Nina was quiet on the way to summer camp.
"Don't be sad yet," said her mom.
"You still have eight more hours of camp to enjoy.
Go have fun, honey. Please!"
On the blacktop Mr. Dunn was taping a large, square piece of mural paper to the ground.
"Nina!" Ethan whispered loudly.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to the picnic table.
"You have to sign Mr. Dunn's card."
"Did you bring the watering can?" she asked.
"Yep." Ethan giggled.
"Izzie hid it in the girls' bathroom!"
"All right. Time to start our final project," Mr. Dunn called.
"Today we're making a quilt.
It's like a quilt made of fabric, but ours will be made of paper.
Everyone will design a square.
Your square should show your favorite camp memory.
But we're not really drawing our memories," Mr. Dunn said. "We're—"
"Cutting paper!" Izzie cried.
"Right, Izzie!" said Mr. Dunn.
"We're going to cut shapes out of paper and glue them in our squares."
They all headed to the picnic table to work.
"What memory are you going to pick?" Izzie asked Nina.
Nina sighed. "I don't know.
I liked every day of camp!"
"I'm picking the day we visited the animal shelter," Jason said.
"And I got to see Lucy."
"I want to pick the three-legged races.
But that's going to be hard to show with paper shapes!" Bobby groaned.
Izzie looked at Ethan's friendship bracelet and smiled.
"I know what I'm going to choose."
"What about you, Ethan?" Nina asked.
"I liked when we made kites and flew them at the park," he said.
"Okay, campers. Design your square in pencil first," Mr. Dunn said.
"Then decide what color paper you need.
If you're making a tree," Mr. Dunn went on, "you'll probably need brown paper for the trunk."
"And green paper for the leaves," added Ethan.
"Yep," said Mr. Dunn.
"Does everyone understand what to do?"
Nina understood how to cut the shapes and glue them on her square.
She just couldn't choose the best day at camp.
Was it when they made jam?
Or the sea-breeze wind chimes?
She watched her friends working.
At last she got an idea.
Everyone quietly cut and glued paper.
Before they knew it, they were done.
"Now let's put our squares together on the mural paper!" said Mr. Dunn.
"We'll arrange them in time order."
"Oh my gosh, Nina!"
Izzie gasped when she saw Nina's.
"Nina, that's beautiful!" Mr. Dunn exclaimed.
Nina had carefully cut out tiny people working on even tinier colorful quilt squares.
"I like yours too," Nina told Mr. Dunn.
His square showed the water balloon toss from the first day of camp.
"That's when I first met you guys." Mr. Dunn smiled.
"Definitely the best day of the summer."
At the end of the day, all the parents admired the quilt.
The kids gave Mr. Dunn his card and the watering can.
Everyone thought Mr. Dunn looked a little teary.
"Were you okay today, honey?" Nina's mom asked.
Nina pointed at her square.
"I had the best last day ever!"
[caption_out@