"Mr. M!" Little Riley said, running over to me with her little ponytails bouncing as she ran.

"Be careful, Sweetheart. What's going on?" I asked her.

"Max scribbled on my work!" She said, her eyes watering as she pouted at me.

"Max, come up here for a minute." I called gently.

Max came up to the front of the room and I kneeled down to reach their level.

"What's going on, why are you scribbling on Riley's paper?" I asked Max.

"She was being mean to me." He said with a pout.

"Riley is that true?" I asked the little girl.

"I just said his pencil was too short and it doesn't have an eraser anymore!" She said defensively.

"That's not true! I put the star eraser on it! And it's not short!" Max defended his pencil.

"Alright. Alright. Now, Max, even if she said that stuff, you shouldn't scribble on her paper, and Riley try not to say anything that might hurt someone's feelings, ok?" I said gently, trying to calm them both down.

Little Riley burst into uncontrollable tears.

"Aw, Sweetheart. Don't cry." I said.

"B-b-ut... I di-idn't me-me-ean to be-e-e mea-ean..." She sobbed dramatically, coughing at the end of her cries.

"I think Max forgives you, Riley. It's ok." I said.

"No-o-o-ooh!" She sobbed, running into my chest and clutching my shirt.

It didn't take a genius to see that this wasn't about being mean anymore.

"Max, do you forgive Riley?" I asked him.

"Yes. It's ok, Riley. I'm sorry I scribbled on your paper." He said to her, looking very guilty about it now.

She continued to sob into my shirt and this was only half an hour into their arrival here.

"That's so kind of you, Max. It's alright. Go run along and finish your drawing, I think Riley is upset about something else." I told him and he nodded, running off to his chair.

"Hey, Riley, Sweetheart? What's wrong?" I asked gently.

She aggressively rubbed her eyes with her knuckles and wiped away her tears.

"Hey, be gentle with those pretty eyes." I told her.

"Mr. M, can I have a apple or a blueberry?" She questioned.

"What did you eat for breakfast, Riley?" I asked her.

"Nothing. Daddy and Mommy had a fight." She told me, breaking my heart. Her mother had called and let me know that things were tough at home for Riley since her parents were going through a divorce at the moment. So I understood and assured her that I'd make sure she was alright at school at least.

"Let's go visit that breakfast corner, how does that sound?" I asked her.

"Yes, I wanna have cereal bags and I want to have a granola bar and chocolate milk." She told me.

"At your service, my kind little lady... let's get this belly full and happy." I smiled, leading her over to the breakfast corner and letting her pick out some food from the stuff I'd bought this morning on my way in.

"Alrighty... who wasn't quite happy with their breakfast this morning?" I asked the class.

Hands shot up all around the room.

"Alright. Whoever wants to come get something from the breakfast corner, come line up in the breakfast line. If you're full and not feeling like something to eat, you can continue your drawings." I told my little students.

Ten more kids lined up and I let them pick some food one by one. They knew themselves, they'd pick just enough to satisfy them. I never had problems with a kid starting and not finishing anything. I tried to get them some fresh fruit and some healthy options, I wanted the best for these tiny little ones. They were only in primary, after all.

"Alright. Everyone finish eating and finish your drawings for me and then gather in the talking circle." I said to my students.

Slowly, the students trickled into the talking circle.

Once they were all there, I went and sat with them. Riley climbed into my lap and she rested there. I didn't have the heart to remove her.

"Alright. Who remembers what we learned yesterday?" I asked the class.

"About plants?" Mackenzie asked me.

"Yeah, about plants." I said.

Mackenzie and Ryan raised their hands.

"Alright, Mackenzie can go first and Ryan if she misses anything you can add it once she's done.

"Uhm... you said that the sun has energy... and the plants use the sunlight to make the energy into chemicals. But it's not like bad chemicals, it's good chemicals.... And they use the air that we breathe out to help them. They use that and the energy from the sun to make good chemicals. So when we eat the plants we get the good chemicals and they give us energy." Mackenzie explained.

"Wow, that was an amazing explanation, Kenzie! Ryan do you remember anything you want to add?" I asked.

I saw the little blonde girl get very happy that she'd given a good explanation.

"I remember that we breathe in oxy-ox-oxygen and then we breathe out carbon di-di-dioxide.... But plants take carbon dioxide and do what Mackenzie said and then they give us oxygen... and so we can breathe it. And that's why we shouldn't cut down so many trees and we should be nice to plants." The little boy added.

"Yes! Amazing! You even remembered the hard names!" I cheered.

"Now, who remembers what the chemicals that can give us energy are? The ones that the plants make?" I asked the class.

"Uhm.... Is it sugars?" Riley said from my lap.

"Yes! Riley is right! Plants make sugars by using the carbon dioxide in the air and the light from the sun! Good job Riley, Ryan and Mackenzie!" I cheered, adding little stars to their little personalized boxes that they'd made.

"Who remembers what else we said about food?" I asked the class.

"That we have to eat all kinds?!" Kayla said excitedly.

"Exactly! Why is it so important that we always eat enough food?" I asked them.

"Because plants give us energy! And so when we eat veggies we get energy!" Jesse yelled.

