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What is it about making the jump from kindergarten to First Grade? I remember starting First Grade and feeling like I was Queen of the Mountain. I was reading, I had a loose tooth, and I stayed at school all day long. I was a Big Girl. And I couldn’t have been happier.
I have two memories of first grade, besides the faint memories of singing as a class on the rug with my teacher. I recall walking outside on an unusually clear day for the California Bay Area. The sky was a shockingly vivid and cloudless blue. My teacher pointed to the sky and said, “Look at that blue sky, kids. That’s what the sky looked like all the time when I was a little girl.”
I have no idea why that particular memory has always been so vivid in my mind.
Another day, my teacher called the class to clean up from center time (I have a feeling it was called something different when I was in school…), and as one always eager to please, I started helping right away. No sooner had I begun picking up blocks that my first loose tooth fell out. Instead of being excited and running over to tell my friends and my teacher, I felt strangely embarrassed. I didn’t want anyone to see. Instead of joining the rest of the class on the rug for stories, I stuffed my tooth in my pocket and kept myself busy picking up staples and tiny bits of paper from the floor. I tried to stick close to the tables so no one would notice me, but I made sure to stay busy so that my teacher would not get mad at me for not being on the rug with everyone else. I was being extra helpful, right? My teacher called me out and made me join the class….with my new missing front tooth and bright red cheeks and everything.
As if first grade and the first lost tooth weren’t enough excitement for one year, I also got my very first (and only) baby brother in 1980. My sister and I were pretty smitten with our baby brother, and I know that a lot of my time must have been spent on the ground entertaining the new baby (who probably outweighed me by the time he was 9 months old….family joke!).
I’ll end with one last first grade First. As I was gathering photos for this post, I noticed that a few of these pictures looked quite a bit like AJ and Reese, my youngest kids. I rarely see my kids in old photos of me, but today I did. There’s a first for everything.
What do you remember about 1st grade?
To follow my journey to record my youth, check out the category Record Your Youth. To follow other bloggers’ journeys to record their youth, visit Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
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So much Lolli! Ha! Score boy is still in your class. I love a big blue sky! Definitely a happy place for me.
Wow! You really do remember so much! I think we might have had character pictures on our busses, too, come to think of it.
My baby (yes, my fifth) just started kindergarten. It’s incredible to think that so much time has passed!
I actually remember a lot from first grade, which is funny considering I can’t remember what happened this morning.
I remember being nervous about forgetting how to spell elephant on my spelling test. I had my spelling journal open to that word where I could see it in my desk. I got caught.
I remember my desk being so messy that Mrs. Kingsley dumped it and made me clean it out.
I remember losing my first tooth when we were doing some sort of presentation and breakfast with moms there. My mom wasn’t there because she was going back to school so my friends mom wrapped my tooth up in a tissue and had me put it in my pocket.
I remember our busses having pictures of cartoon characters in the window and we got called to our bus at the end of the day by character and not number. I was on the Strawberry Shortcake bus. When I missed the bus one day they sent me on the Ziggy bus.
I remember being friends with a boy and going home with him after school. We got teased the whole way.
I remember meeting my best friend and we were friends for over 20 years.
Now MY BABY is in first grade this year and so MUCH has changed.
That would be so tough to get a new teacher half way through the year at that age. Glad the new one was good!
I’m sure it was one of my top front teeth. I have no idea why I was so nervous/embarrassed about it!
She was trying to make a point about the 1980 sky always being polluted and smoggy. When SHE was a kid, it was ALWAYS clear blue. :)
These are sweet memories :) Which tooth did you lose? Was it right in front? I lost all of my teeth at home, but I don’t recall being embarrassed about any of them. I was always excited about the tooth fairy.
Great memories and I love the photos!
You have some adorable pictures!
Why in the world would your teacher say that the sky was that color when she was a little girl. I’m assumming it was cloudy when she was little and it was not always that brilliant blue! Oh strange of her!
I don’t remember first grade very much but my youngest is in first grade right now. It is so much fun!
I remember getting a new 1st grade teacher in the middle of the year. The first one moved away after Christmas – I was so sad! I was determined to dislike the new teacher. But she turned out to be awesome. She’d pick us up and put us in the trash can – which we thought was hilarious and so UNteacher-like. It turned out OK after all.
Those are great memories! Thanks for sharing.
Lolli,
Great story and terrific pictures. I love the last one of you in your ballet costume! You look like you are on top of the world, or at least on top o your toes! lol
Looking forward to more of your stories.
Isn’t it funny which things we remember from our earliest teachers? She must have done a great job teaching you about “look.” :)
I remember when my 1st grade teacher was teaching us the word “look” and making the two “o’s” into eyeballs.