Your early school days - the fun memories

[Olympicnut]

I'm talking say, pre-school to 3rd grade.

For some reason earlier I was thinking about my early school days as a kid, and aside from not liking being away from my mommy (yea I was a major mommas boy) there were some things I liked.

SRA's. Remember those things? The reading comprehension cards with questions you had to answer afterwards? I remember them being color coded too and I always liked doing them.

When we were done with our work, we got to play with clay that was kept in tubs on the window sill. I used to try so hard to get my work done fast (and probably incorrectly) so that I could get one of the few prized tubs of clay to play with.

Ditto's. Pre copy machines, there were ditto machines. Man I used to love the smell of ditto's. Plus they had that lovely shade of purple! And I always remember them being "damp" whenever teacher would go get things "dittoed" and brought back to class to hand out. Are ditto machines even used today?

Half days at school because it was too hot. We didn't have a/c, so when it was going to be super hot, they'd let us go home around noon. Awesome!

Parent-teacher conferences. Of course I didn't like those for fear they'd tell my folks something bad, but I did like going to the school and waiting in the car. I was fascinated with being at the school when it was dark outside. It was just such a different place.

These are just a few of my fun memories of my early school days. What are yours?

[knittingknerd]

I'm talking say, pre-school to 3rd grade.

Ditto's. Pre copy machines, there were ditto machines. Man I used to love the smell of ditto's. Plus they had that lovely shade of purple! And I always remember them being "damp" whenever teacher would go get things "dittoed" and brought back to class to hand out. Are ditto machines even used today?

These are just a few of my fun memories of my early school days. What are yours?

I loved Dittos! They were this weird thing that you had to crank to get the copies. So cool.

My 2nd grade teacher was awesome. He was a first year teacher and he worked at a radio station as a DJ part-time. He was a lot of fun and I remember thinking "I want him to be my teacher forever." He had the "warm fuzzy table" and a reading worm. It was just a lot of fun. He also was really cute...

Gardening with my kindergarten teacher. I helped grow a GIANT raddish that was in the paper. It took my kindergarten teacher, my best friend (who was my best friend until a few years ago), and myself to lift it.

This goes into the "dorky" category but...: my mom would make my clothes for kindergarten once a week. Just a smock dress. But if we were doing like "Yellow week" she made me a dress with a yellow skirt and the word "YELLOW" appliqued onto the front with yellow lettering and yellow things (like a bee patch, a sun, lemon, etc). We had these "themed" days Fridays so every Friday I would be in a dress that matched the theme. If we did a number she would applique the number on the front and put groups of those numbers. So like 4 bees and 4 apples... And looking back on it I loved it and it was really cute. I got to be line leader a lot on Fridays. It made me feel special. (And I wonder why I like to craft now...).

[aimster]

I can't remember that far back.

Oh wait... I remember my 3rd grade teacher was awesome. We had a piano in the classroom and she had painted Tigger on the front of it! I also remember she was a big Muppets fan... especially Miss Piggy.

[pratt55]

O-nut you did it again, making me remember the past. I loved SRA's especially since I was an early reader and I was always way past my own grade level. It used to bug my older sisters.

One of my favorite memories was the cafeteria ladies. One of them was our neighbor and second mom so if it was something I would not eat she would make me a PB & J sandwich. My favorite lunch meal was the mashed potatos with hamburger gravy.

[I Heart Disneyland]

When I was little I LOVED going to the library at school. I loved being able to go and sit in a corner and read James and the Giant Peach. I'd get lost in that book. (I still love it and my stepkids bought it for me years ago.)

I also have a vivid memory of my kindergarten teacher...she had shocking red hair, that was in a bun, and, she was as tall as she was round. ha! I just remember she was a sweet lady who always wore dresses, as did most women in the early 1960's when I was in kindergarten! I remember walking to school on crisp fall mornings. I loved playing on the swings and the monkey bars.

I loved the smell of Play Doh, of ditto papers (that we'd color on) and the smell of the classroom in general. I can still smell it! I loved the old desks with the lids that opened. I loved new pencils and erasers! I am OLD...we used to have the pencil sharpeners on the wall that had the different sized holes for your pencil to fit in to sharpen it. I LOVED new crayons too.

