over." The kids told her.
"Yep, that's right." Jackie said. "If you understand what to do give me a thumbs up." She told the kids.
All the kids gave her a thumbs up.
"Ok, since no one has any questions I would like row 1 to come up and get their pictures."
After all the kids from row one got their pictures Jackie called up row two, and after they were done row three got theirs which was the last row.
After all the kids had their pictures Jackie went to work writing all the different types of animals on the big piece of blue construction paper she had gotten earlier.
"Mrs. Stokes?" A little boy said, coming up to Jackie while she was writing on the construction paper.
"Yeah bud?" Jackie asked as she looked up at him.
"Um, I don't know what to do?" He said.
"About what?" Jackie asked.
"Well I have a white dog, so what color do I color it, the picture is already white?"
Jackie thought for a moment, she wasn't quite sure how to answer.
"Well let's see, does your dog wear a collar?" She asked.
"Yep." The little boy said shaking his head vigorously.
"Ok, what color is his collar?" Jackie asked.
"Brown."
"Ok, draw a brown collar on him." Jackie told him with a smile.
"Ok that's a great idea, you're a genius Mrs. Stokes." He said with a grin before he went and sat down in his seat to draw the collar.
Jackie chuckled and returned her attention to the construction paper. A while later another little boy came up to her with tears in his eyes.
"Mrs. Stokes, I cut my dog's head off." He said sadly as he showed Jackie the picture of his dog and sure enough the head was severed, which was too bad because he had colored the picture very nicely.
"Uh-oh, it looks like I'll have to perform surgery." Jackie said with a smile as she went to her desk and retrieved her tape.
"What's your dog's name?" Jackie asked the little boy as she took both pieces of his picture from him.
"Lily." He responded.
"That's a pretty name." Jackie told him.
"Yeah." The little boy agreed.
Jackie reattached Lily's head.
"There ya go kiddo, Lily is as good as new." Jackie responded as she handed the little boy his picture back.
"Thanks Mrs. Stokes." He told her as he wrapped her in a hug and then returned to his seat.
After what seemed like a lifetime all the kids had finished coloring and cutting out their animals.
"Alright, here is what you are going to do. When I call your row you are going to come up and make two lines, Mr. Stokes and I are going to help you glue your animal on the correct part of our graph. When it is your turn you are simply going to come up and hand your animal to me or Mr. Stokes and then we are going to glue your animal on the right spot. Once you've given one of us your animal your job is to go grab a book and then sit back down at your desk and read quietly. When everyone's pictures have been glued we are going to look at the graph and try to understand what the graph is telling us."
Jackie looked around the room, some of the kids had a blank look on their face, meaning they didn't understand what Jackie wanted them to do.
"Who can raise their hand and tell me what I want you to do?" Jackie asked the kids.
A few kids' hands shot in the air.
"Grant." Jackie said.
"When you call our row we have to come up and give you or that man our pictures and then get a book and sit down at our desk." He told her.
"Ok, so who actually glues the pictures on the graph?" Jackie asked him.
"You or that guy." Grant responded as he nodded towards Nick.
"That's right Grant, you give your picture to me or Mr. Stokes." Jackie said with a smile before she glanced over at Nick and noticed he was smiling too.
Jackie then went and got two glue sticks from her desk drawer, she handed one to Nick and kept one for herself, she then called up row one, the students in that row made two short lines, one in front of Nick and the other in front of Jackie.
Things were going smoothly until Jackie got to the last student in her line from row 1.
"Um Cal, I've never seen a purple hamster before." Jackie told one of her students when he handed her his picture and noticed his hamster was purple.
"Yep, that's the color my hamster was when my sister gave it too much food." Cal replied.
Jackie raised her eyebrows at him.
"That would not be true, nice try little buddy, go get another one and try again." She told him.
Cal's eyes filled with tears.
"I'll make ya a deal, you color it, and I'll cut it out for you, how's that sound?" Jackie asked.
"Ok." He said, cheering up immediately.
Finally all the kid's pictures were on the graph.
"Alright now boys and girls we are going to look at the graph, and figure out what it is telling us. Does anyone know, by looking at our graph what the most common pet is?'
A few kids' hand went up.
"Christian." Jackie said.
"A dog has the most Mrs. Stokes." He replied.
"Very good, how do you know that?"
"Because it has the most pictures under it." He told her.
"Good, does everyone understand how he figured that out, let's look, see how 10 kids colored a picture of a dog, that is the most." Jackie told them.
