Aina pulled a cotton shirt from her bag and held it toward the cotton plant picture. “Did this shirt grow here?” she asked.
The classroom fan whirred above. The teacher pointed to cotton plants and said, “Let’s investigate where everyday things come from.”
Aina pressed cotton between her fingers. Then she tore a sheet of paper. “Cotton comes from a plant. Paper comes from trees!”
“Listen to that crackle,” said the teacher. She led the class outside to search for more materials.
Near the recycling bin, Aina spotted a plastic bottle. She rolled it across the pavement—rattle, roll, rattle!
The teacher explained, “People make plastic from materials taken from Earth.” Aina tapped a metal spoon. Ping!
“Metal comes from rocks underground,” said the teacher. Aina looked at the spoon, then at the ground beneath her shoes.
Back in class, Aina placed the shirt, paper, bottle, and spoon on four trays. Everything waited in a neat row.
Suddenly, the bottle popped upright. The spoon spun, and paper flew everywhere like tiny white birds!
Aina laughed and chased the pages. She gathered the shirt, paper, bottle, and spoon, then sorted them again.
Aina gently folded the shirt and stacked the paper. The cotton looked soft, and the paper lay smooth.
She put the bottle in the recycling bin and returned the spoon to the lunch table. Aina smiled at the everyday things in their proper places.
