Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1_2 Days - Megan Mcdonald [5]
Judy passed a note to Frank, who passed it to Rocky.
Rocky passed a note to Frank, who passed it to Judy.
Judy was about to pass another note when Mr. Todd told the class it was time for the big scoop. She sat up straight as a pencil.
Mr. Todd was drawing a map on the board. Judy hoped a map was not the big surprise.
“Class, we’re about to start a whole new way to learn geography,” Mr. Todd announced. “Class 3T is going to go around the world in eight days!”
“What? Huh?” everybody asked.
“We’re going to work with Ms. Valentine’s class —”
“Yippee!” said Judy. “That’s Amy Namey’s class.” Rocky and Frank frowned at her.
“We’ll make a big map like the one on the board and put it up in the hallway between our classrooms. Then we’ll trace the journey of First Around-the-World Woman Reporter Nellie Bly. We’ll learn about all the countries she visited.”
“Did she go to Italy?” asked Rocky. “My grandma’s from there.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Todd.
“Did she go to Disneyland?” asked Bradley.
Mr. Todd chuckled. “I’m afraid not.” He wrote the names of eleven countries on the board.
“We’ll get into small groups, and each group will take a country. Here are some things you might try to find out about for each country.”
Mr. Todd pointed to the board:
“We have only eight days to get all the way around the world, so we’re going to have to work fast. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to do.”
“Can we bring in something real from that country?” asked Jessica Finch. “I have a nesting doll from Russia.”
“I’m sorry. That’s not one of the countries we’re studying,” said Mr. Todd.
“I have money from Italy,” said Rocky. “And some carbone dolce. It’s black rock candy that looks like coal.”
“Ooh, I have tea from London,” said Judy. “That’s in England. And I have a cuckoo clock in my bedroom that my grandma Lou brought me all the way from Germany.”
“Tell you what,” said Mr. Todd. “These are all good ideas, but let’s wait until you know what country you’ll be working on.”
“Is this the big scoop?” asked Frank. “Geography?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Todd. “I’m afraid it is. But I haven’t told you the best part. We are going to kick off our Around-the-World tour with . . . a movie.”
“Movie! What movie?” somebody asked.
“You mean we get to watch a movie in school?” asked Frank.
“Do we get to turn out the lights and have popcorn?” asked Jessica Finch.
“We’ll see,” said Mr. Todd. “The movie is Around the World in Eighty Days!”
“Yippee!” everybody yelled.
That afternoon, the whole class got to go to Ms. Valentine’s room and watch the movie. Judy sat on the floor next to Amy Namey. They ate blue popcorn (made from blue corn!) and laughed at this inventor guy named Mr. Fogg, who was trying to fly and flew right through a painting! And he was trying to race around the world in eighty days and some old guys kept calling him a nincompoop!
After the movie, Judy went back to class and got into her small group with Rocky and Frank and Jessica Finch. They chose Italy for their project. They went to the library to look up some books on Italy.
“What’s red, white, and green all over?” asked Rocky.
“A Christmas elf?” asked Jessica.
“A pizza with green peppers?” asked Frank.
“No! The flag of Italy,” said Rocky.
“Hey, that’s funny!” said Judy. “We could start off with a joke like that.”
“We could dress up in red, white, and green,” said Jessica.
“Yeah!” said Judy. “I love dressing up crazy!”
“Okay,” said Rocky and Frank.
“Let’s definitely have pizza,” said Rocky.
“Yeah, pizza!” said Frank.
“Let’s think of something different,” said Judy. “Everybody already knows about pizza.”
“So? Pizza’s the best!” said Rocky. “Italy without the pizza is like Judy without the Moody!”
“How about a pizza spelling test?” asked Jessica Finch. “We could spell words that are on pizza, like P-E-P-P-E-R-O-N-I.”
“Not you, too,” said Judy.
“We could spell other stuff besides just pizza words,” said Jessica. “Like spaghetti, parmesan, and P-I-N-O-C-C-H-I-O.”
“Not even grownups can spell the word Pinocchio,” said Rocky.