What I Remember Most From Grade School...

I can't tell you what scores I got on my state achievement tests. But I can tell you what I remember most from grade school. 

PreK 

Nap time on my purple cot! 
Only I never was able to fully fall asleep. I would "fake sleep" until I "woke up" to a snack at the edge of my cot. Until the very LAST day at AppleTree Academy before the big move to Statesboro. I went into a deep sleep that day! I also woke up to...

Tootsie pops!
My mom came to pick me up from PreK to say our goodbyes. She did some work for the PreK, like mowing the grass and helping out around the school! So my PreK teachers gave me us a "Goodbye Gift." All I remember is that is contained the BIGGEST bouquet of tootsie pops I had ever seen. I want to say, there was a note saying "It SUCKS that you're leaving! We will miss you!" But then again, I may still be dreaming from my nap that day...
 

1st Grade

Counting to 1,000!
Here's the deal. Counting to 1,000 in 1st grade is a big deal. Such a big deal, that if you did it, Mrs. (Star) Anderson would buy you your all time FAVORITE CANDY BAR (not the snack size candy...a FULL candy bar) and SODA from the school's vending machines. To make this happen, she had 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper with 100 squares on each sheet. You would have to take 10 sheets and write 1-100 on one sheet, 101-200 on the next....all the way until you got to 1,000! She didn't allow you to work on this during class, so I came early and stayed late. And let me tell you, I don't remember what candy/drink I got, but I do remember that my folder was FULL of 10 complete sheets. I had COUNTED to 1,000 for the first time in my life! 

Bone in my chicken!
We had this star chart in 1st grade, where if you ate your entire meal, you were given a star. When you got so many stars, you got some type of prize. This was smart on my teacher's part, because it kids to try more foods they wouldn't necessary eat. Until.....I had a BONE in my BONELESS chicken nuggets. I remember running up to Mrs. Anderson and exclaiming, "I have a bone in my chicken! I want don't want to eat the bone, but I will do it if it means I get my star for the day." She gave me the star. And no, I didn't eat the bone :)

Love Knows No Difference!
His name was Kyler Aubrey. I don't remember why he was in a wheelchair, because it didn't matter to us. My sister was his best friend. They were in the same grade. Oftentimes, we were on the playground at the same together. On the playground at Sallie Z, there was a red swing that had a back to it, and a seatbelt. We would push him on the swing and make him smile. Everyone at our elementary school was able to experience the swings, no matter if you were "handicapped" or not. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. 

Side Note: I just did some Google Search creeping on Kyler. He's seems to be doing very well, and smiling bigger than ever! This makes my heart melt.

Check out this video of him here:
http://wjcl.com/2014/09/24/special-friendship-formed-on-the-links/

Young Author Award!
I won an award for writing a piece, called "When I was a baby..." I spent a LOT of time crafting a piece that I thought the judges would enjoy! My teacher told us what kind of stories the judges liked to read, so I LISTENED to her. I came in 2nd place. The boy who came in 1st place, wrote a story about how he was going to become President one day. 
 

2nd Grade 

Becoming a Lady!
Mrs. Bennett, oh Mrs. Bennet. She put me in my place. I would come into the door of her classroom, turn my desk chair around so the back was facing forward, and wrap my legs around it. She told me, "Ashley, ladies don't sit in their chair like that, do they?" I definitely learned how to act like a lady, courtesy of Mrs. Bennett.

It's OK to be different!
Right around Easter, we had a coloring contest. I thought for SURE mine would win. I did that thing, where I would press on my crayon very hard around the black outline of the bunny. And then lightly shade in the middle. I had picked out the EXACT colors that a rabbit would appear. It was perfect. Until the person who won, had colored her bunny rabbit PURPLE. "Bunnies aren't purple," I thought. And it was in that moment, that I realized it's OK to be different, and to think outside of the crayon "box."

Show And Tell! 
Many people brought stuffed animals to show-and-tell. Not me. I caught a toad in our Georgia backyard. And I took it to class "Show and Tell." Talk about a totally "hopping" topic!  

3rd Grade 

S-p-a-g-h-e-t-t-i 
Yes, it was in the 3rd grade, that I learned how to spell spaghetti. My teacher wrote the lunch menu on the board every day. When it was pasta day, she would always sound "spaghetti" out for us to hear. To this day, I still sound it out when I write: "Spag" and "hetti."