I remember my 2nd grade teacher too. Very tall with dark hair. I even remember her name. Mrs. Shankula. She was a kind woman as well. I remember the boys eating paste in class and I remember making a plaster handprint on a paper plate for my mom. I loved the crafts we'd make for parents. And, I loved school performances.

My mom died when I was in 3rd grade, so, I don't have a lot of memories of that timeframe in my life. That in itself is a strong memory for me. From that time, I remember on mother's day when we had to make mommy's day gifts, I would cry in school. (Sorry---those aren't fun memories!)

[Craigroy8287]

I remember my 2rd grade teacher at the end of every week giving us a scratch and sniff sticker to put on our folders if we got all our work done. I loved getting them. That was always the highlight of my week. LOL. I know it sounds lame but it made me want to get everything done so I could get a darn sticker.

[I Heart Disneyland]

I remember my 2rd grade teacher at the end of every week giving us a scratch and sniff sticker to put on our folders if we got all our work done. .

I forgot about scratch and sniff! I loved that too!

[Princess Buttercup]

This is a great thread!


Some of my most vivid memories.....



In kindergarten...making pancakes, playing duck duck goose and getting my first tooth to lose knocked out, sneaking my 4 year old neighbor to kindergarten with me, thinking I got left behind at the school fair and walking home alone, my mom freaking out because I took candy from some construction workers on the way home



In first grade....falling in love with the cutest blue eyed blonde boy in the class, getting chased into the boys bathroom and getting kissed by the cutest blue eyed blonde boy in the class, getting scratched by Bobby Smith (I still have the little scar on my wrist)


In second grade...having a mean trick played on me by a girl who promised to trade me her box of sweet tarts for my hostess cupcake but then after I agreed I realized the box of sweet tarts was empty, getting voted to be on the fire patrol and getting to ride on a fire engine in a parade, purposely messing up my desk so that I'd have to stay after schol to clean it and would miss the bus so then I would have to walk to my friend's house instead, playing love hide and seek and kiss tag with that same cutest blue eyed blonde boy after he picked me up at my house and gave me a ride to his house on the back of his banana seat on his bicycle



In third grade......having a gorgeous teacher who played guitar and sang awesome 70's songs, learning about the solar system, working in the school cafeteria, and still being in love with that same cutest blue eyed blonde boy



Awww, great memories!

[quiltmaker]

Cute thread. I have lots of good memories of elementary school which is probably why I'm a kindergarten teacher

I remember getting to "cook" once a week in kindergarten and having coloring contracts. I loved the smell of dittos (the first school I taught at still had ditto machines).

My first grade teacher was new and energetic. Every few months her and her husband would take everyone in the class that had gotten all of their work done out for breakfast on a Saturday. I think they were trying to decide what it was like to have kids of their own because the next year she had twins. I got to babysit them when I was older.

I remember my second grade teacher being like a little old grandma who couldn't wait till the last day of school when she retired.

In third grade I remember getting to go to the fancy new computer lab with all the apple 2E's in them. (Funny thing is years later when I got my first classroom that was the same kind of computer that was in there.)

[TraceCub]

I loved the library at my pre-school. It was on an upper level and the stairs were a cramped, narrow passageway. There was also wood paneling on the walls on the level the library was on and I used to love the smell of the wood mixed with the books.

I remember my mom driving by the public elementary school and asked me if I wanted to continue at my pre-school (preK - 12 there) or if I wanted to go to that school. I remember peering out the window, seeing the kick @ss playground and saying, "That one!" The school had taken monster truck tires and buried them into the ground about halfway so they created arches of varying sizes around the perimeter of the playground. All the tires led to a tire fort/castle in the center of the playground. Ironically, it was the kindergarteners who had reign over the castle because we were the only ones who could fit inside and sit in the rim of the tire. The older kids would sit on top and throw rocks down at us!

In Kindergarten I was also the snack monitor. It was my and a boy's job to go to the cafeteria every afternoon and collect the snacks for our class. We held this job to high esteem and took ourselves very seriously as we carried the tub of snacks and milk.

My mom also worked in the office when I was in K-2. It was always fun to catch a glimpse of her in the halls and she'd sometimes be the one to deliver a message to the teacher from the office.

In first grade I was taught the game Heads Up 7-Up! We'd always beg the teacher to let us play if we were good. First grade is also when we started to learn to read. I still remember the humiliation I felt one day when we were popcorn reading and I couldn't read the word Max.

