Yesterday, after I left early for a doctors appointment, J and E (who were sitting out during PE because of injuries) found a stray tennis ball, drew a face on it, and named it Benington.
“They told the other kids that he was a new student,” Kim explained this morning. “And it was the perfect example of how rumors get started, because then all of them were asking if we were actually getting a new student.”
Sometime between yesterday and today, Benington has gained: a bed, a pillow, a blanket, and even a tiny Benington-sized book about his life. There is a poster hanging now in our classroom with a photo of him and the names of all the girls and their relationship to him (because, of course, they adopted him).
It’s moments like these when I see most clearly how fifth graders live in the hallway between adolescence and childhood. Last week, E was talking about her crush and J was showing off TikTok dances. This week, they’ve become the adoptive parents of a tennis ball!
Between Thought and Expression 
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