When the teacher decides to paint their classroom. the students have their own opinions about the new wall color. But what happens when each child tries to have it his or her own way? Let’s find out!
Make your child the main character. Replace this (_____) with your child’s name.
Too Many Painters
It was a busy morning at Green Leaf Valley School.
_____ was cutting and pasting.
Princessa Portland was writing a story.
And Bazzo Bloomfold was measuring shapes.
Before the bell rang for lunchtime, Mr. Learnalot addressed the class.
“Well, boys and girls,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about our classroom. I think it could use a bit of cheering up, don’t you?”
The children looked around at the plain white walls and nodded excitedly. _____ already had an idea of which color he wanted.
Mr. Learnalot continued, “So, as we want a nice calm space and the school is named after green leaves, I was thinking it should be…
“YELLOW!” called out _____, waving his hand in the air.
“PINK!” shouted Princessa Portland, grinning from ear to ear.
“BLUE!” yelled Bazzo Bloomfold, jumping to his feet.
“RED!” squealed Rosenza Reed, looking around for support from the others.
Mr. Learnalot frowned. “Everybody, please calm down. It seems we have a bit of a decision to make, doesn’t it?”
What a dilemma. Everyone had a different idea for the new classroom color. Mr. Learnalot thought for a moment.
And then he announced his idea. “We will vote for the color,” he told the students.
He handed out little scraps of paper. The color with the most votes would be the one they painted the room.
Quietly, the children each wrote down the color of their choice.
They dropped their papers into Mr. Learnalot’s hat.
_____ crossed his fingers for luck and stared intently at the pile of papers.
After a minute of counting – and recounting – there was a winner.
“The winner is…” Mr. Learnalot said, “…Yellow.”
_____ jumped up and cheered in celebration.
But then, the teacher continued, “And pink. And blue. And red. And green. Each color has two votes.”
The class groaned. Nobody wanted a classroom with so many different bright colors. It was bound to give them all a headache!
As Mr. Learnalot tidied up that afternoon, he made a decision. He was the teacher, and he would have the final say. So, green it was.
The next morning, he arrived at school bright and early to paint the first coat of green on the classroom walls.
Looking around at the natural, soothing color, he nodded happily. He felt sure that the children would like it when they saw it too.
Not long after, Mr. Learnalot left the room to make a cup of morning tea.
_____ snuck in with a tin of bright yellow paint.
He was followed closely by Princessa Portland, clutching a tin of bubblegum-pink paint…
And she was met by Bazzo Bloomfold, carrying a heavy blue tin.
Last of all, in came Rosenza Reed, and she had a big tin of red paint with her.
The students looked at one another, and in their determination, each child began rushing to cover the walls in their own chosen color.
_____ yellow was happy, and Princessa’s pink was pretty.
Bazzo’s blue was calming, and Rosenza’s red was fun.
But as each color was layered with the next, overlapping and mixing, splashing and spraying and slopping and dripping…
…It all merged into a rather muddy, dull brown color
The children looked sadly at the room. Dean sighed. Now the walls were even more dark and dull than before.
When Mr. Learnalot stepped in, his jaw fell open in shock. He could not believe what he was seeing.
The children all looked down at their feet, ashamed of their behavior. They knew they would be in trouble for this.
After a moment of confused silence, Mr. Learnalot laughed. “But nobody even voted for brown!” he exclaimed.
_____ explained what had happened, while all his other classmates listened along.
“I see…” Mr. Learnalot said slowly. “I think I understand.” He tapped his foot and scratched his chin while in thought.
“We will take another vote,” he told the class. “Raise your hand to vote for green. Keep it lowered to vote for brown.”
Every hand in the room shot up into the air. The walls were much too dark for anyone to read or write in there!
“Excellent! Green is a great color for a learning space. And I think we’ve also learned something about making decisions too!”
“There can be such a thing as too many people involved in decision making.” _____ said with his new-found wisdom.
Princessa, Bazzo and Rosenza all nodded in agreement.
“Well, I’m glad we can all agree on THAT,” laughed Mr. Learnalot.