"Exactly! But everything else also gives us energy, we can use that energy to be active and do fun things. If we don't eat enough we don't have enough energy, we get tired and we can get sick." I said, putting a star in the boxes of whoever talked.

"Uhm.... Mister M! Is it true that eating meat makes you stronger?" Flynn asked me.

"It can definitely make you stronger! Eating meat gives you something called protein, and protein helps you build bigger muscles!" I said to them, putting a star in Flynn's box.

"Mister M. Can I ask a question?" Daisy asked me.

"Of course." I said.

"How come it's bad for you to eat lots of candy?" She asked me.

"Because the kind of sugar that candy has in it isn't natural like the kind in our yummy fruits." I told her. "It's fake sugar and it has chemicals in it that aren't good for us. But it also gives us energy much quicker than other foods and then you have too much energy. You can feel sick from too much of it. It's not good to have so much sugar all at once."

"So... what about cookies and stuff?" Daisy asked me.

"Cookies also have that fake sugar in them... But that doesn't mean we can't have any cookies or candy. We can always have dessert. We just can't have too much of it. That's why sometimes your moms and dads will tell you not to have too much candy." I explained.

"And what about when we order pizza and fries and stuff?" Henry asked me.

"When you order pizza and fries from outside. Sometimes those places will put some stuff in the pizzas and fries that isn't very good for you. They put some stuff to make their food taste better so more people buy from it. But it doesn't mean you can't eat out. You just have to make sure not to always eat pizza and fries. Sometimes you can have some tasty chicken or a homemade burger." I said to them.

"Too much food talk!" Ella said.

"Are you getting hungry?" I chuckled, adding stars to the boxes belonging to everyone who participated.

"Yes!" Ella laughed.

"Why don't we do something fun and cook something tasty for lunch?" I asked them.

"Can we really?!" Flynn asked.

"Of course. We'll make it healthy and tasty." I said to them.

"Alright. Is that why you sent a letter home telling us not to bring lunches today?" Ryan asked.

"Yes." I nodded, looking up to keep track of my one less than social student.

I had been watching little Lily carefully. She was sitting at her desk away from the class. She was drawing on her paper. That was fine. She didn't feel like participating today, I just knew something was wrong though.

"Everyone go wash your hands at the sinks... we'll cook our food in groups and then once it's being cooked, we'll plant some flowers and then we can eat." I told them all.

"Can we have story time while we eat?!" Riley asked, seeming to be in a better mood now.

"Who's coming to the after school club?" I asked them.

Ten of them raised their hands, including Lily.

"Great. I'll need your permission slips, once you've finished washing your hands, bring them to my desk." I said to them.

I watched Lily slowly stand up and go towards the sinks. She calmly washed her hands and then she brought me her permission slip.

"Lily, is everything alright?" I asked her.

She nodded her head, smiling at me.

"You just didn't feel like participating today?" I asked her.

She nodded her head.

"Alright. Can I see the drawing you were working on?" I asked her.

She nodded and ran back to her desk, bringing me her drawing.

Lily never really talked much. She just said a few words the entire year. But she seemed happy that way. She was only four, but very smart. One of the brightest in my class.

I took out all the containers of food I'd brought for our little cooking lesson. I just wanted them to know it wasn't too hard to get a healthy meal. They may not be able to do it on their own yet, but they'll learn something from it, I'm sure.

"They all asked me more questions as they helped me put spices on everything and we made some delicious burgers for lunch. I sent them off to the kind cafeteria lady who promised to cook them for me a few days ago.

I had them all wash their hands of course, then we did some planting. After the planting, we had those delicious burgers and I read them a story while they ate. We did more colouring after that, and I went around and individually read with each of the kids.

When I reached Lily, she was so immersed in the story that she was reading, that I couldn't help but stand back and watch her. I looked down at the little book and saw how the little girl in the story lost her teddy bear at the store. This caused Lily to gasp and I smiled.

"Hey, Lily?" I said gently, making her jump.

"You wanna read to me?" I asked her.

She looked up at me and she shook her head.

"Please?" I asked her.

She shook her head.

"Will you quickly tell me what's happening in the story?" I asked her.

"She lost her teddy in the store." Lily told me.

"Do you remember where she left it?" I asked.

"Next to the strawberries." Lily told me.

"Alright. Continue reading, Sweetheart." I smiled.

Lily was a good reader and a good writer. She was very smart. She just didn't like interacting with others. It was her style, I guess. But I couldn't help but be a little concerned about her.

Soon enough, the bell rang and all the kids either headed home or to the gym for our after school program. I had set up the program for kids whose parents worked longer hours and couldn't pick them up until the evening.

All the kids were sitting around with their friends, but I saw Lily standing alone by a bookshelf. I knew she needed a friend, but she wasn't social enough to make one. I walked over to her and I picked up the book that I saw catching her eye.

"Alrighty. Who wants to listen to a story?" I asked them.

"Can we draw at the same time?!" Riley asked me.

"Yes." I smiled, looking around at all sixty students who were signed up for this program. Luckily there were four other teachers who had volunteered to help me out with it.

Lily sat down beside me, looking over my shoulder at the book I was about to read.

I started reading and she read along with me, but she was struggling to see some of the words over my shoulder, so she ended up climbing into my lap and reading along with me.