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Time Travel in Fourth Grade

By Jenny Hogan
2022

Science is the study of the world around us. A science fair is an event, and sometimes a contest, in which
students present their findings about something they studied. In this short story, a fourth grade narrator, or the
person who tells the story, travels in time to help his future self. As you read, take notes on the narrator’s
actions.

[1] I’m in the fourth grade, and I have four rules that I live
my life by. Number one: all vegetables taste better
with ketchup. Two: if your mom asks you what you
did in school that day, say anything other than “not
much.” Three: stay away from girls. (They’re trouble.
Especially Kathy Hanson.) And four: never, ever have
anything to do with time travel….

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At the time, it was only a theory I’d been working on,
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but the possibilities were endless. With time travel, I
could cause my granddad not to spill that milkshake
on Nana at the malt shop, or Dad not to spill that latte
on Mom in the coffee shop. That would prevent them
from meeting and cause me not to be born. Or
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there’s the bigger effect: messing up the evolution of
life on Earth as we know it. I might return from my
trip to find I have sixty toes on each foot. Plus, I get a
little carsick going over fifty miles per hour — I could "Untitled" by Nancy Poydar is used with permission.
never travel faster than the speed of light. Anyway, I
absolutely avoided time travel at all costs. That is, I did until a few days ago.

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You see, I had a small problem: the fourth-grade science fair. I had spent weeks perfecting my erupting
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volcano, made from plaster of Paris, yogurt, Spackle, and Alka-Seltzer, with floating graham-cracker tectonic
plates on a molasses lava flow. But the night before the science fair, when I was testing the lava flow and the
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volcanic missiles (raisins), my family curse kicked in: I knocked the whole thing off the desk, and it shattered! It
had taken me weeks to make. How could I possibly redo it in time for the fair in the morning?

1. Theory (noun) an idea about something

2. something that may happen
3. changes that take place over time
4. to burst suddenly; to explode
5. Plaster (noun) a paste of sand, lime, and water that hardens when it dries
6. Shatter (verb) to break into small pieces

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I sat there in despair... Then I saw it. My window lit up and got sort of wavy with the world outside spinning in a
rainbow of colors. According to my theory, these were perfect conditions for time travel. I wasn’t going
anywhere near it. Then, scribbled words appeared on the misty windowpane. Words in my own hand-writing:
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Hurry up! When you get an invitation from yourself, you pretty much have to answer it, even if it’s to travel
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through time. I opened the window and was sucked out into the vortex.

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[5] I landed on my rear end back in my room, but it looked totally different… and a teenage version of me stood
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there, panicking.

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“I’ve been through a dozen parallel universes looking for you,” he said. “You have to rebuild your volcano
tonight! You have to win that science fair. Your future depends on it. My future. Our future.”

Sigh. My head was already beginning to hurt.

“Why, exactly?” I asked my older self.

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“The Tesla Science Scholarship,” he gulped.

[10] “They don’t give that out until high school,” I said. “I’m in the fourth grade.”

“It’s the Butterfly Effect,” he explained breathlessly. “One flap of a butterfly’s wings affects the weather on the
other side of the world. Everything is connected… And if you don’t win that science fair, then you’ll — I’ll — never
go on to win the scholarship! Now, let’s get that volcano rebuilt. It’s got to be better than the first one. That
never would have won.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me.”

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My teenage self got out a chemistry set and put it in front of me. Then he crossed his arms and waited.

[15] “Aren’t you going to help me?” I asked in disbelief.

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“That would be cheating,” he said. “You have to make it yourself.”

7. Despair (noun) the state of feeling hopeless

8. Invitation (noun) the act of asking someone to come somewhere or do something
9. whirling air that people and objects can get sucked into
10. a new or different form of something or someone
11. Panic (verb) to feel a sudden terror
12. other worlds where different forms of the same people live
13. money given to students to help pay for school
14. the study of what makes up objects in the world
15. Cheat (verb) to break the rules

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 “But you’re me. I’m you, remember?”

“Cross-dimensional cheating, but cheating nonetheless.”

I worked late into the night to rebuild the volcano. I ate a lot of graham crackers and raisins. When I finally
finished, the volcano was better than my original: it was perfect.

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[20] I lay back, exhausted. “So what do I do after I win the scholarship?”

He opened the window. “You get over your fourth rule. You’ll see. Who do you think makes time travel possible,
anyway?”

“Do you — I — still hate girls?” I asked.

“Nah — you grow out of that. Some of them are pretty nice.”

“What about ketchup?”

[25] “Are you crazy? We never give up ketchup!”

And with that, he sent me back out into the vortex with my new volcano model, pushing me back into the past.

He must have pushed too far because before I knew it, I was stumbling into the cave of a surprised
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Neanderthal family. (You see what I mean about time travel?) But before I had a chance to accidentally stomp
out some ancestor of the tomato family, causing ketchup never to be invented, I was pulled back into the
vortex.

“Sorry!” came my teenage voice from far away.

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Then I was plopped back into my room and found my fourth-grade world intact, including my No Girls Allowed
sign. It was good to be home again.

[30] My volcano won the science fair. No surprise, huh? But how did I go on to invent time travel by high school?

And what was that thing about butterfly wings? That night, my window lit up again. Before I could even decide
not to open it, it slid up, and my teenage head popped in.

“What do you want?” I asked suspiciously.

“Just checking up on things. I wanted to test a new theory or two. And I forgot to tell you — be nicer to Kathy
Hanson. Our future depends on it!”

16. Exhausted (adjective) feeling very tired or worn out

17. early forms of humans
18. whole; not damaged or harmed

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 "Time Travel in Fourth Grade" by Jenny Hogan, Spider, © by Cricket Media, Inc. Reproduced with permission. All
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Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

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 Discussion Questions
Directions: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared to share
your original ideas in a class discussion.

1. In the story, the narrator's feelings about time travel change from nervous to curious. How would
you feel about traveling through time? Would you want to travel through time? Why or why not?

2. The narrator travels to the future and, briefly, to the past. If you could time travel, where in time
would you want to go? Why? What would you want to do there?

3. The narrator's teenage self refuses to help the narrator with their science project because it would
be cheating. Do you agree with this decision? Why or why not?