The understudy

My monkeys have been teaching me
a rock dance
(says Ruby).

I am going to make the costume
a bit big
in case I am sick.

If I was sick
you could paint your face
and pretend to be me.

You could change your voice
into a beautiful voice
like mine.

I will teach you the moves.
Just bend your knees a bit.
You have to bend your knees anyway!

You can take my replacement.
The costume might be a bit small
but I promise it will fit you comfortably.

Sue's father

Sue is my friend in Nelson
(says Ruby).
May's father used to be a burglar.
She told me that.

But he wanted to be in a family
so he changed his mind.
Most burglars don't do that.

Talk about burglars

We can talk about burglars
(says Ruby).
You can go first and tell me all
you know about burglars.
Then I can go second and tell you
all I know about burglars.
We can tell each other secret things
that only we know about burglars.

Burglars wear black.
Black hat and black scarf
and special boots that make no noise.
Our burglar used a sock on the line
to sweep all the footprints away.
And then he had to wash it
and put it on the clothes line again.

By the ways,
he couldn't hide in our garden
because we don't have bushes.
We just have plants.
By the ways,
he'd have to lie down,
and we would see his feet.

Morning is pink

Morning is pink
(says Ruby).

If it's pink, it's morning.
And if it's not pink,

you have to go back to sleep
for a long, long time.

The 12 little pigs

I'll tell you a story
(says Ruby).
It's about 12 little pigs
so it's probably going to be
a long sort of story
and it's probably not going to finish.

And they grew and grew and grew
and their birthday was every single day.
The birthday that came first was Hannah,
and she went 12, 13, 14, 15 and she stopped.
She was very cheeky when she was one.

And they were all twins, Anna and Belly,
Fatima, Ruby, Dawny, May,
Yayayaya (it's a Maori name for a girl),
May, Megan, Bella and Belle.

And the house was very big,
as tall as a mountain,
the house was wide enough for 20 houses.
The house was full of beds and furniture,
furniture furniture furniture furniture,
just one big room and nowhere to walk.

Sunburn

I was playing outside on the monkey bars
(says Ruby)

and I started to feel
boiling hot.

So I ran into my classroom
to get sunblock on me.

When you get sunburn
you feel it on your face.

Your cheeks start to get painful
and your nose starts to get painful

and your ears start to get painful
and your eyes and your mouth get painful

and even your hair and your bones
inside your body and your brains get painful.

Not the rest of your body.
Just your head.

I tried to do something to stop it:
I flopped my head around

tried and tried and tried and tried and tried
but it would not work.