"Who can tell me what pet is the least common?" She asked them.
"Abby." Jackie called on a little girl with her hand up.
"A fish, it only has three." She told Jackie.
"That's right. Good job." Jackie told her.
"No, it has four, look one of the fish pictures fell off." A little boy named Axel explained as he got up out of his seat and picked up the picture of a fish that had fallen on the floor.
"Oh look at that, this fish jumped right out of the pond." Jackie said with a grin as she took the picture from Axel's hand and put more glue on the back of it before sticking it up on the chart where it belonged.
The kids giggled.
"Is fish still the least common pet we have up on our graph?" Jackie asked.
The kids shook their head yes.
"Oops, not quite, we better look at our graph again." Jackie told her students.
The kids studied the graph intently.
"It's a tie." One of the kids finally shouted.
"You're right, Kayla, it is a tie, which two animals are tied?" Jackie asked.
"The fish and the hamster." She replied.
"Good. Yep see guys, they each have four." Jackie said as she motioned her hand over both the fish and the hamster.
Jackie glanced at the clock, alright guys, we won't get a very long recess today because of our project but I'll take you out for a few minutes, everyone get your jacket on." She told the kids.
"Mrs. Stokes, you could keep us out longer, that way we can get the right amount of recess." One of her students named Adam suggested.
"Normally I would bud but I can't today because it's almost time to go home for the day, right when we come in we'll have to start getting ready to leave, but you guys did such a great job on our project today that I will not only give you an extra five minutes of recess tomorrow morning but I will put five more marbles in our jar." She told the kids who were hustling to get their jackets on and line up.
"Yay thanks Mrs. Stokes." The kids said happily.
"You're welcome." She said as she got in the front of the line so she could take the kids outside.
"Mrs. Stokes, can that guy play kickball with us?" One of the little boys in the front of the line asked as he pointed at Nick.
Jackie chuckled "If he wants to." She told the little boy with a smile.
Jackie stood in front of the line, waiting for all the kids to be quiet.
"Boys, we can't go out until you two are quiet." Jackie told two boys in the back of the line that were turned around talking to each other instead of facing forward with their voices off like everyone else was.
"Sorry Mrs. Stokes." Both boys said as they immediately turned around and quit yapping to one another.
"Ok let's go." Jackie said, satisfied that all the kids were finally quiet.
Once they were outside the same little boy that asked Jackie if Nick could play kickball came up to Nick and said "Come on, come play with us, um, um, what's your name again?"
"Mr. Stokes." Nick answered with a smile.
"Hey that's the same name as our teacher." The little boy replied.
"Imagine that." Nick said with a smile as started to follow the little boy so he could play with the kids.
"Nicky." Jackie whispered.
"Yeah?" Nick asked as he turned around to face her.
"Don't get hurt." Jackie warned him.
Nick laughed "I'll be careful." He told her.
"Come on Mrs. Stokes, you can play with us too." Another little boy who was also going to go play kickball said.
"Oh sweetie thank you but I can't, I have to watch all the kids, but you guys have fun." She told him.
"Ok." The little boy said with a shrug as he went to join Nick and the others who were playing kickball.
Jackie let the kids have about ten minutes to play before she blew her whistle.
After they had gone in Jackie told them to sit in their seats. She then went back to the marble jar and dropped five marbles into the jar just like she had promised the kids she would.
She then told the kids to get ready to go home for the day.
After all the kids had everything they needed to go home she lined them back up so she could walk them outside to meet their parents.
All the kids were quiet in line, except one little boy in the back of the line, only he wasn't talking to his friends, he was talking to Nick.
Jackie gave Nick a look of disbelief.
He caught her look and realized she was waiting for him and the little boy to be quiet. He put his finger to his lips and whispered "Mrs. Stokes is waiting for us to be quiet."
"Oh, sorry Mrs. Stokes." The little boy said as he turned around immediately.
"Sorry." Nick mouthed.
Jackie tried not to laugh.
Once all the kids had gone home with their parents Nick walked back inside the school with Jackie so he could help her clean up her room for the day.
"Nicholas, do I have to write a note home to your mother saying you are having trouble being quiet in line?" Jackie asked, her voice dripping with mock sternness when she and Nick had reentered her classroom.
"Please don't, I'll get grounded." He told her with a grin.
Jackie laughed as she started straightening up her room.
What a fun day it had been, and the class project had been a huge success.
The End!