Whenever you look back on your childhood memories and experiences, hopefully you will think back on the moments you had in elementary school. At least for me, I always had great memories there. It is what helped me to realize my passion for teaching. Sometimes when we are stressed and are not enjoying being an adult because everyone hyped it up way too much and you realize that it isn't as fun as you thought it would be, we like to think back on the good times of our lives. Here are ten things that you might miss from elementary school:
1. Recess
Everyone always looked forward to recess so we can run around and play on the playground. It's finally a chance for everyone to play with their friends and play Miss Mary Mac. I always looked forward to the tire swing and you would have to run to it because there was always a line.
2. Gym
When it was gym time, there was always plenty of fun activities to do. There was the game where you had to knock the pins down, the parachute where you bounced the balls while holding onto a corner of the sheet, the flat scooters, kickball, dodge ball, streamers and so much more! I even enjoyed running the mile back when I could run fast before I got lazy.
3. When work was fun
College students would do anything to do the work from elementary school compared to the work in college. Who wouldn't love doing cut and paste activities compared to writing continuous research papers? I always loved the crossword puzzles and activities on Fridays and holidays.
4. Holidays
Nothing is better than going to school when they would celebrate special holidays or days. On Halloween, everyone would dress up in their Halloween costumes, eat Halloween snacks and parade around the parking lot of the school to show off your costume. On Christmas, we would dress up, play activities and eat festive treats. Valentine's Day was when we could give out Valentines day cards to everyone in the class. It was the perfect opportunity to hand out my Harry Potter Valentine's Day cards.
5. Birthdays
It was always a good day when it was someone in the classroom's birthday. This meant cupcakes and more food! You wished the person a happy birthday, but it was really about what their parents brought for the whole class. I remember getting excited about the music teacher showing us his magic trick of shoving a whole cupcake in his mouth.
6. Scholastic Book Fairs
As a book lover since birth, I have always loved the days when it was the book fair. I was always that nerd that won the reading awards because I never wanted to put a book down as I read Madeline, Amelia Bedelia, Junie B. Jones and more. I always went on a shopping spree because of all the books.
7. School Supply Cart
I remember always trying to get my morning work done in order to get the chance to go to the school supply cart by the cafeteria. They had different school supplies such as folders, pencils, sharpeners, grips, and more. The coolest thing that everyone wanted to get from this supply cart was the erasers shaped as different animals and other objects. My friends and I would always try to buy some more using the coins from our coin purses to add to our collections.
8. Assemblies and Field Days
These days were always good days because we got the chance to get outside of the classroom for a bit. The assemblies always had some kind of fun presentation going on. I also always loved the field days where we got to do fun activities outside including tons of relay races.
9. Flat Stanley and Caramel
Flat Stanley was the cut out character that we had to make and write about. We had to write about all the fun places that he would go with a pen pal far away, or far away as in with a relative from Florida. Caramel was a stuffed bear that we each took turns going on adventures with in second grade. I would write about all the fun places I would go to with the bear and do a show and tell with the class.
10. School Plays
The school plays were always the best because I was in a lot of them. I was a mouse in Cinderella where I had my famous one line, "Cinderella, Cinderella," while stomping my foot. I was Hope in Lil Abner and a lady in waiting in Once Upon a Mattress. I loved doing the school plays and it helped me to want to continue all the way to high school.
Elementary school was a fun and great experience when I was a kid. As I am student teaching in an elementary school, I can't help but get excited about all these things that are happening in their school and have the chance to witness them all over again.
