I don't remember a lot from kindergarten other than through pictures but I do remember when we all dressed up like the Cat in the Hat and went to the different classrooms singing a song about the alphabet. My friend David, who was the tallest in the class, was the letter A and my friend Rachel, who was the shortest in the class, was Y and Z, with her sister Ruth.
I do remember my first day of school outfit. A black dress with a white collar and a little apple on the hem. I probably had a bow in my hair. And I definitely have a picture of me in that outfit, getting on the bus. The best part is my rain boots.
There was a pool at Cass Park (which I always equated with Casper the Friendly Ghost) and there was also face-painting there. So I have a picture of me in the pool with face-paint during a class party at the end of the year.
When it was your birthday in Kita Aleph (first grade), we passed out paper flowers to our classmates who put them into the shape of the age you were and then they sang. And then you had a private party with your classmates in the evening and I played the piano for my friends and they were blown away since they had no idea that I could play. Even though I went home every afternoon to practice.
My first day in the Mercav, I played with these little elephant plastic figures in the elevated sand box because the girl they had partnered me up with (Hadasi) had to go sing at a welcome ceremony for the Ethiopian refugees who had just arrived on the kibbutz. Also, another older girl (Gali Ben Ami) had showed me around the Mercav and when she showed me the quiet room. There was a pillow fight going on.
I got REALLY good at spit (the card game) when I was in the mercav. I would take on Ori, one of the staff members, and things would get tense.
Caitlin, Cori and I were in the advanced, advanced, advanced reading group in 2nd grade and often went out to sit in the hallway doing our reading. I remember reading Heidi but I think that was third grade.
Our spelling words in 2nd grade were always words that we misspelled in our story writings. I misspelled Darmouth once and asked my teacher how to spell it. She told me to ask Caleb who was wearing a Dartmouth sweatshirt. Never misspelled Dartmouth since.
I wrote about 15 stories in the 2nd grade. I illustrated some on my own. I was a FAR better writer than illustrator. FAR FAR FAR better.
I had a huge crush on my 2nd grade student teacher, Mrs. Chartier. She had red-hair and freckles.
Third grade rocked. We created this colonial family that had ten kids, a set of parents, a set of grandparents and a mean Aunt Molly who had glasses and a lazy eye. (Poor Aunt Molly). We also had a garden that we grew in the back of the classroom. And we had a class rabbit that ran around the classroom and two baby ducks. We sold tomato and pepper plants to work on our math. We drew the family (after tracing our siblings who were the same age as our created colonial family members), wrote stories, taped our own audio books, created drawings of the rooms of their house which we bordered with wood and covered in saran wrap to represent glass. All in all, it was amazing.
In 3rd grade, we had a bathroom that connected our room and the next door classroom. There were no locks. You turned the light on and the light switch glowed to make sure that people knew the bathroom was occupied. It terrified me. I didn't want anyone to walk in on me. So I would take LOOOOONG water drinks and run down to the 2nd grade wing and go to the bathroom there. Once the principal asked me what I was doing. I had to tell her. Luckily she understood. And then later went on to teach me how to sew during lunch.
There were twins named Dan and Dave in my 3rd grade class. They moved to Utah. Only later did I discover that they were Mormon. I didn't know what that was in 3rd grade.
We would go to the Hood Museum once a month for pretty cool art projects and wandering around the gallery. One time we went over the class was in a fight about something. Angelina, the bus driver, encouraged us to sing. Half of us sang "99 Bottles of Pop ON the Wall" and the rest of us sang "This Is the Song That Never Ends." Angelina regretted it. My teacher wanted to kill her.
I learned about the solar eclipse in the 4th grade. We made pin-hole cameras and watched the eclipse.
I always thought the auditorium in the basement of Sem Hill was haunted. True Story.
Every once in awhile I would be allowed to collect attendance from the other classrooms. Or I'd have to deliver a message to the sixth grade teachers. I always hoped I could get to take the note to Ashley's classroom. It was one of the times she was nice to me and Danielle.
My main friends in 4th grade were fifth graders. They were much better readers.
I started hiding my books under my desk while reading in the 4th grade when we moved to Cailfornia. This was for two reasons. 1) I was bored. 2) I had no friends. Another True Story.
The best part about 4th grade was that we lived about eight houses away. Shortest walk to school ever.
We pretended to be Michelangelo by lying on our backs under our desks and drawing on the paper we taped onto the bottom of the desk.
When we moved before 5th grade, I had to ride my bike over to Girl Scouts once a week. I would always pretend my bike was a horse. True Story. Another True Story? I was a weird kid.
When we read the 21 Balloons in 5th grade, I had to do a project on a country that started with my last name. My choices were pretty much Yemen and Yugoslavia. Awesome.
I did not learn my lines on time for our class play. There was a lot of last minute memorization before my teacher got mad at me. It stuck though, I still remember my first line... "...And swallowed him whole!" Now that I write that, it sounds really inappropriate. To clarify, the play was "The Steadfast Tin Soldier."
Most awkward moment from 5th grade Outdoor Ed: Group 5 standing in a circle facing front to back and then slowly sitting so that we all were sitting on each other's laps. I'm pretty sure Kevin Beebe was sitting on mind. So awkward as a 5th grader.
We had to sing "Reach " by Gloria Estefan for 6th grade graduation. Ever since, I can't listen to that song without thinking about the hand motions. I'm sure you can imagine what they must have been like, especially every time she sang the word reach.
We had to read "The Bronze Bow" and do a power point presentation on it. All 30 of us. And then present the presentation. All 30 of us. I didn't quite read the whole book so I typed up the entire plot and put it as a part of my power point. The entire slide was covered with the plot. Unfortunately, the animation for that slide was the one that flashes the words once and then makes them disappear. Fortunately, with the last name Y, I had listened to the plot 29 times. That saved me.
Right to Read Day was the best day in the whole world. We wore our pajamas and got to read all day under our desks and on the floor. I could think of no better day in the world.
Hope you enjoyed my random memories. And to end with, here is a picture of me from kindergarten. In that dress I mentioned earlier.
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