Izzie was jumping around the gym. She was pretending to be her pet frog, Gurpy. "Gurp. Gurp," she called.
It was the second-to-last day of school. That meant it was also the second-to-last day of Kids Central.
"Attention, frogs and race-car drivers," Miss Shelly called. "We are ready to make today's craft—tissue-paper flowers."
Bobby pulled a dirty tissue out of his pocket. "I've got a tissue right here! I just blew my nose on it."
"Not that kind of tissue, Bobby," Miss Shelly said. "We're going to use clean wrapping tissue." She pointed to the colored tissue paper on the table.
"Gurp. I mean, great," Izzie said. Nina giggled.
"You kids are too silly today," Miss Shelly said, shaking her head. "Okay, let's make our flowers. First fold one end of your tissue paper about three centimeters. Then flip the tissue over."
"Next take the same edge you folded before, and fold it three centimeters the other way. Then flip it back over and fold again. Keep repeating this until you have folded the entire tissue."
"Now wrap one end of your pipe cleaner around the middle of your folded tissue," Miss Shelly said. "Then carefully pull apart the folds and . . . you’ve got a pretty flower!"
"This is easy," Izzie said. She was making a green flower.
"I'm going to make another one!" Izzie reached for another piece of tissue paper.
"Attack!" Bobby yelled as he jabbed Jason with his paper flower.
"Hey!" Jason grabbed his flower and poked Bobby back.
"Boys, these are flowers, not swords," Miss Shelly said sharply.
"Miss Shelly, can you help me? I can't pull my tissue apart," Nina said.
While Miss Shelly helped Nina, Izzie made three more green flowers. When she finished, she tied all of the ends of the pipe cleaners together. Then she made four more flowers and tied those ends together too.
"Look!" Izzie called out. "I'm a frog princess." She was wearing a crown of green flowers.
"And you're my frog prince!" She dropped another crown over Jason's head. "Gurp!"
Jason chased Izzie around the gym. "I'm not your frog prince!" he yelled.
"Ooh, Izzie and Jason, sitting in a tree," Bobby began to chant.
Miss Shelly stood up. "Izzie, Jason, Bobby. What is going on?"
Izzie and Jason stopped running. Bobby stopped chanting. They stared at Miss Shelly.
"We were going to go outside for our treat today. But I don't know if you three deserve it," their teacher said. She was serious.
"I was thinking about Gurpy," Izzie said. "And I thought, what if Gurpy became a frog prince and I became a princess? So I made Jason be a frog prince. Sorry."
Miss Shelly sighed. "Okay. Let's clean up and go outside."
When it was time to go, Izzie tapped Miss Shelly on the arm. "Here." She handed Miss Shelly a bunch of tissue flowers. "We decided that you deserve the treat today."
"Gurp!" said Miss Shelly. "I mean, thank you, Frog Princess!"
Things you'll need:
- colored wrapping tissue paper, cut into 21 cm squares
- pipe cleaners
Do it Yourself:
1) Fold one edge of the tissue paper over 3 cm.
2) Flip the tissue over and fold the same edge the other way 3 cm.
3) Keep flipping and folding until the whole tissue is folded.
4) Wrap one end of a pipe cleaner around the middle of the tissue.
5) Carefully unfold and pull apart the tissue into a beautiful flower. (Or continue making more flowers. Tie the ends of the pipe cleaner together to make a crown.)
6) Give your flower to someone special!