In 3rd grade when we were really good and had finished our reading comprehension and other class work, we were allowed to play on Oregon Trail on the apple. 3rd grade is also when it was realized I needed glasses.

[SummerInFL]

Great thread idea but the more I thought about mine, the more I realized I wasn't such a good little girl. LOL

• I remember playing house in kindergarten.
• Going outside to play Chinese jump rope at recess.
• Playing School by running through a moving jump rope, every time you ran successfully through the jump rope you went up a grade, if you stopped or hit the rope you went back to Kindergarten. LOL
• I remember discovering that you can see through the grate in the bathroom to the boys restroom and the teacher caught me and I got a spanking.
• When I would get in trouble they would send me to this cubicle as a time out, well on top of this cubicle there was rubber cement. I used to put it on my hand and peel it off for fun, until they discovered me doing it, I got in trouble again. tee hee
• I grew up in Indiana so I have fond memories of trekking it to the bus stop in the snow, it wasn't far, I was lucky enough to have the stop in front of our house, but I still remember having snow days, was awesome.

Great thread Onut, really relived some memories for me.

[Joshrzmeup]

I don't remember too much from my early school days, just the accidents that happened to me.

Kindergarten - Bee string in the ear (my mom had thought I was old enough to wear kid perfume - bad idea!!!)

First grade - beginning of the school year. The monkey bars. Bad idea. Broken arm during the hottest part of the summer. Then there was the stitches (the first set).

Getting to wear our Halloween costumes to school and parading them in the big kid classrooms, and having an ice cream social that day as well.

Second grade - second set of stitches (still have the scar on my chin). Looked so great on my school picture, you know.

Walking to 5 minutes to school from our house (unless it was raining)

Third grade - SSR. Taking half an hour out of the day to do nothing but sit and read and we could sit wherever in the classroom we wanted. Then we'd keep track of how many pages we read and put so many stickers on the animal we had on the wall and once you went through them all, you got to choose a book from the special box the teacher had.
That's probably why I love to read so much now.

[Olympicnut]

O-nut you did it again, making me remember the past. I loved SRA's especially since I was an early reader and I was always way past my own grade level. It used to bug my older sisters.

They had books when you were a little girl

[Disneyland Daddy]

I remember milk and Graham Crackers in Kindergarten. One rainy day in Fall 1976, my teacher, Mrs. Bookman (Thomas Edison Elementary School in Anaheim) told me to go help "Becky" with passing out milk and graham crackers. I did...and that afternoon we became good friends.

"Becky" flew out to Anaheim two weeks ago...and had dinner with my wife, son and I.....and we toured our old neighborhood in Anaheim.......and drove my our elementary school. It doesn't look like it did in the 70's.....but it was still the haven for that first meeting.

She's been like a sister to me all of these 32 years......

[HighLeveller]

I was home-schooled 1st through 3rd, so most of the worhwhile memories I have of school didn't start until 4th.
Kindergarten made for some:
Having a special day with festivities in the cafeteria and watching a "long movie", which I recall from some scenes as Going Ape! but that movie dates 1981--the following year. Whatever it was I did see...you gotta love 16mm movie projectors.
The big fall-festival/Halloween costume party: the last good one I both attended and participated in. (Hope to change that this year.)
These orange or strawberry coated granola bars [?] among the things we could get as a morning snack at the cafeteria
Riding the bus: the only year I took the bus to school. Fortunately these were Crown Supercoach buses, so I did get to ride these sometime in my school years.

SRA's. Remember those things? The reading comprehension cards with questions you had to answer afterwards? I remember them being color coded too and I always liked doing them.

Did a few of these in later grades. They were color-coded as levels 1 through 8 I think.

Ditto's. Pre copy machines, there were ditto machines. Man I used to love the smell of ditto's. Plus they had that lovely shade of purple! And I always remember them being "damp" whenever teacher would go get things "dittoed" and brought back to class to hand out. Are ditto machines even used today?

Mimeograph machines or "spirit duplicators". I've heard these are an economical alternative to photocopying. The "masters" are made with mechanical typing using purple ink in the same manner as carbon paper. But everything done on computers now, and it's doubtful there's a way to make these from computer documents. Maybe a dot-matrix printer could be used.