Can you believe it, Ms L starts Kindergarten in 2 weeks. That means N will be in second grade. Where does the time go? Flashes from my own kindergarten days danced in my brain this week. Here are just a few of those flashes:
The first week of Kindergarten Susan Stevens lost her red tennis shoe down the storm drain in the school yard. It was raining and so she had to hop all the way to the doorway of the school. She then made her way to the classroom, a gaggle of concerned girls by her side consoling her with pats and smiles. I am sure she expected sympathy from Mrs Reasland, I’m sure we all did. After all she lost her RED! shoe. (I in my clunky orthopedic shoes with the metal braces attached to them coveted those shoes) None of us expected that she’d get in trouble. And yet she did. She was deemed, “irresponsible and foolhardy” and these words followed her the rest of the school year. She became an example to us all anytime someone was careless with an object they were admonished with, “you don’t want to be like Susan and her red shoe do you?” Even at the tender of age of 5 that phrase rang so harsh in my head and I felt it in my gut every time I heard it. I hope somewhere Susan has a closet full of red tennis shoes (and pink and green and blue ones, too).
“Look Out, Mrs Doodlepunk” was my favorite book in Kindergarten. I loved how the heroine of the story got the better of Mr.Frizzboy and his squirt gun. In addition to simple drawings there was a map at the end of the book that showed exactly the route Mrs Doodlepunk walked her baby and where Mr Frizz boy hid in the tree. That map was fascinating to me, I would stare at that map and trace her route endlessly. What that map represented to me I cannot say, perhaps I was in awe of the freedom Mrs Doodlepunk had to be able to go all around the neighborhood without her mommy. One day I got to read the book out loud to my kindergarten classroom. I felt pretty grownup sitting in the little chair while everyone else sat on their mats in a semi -circle around me. It may have been my first taste of a large captive audience and I loved it!
Does anyone else remember the smell of the blue mimeograph pages? I loved that smell. I loved to go into the supply room and watch Ms Gloria run off the sheets for the classrooms. That smell meant worksheets and coloring sheets. It meant learning.
I remember taking naps on towels we brought from home that we stored in cubbys in the middle of the room. We only went 1/2 days and just before noon we'd nap. Or we were supposed to nap. I don't remember if anyone actually ever napped, except maybe that's what Mrs Reasland was doing with her head down on her desk. I do remember that Kevin Snodgrass and Doug Reasland (the teacher was his GRANDMA!) would push a hot wheel back and forth between them as quietly as they possibly could. I'm pretty sure they weren't supposed to do that, but they did. And it seemed like they never got caught.
Apple butter - we made it for Fall Festival/Open house. I make it now for my family most years and it brings back such memories. Some are good, and some are sad... but that tale is for another time.
I loved kindergarten.
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