A New Student

     There is a school called Under the Sea Elementary that is like a seafloor full of starfish students and teachers.  The school looks like a sea of red stars on a brown carpet floor.  Everyone that goes to this school gets along very well until the new student arrives.  Oliver the octopus walks into Under the Sea Elementary and he looks very different from all the other students and teachers.  He has eight long, lanky arms and he is the only rusty orange student in the whole school, everyone else is vibrant red.  Oliver can tell right away that he does not fit in and he feels very sad about this.  Some of the starfish call him mean names like “weirdo” or “eight arms.” No one wants to play with Oliver out on the playground at recess because he is different and they think he would not know how to play starfish games.  He does not fit in the swings and it takes him a long time to climb up the slide.  Oliver wants to move back to his old school and play with his old friends until Ms. Smith brings up an interesting fact to the students.  She asks them to look at the back of their arms and tell her what they see.  Sally the starfish raises her hand and says “I have suckers on the back of my arms.”

            Oliver slowly raises his hand and says, “I have suckers on the back of my arms too.  We have something in common.”  The whole class looks at Oliver as he shows them the back of his rusty orange arms.  He was so happy he finally felt like he fit in with the rest of the students at his school.  At recess that afternoon Sally asks Oliver, “Will you push me in the swing?” 

Oliver blushed and replied, “I would be glad to, since I have eight arms I can push you really high.”  From that day on Oliver was a hit out on the playground and everyone wanted to play with him.   

Moral: It’s okay to look different because we all have something in common.