After lunch, the new teacher tells the class they will stay inside. She asks them to take out their workbooks.

Finally, we are doing some proper work! thinks Jack.

‘I want you to write down everything you have learnt today,’ Anna says.

Jack opens his workbook to a new page. He takes out his sharpest pencil. He is not sure they have learnt anything today!

But then, he thinks about the times tables. The twos, fives and tens. He can never usually remember how they go. He begins to hum.

One two is two, two twos are four… Before he even realises what is happening, he has written the whole two times table down.

He tries again with the five times table. One five is five, two fives are ten… Once again, he remembers all of them.

It’s the same with the tens. Soon his whole page is covered with times tables.

Jack is surprised how easily he remembers them all.

He looks up. All his classmates have their heads bent over their workbooks. He has never seen Sam and Benny concentrating so hard. Rebecca and Lola are concentrating too.

Everyone is humming quietly to themselves. Jack giggles. It sounds a little like being in a classroom of bees!

He looks to the front of the classroom. Anna is sitting at her desk. She looks up at Jack and smiles. Jack smiles back.

Having a new teacher isn’t so bad after all, he thinks. He still misses Ms Walton. Anna is totally different to her.

But maybe Anna can teach us other things in this funny way she has?

Jack opens up a new page of his workbook.

He begins to write down the life cycle of the caterpillar.

And before he can stop himself, Jack is humming another song.