Holidays Around the World 
Savannah was diverse. A melting pot if you will. For this reason, many people came from different cultures and celebrated different traditions. Before winter break, we had a "Holidays Around the World" party where we crafted various ornaments and played different games to learn about how people celebrate Christmas, or other holiday traditions, around the world. 

Mom's Got Your Back
The glorious part of going to the same school that your mom teaches at, is that when you need lunch money, mom's got your back! 

4th Grade 

Taking Care of Pets
In 4th Grade, I had moved back to Ohio and was placed in "Huthstur's" class. This meant Mr. Huth and Mrs. Sturgill were my teachers -- but they team taught in a GINORMOUS classroom! This wasn't any classroom, it was a zoo. Literally! We had all kinds of animals in class, from fish to turtles to ferrets to hermit crabs to birds and snakes. It was this year, that I witnessed for the first time, a snake swallow a mouse. Whole. Yep, just gulped him right down. And I watched it travel through his "tummy"....Talk about finally figuring out what the "Circle of Life" truly means. 

September 11th 
This is a day I wish I could forget. What a confusing day for a 4th Grader. Old enough to know something isn't right, but not old enough to grasp the concept of what a terrorist attack truly means. To have the 2 classroom TVs permanently turned on, to see teachers in a panic, to watch your classmates trickle out of the school one-by-one as parent's took them to safety. It will always be a day, that I will never forget.

Writing in COLOR
Every morning we would have to write an entry in our journal. We were usually given a prompt to write about, unless it was Free Write Friday. One AM in particular, Mr. B, our Principal, came into the classroom and told use to fill our journals with colorful language. Use adjectives to describe nouns with glowing detail.  

HARRY POTTER DAY!
Did you school have Harry Potter Day? Ours did. The best part was seeing Mr. Huth dress as Hagrid and Mr. B as Dumbledore. What a magical day, at Hogwarts! 

 

5th Grade 

Bindis from India
My 5th grade language arts teacher was originally from India. That year, her father was very sick so she took a good amount of time to go overseas and visit with him. When she came back, she brought all of her students bindis to wear on our forehead. She also showed us photographs of her at Taj Mahal, and how it's a mark of respect to remove your shoes before entering this beautiful, mausoleum. Learning about other cultures from our teacher, who lived there, was simply amazing. 

The "Talk" 
This was the year of the "Talk." Yes, the infamous talk where you learn about your body, and how it works. The entire grade splits into boys vs. girls. Boys go to the cafeteria. Girls go to the gym. You watch the videos. You see demonstrations. You ask questions...And you become terrified for the day when "It" comes. 

6th Grade 

Caravans
The COOLEST part about 6th grade was Caravans. Hands Down. Caravans was an adventure around the world, that taught us about World Geography. It was an INTERACTIVE game, where we would learn about country's history, their flag, currency, population…anything and everything! The class was broken into teams, and we would travel the world to earn points! 

Using Your Dinner Manners 
Every year, the ultimate 6th Grade Field Trip (though there were many), was going to LaComedia Dinner Theatre. This was the most anticipated trip of Elementary School, because you got the ENTIRE day out of the classroom. You dressed real fancy. And you could take a date! A date in 6th grade = a big deal! But…before you went…your class had to go through Mr. B's (principal), "dinner etiquette" class. During this class, we learned that the gentleman should pull out the chair for the lady before sitting down themselves. We learned that you should start on the outside and work your way in, in terms of which silverware to use when. We learned to place your napkin on your lap when you were eating. Talk about dinner manners!  

Cleaning up the Art Room 
Our class started a paint war during art class. This was a big OOPSIES. We were creating these paintings, where we would literally "fling" paint onto our canvas to mix colors and create a masterpiece. Only…our class got out of hand, and before long paint was "flung" across the room. On the ceilings. On the walls. It was everywhere. After our principal came to our classroom and told us he was disappointed in us, among other thing. We were the "A" class and knew better. Recess was no longer that week…Instead, all 25 of us would be in the art room cleaning up our mess, and more. 

Geocaching 
Looking back on this, it still amazes me that I knew about geocaching before smart phones ever existed. My math teacher, Mr. Malicote, was a BIG adventurer, and he would always come into class telling us a new story about the adventures he took. He hunted, he climbed mountains, and he geocached. I remember him telling us about using the latitude/longitude points and a compass to navigate to these Geocaches. 

So….that's it! Those are the highlights from my childhood in the classroom. To all teachers out there, don't let the tests weigh you down! Remember, your students will remember the memories. Your experiences you share with them. Not the test questions/answers.