Memories of grade one…
Does anyone remember their first day of primary/elementary school? I do, well parts of it at least…I was excited because I had heard grade 1 would have lots of books I could read by myself and possibly take home to read then return and this appealed to me because even then I was an avid reader.
I know my teacher, Mr Kearney, had taught grade one for a long while and he knew what he was doing. Mum came with me on the first day obviously, with little brother in tail and if the photos of that day are any indication he had a pretty good day himself. My uniform was blue checked dress with a white collar and white capped sleeves and my shoes were shined within an inch of their life. My pink school bag was all packed (including my lunch box with a popper in it) and I hadn`t been allowed to take bow, my favourite stuffed childhood toy but I left him at the enterance to our house so that he would be the first thing I saw when I returned home. I don`t remember been nervous but I might of been.
Each desk had a little ABC chart contacted to it and every girl had to sit next to a boy. I don`t remember who my neighbour was but my little brother stole my seat early on in the morning when we arrived and he quite possibly could of drawn all over the table. Luckily he didn`t stay long and it wasn`t long before I was saying goodbye to mum.
I remember nothing else from my first day exactly but there are scattred memories of that year floating around in my head. The great chicken pox outbreak of 1991 for example in which my class of 30 when to 8. Learning to write although I don`t really remember much about this and have nothing to show of my writing from that time but I must have learn to write around that time although I could already read and write a little bit before I started.
One other memory I have of that year was the athletics carnival, which was not held at our school due to our lack of a school oval at that time but I remember running in the kids race that day. My mum tells the story of how my hat blew off halfway through the race, how I stopped, ran back and got it and still won the race by 10m or so. I have many blue ribbons from my primary school athletics carnivals although most of that changed when I went to highschool and started competing again 180 girls instead of 20.
Plus the school assemblies held every Wednesday held outside because I think when I was in year 1 we still didn`t have the church built where the assemblies were held in later years. I know in preschool they were definitely held outside. Mum would come most weeks and we would know she was there from the jingling of her bangles.
I know also that sometime in that year, during a parent teacher conference that my teacher, Mr Kearney, told my parents that I was a delight to teach but that I would be perfectly happy if I was the only person in the class with him and if all the other children disappeared. Apparently it didn`t mean that I didn`t like playing with the other kids just that I was an attention whore even at age 5!
The games we played in year one also play on my mind. Heads down thumbs up and catch and kiss (which was banned the year I was in year 2 or possibly year 1) and also learning our school song “This is our school”.
The friends I had included mainly boys I think…Michael D, Bryce G were a couple as well as one of my bridesmaids Mandy T!
The memories of that time are scattered around in my brain but it is amazing how much I remember from that time really. What do you remember from your early school years?
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OH. MY. GOD. i graduated high school in 1991.
now i officially feel old. am going under rock to die now.
Oh my! You were in GRADE ONE in 1991! I graduated highschool in 1990. I am sooo old. I`m going to go hide with Illahee.
OMG Lulu! What a trip down memory lane this dreary Monday morning! Hahaha, I will ALWAYS remember your Mum and her jangly bracelets…I loved that about your mum! Hahah. And also her perfume is a big memory of mine. And being in your family’s car – it was a grey Holden wasn’t it?
Haha and I remember that first Sports Day too. And you with your swathe of blue ribbons always! Do you remember that the entire grade was driven there in the teacher’s cards? I think I went with Mrs Ortiz! Also do you remember Mrs Knight with her “magic apron” that was always full of goodies? Or the Book Week we would always have and get to dress up?
Also remember visiting your first house in St James’ Park and being amazed at the big sign out the front of the neighbourhood with “St James’ Park” in big black letters on a yellow/beige background.
Ahhhh..memories!!!!! xoxoxox (ahha this is totally turned into a nostalgic gush fest!)
I remember when we were being taught spelling and we were guessing words that start with ‘z’. We kept guessing xylophone even though the teacher said no, because we were so sure that it just HAD to start with ‘z’!
I remember my first day of school as being one of the most terrifying days of my life! I was four years old and I was sent to a catholic school – my first day happened to be Ash Wednesday. My family aren’t church goers so I had no idea what all the mumbo jumbo was about. All these kids were walking around with black sooty marks on their heads, and I was pushed into line to get it done too, I was petrified!! I thought the guy in the dress(!) had hands of fire or something!! Turned me off religion for life, that did.
(no offence intended by the above, obviously)
I was one of the few kids in my class who could already read too. So it was a very boring first couple of months!
LOL at illahee’s comment. I was in Grade 5 in 1991. Still older than you, but not by too much ;P
Whoa – you have a very detailed memory! I can’t remember that much – all I do remember is I had to wear black leather shoes and when the sun shone on them, they got hot and burnt my toes.
Good times, good times.
Tigermama and Illahee, get to the back of the line for hiding under the rock as I am older than you both! I have no recollection of starting school at all, but I can tell you every detail of DD’s first day of kindergarten.
Your memory is quite amazing… I can’t remember anything about my first day of school – that’s right, not a thing. Although I can remember most of my first day of preschool!!
Ilahee- If it makes you feel better I totally wouldn`t have guessed you were that much older than me!!!
Tigermama- Same goes to you!
Mandy- I don`t remember been driven in the cars- you and I shall totally exchange memories someday as I am sure we totally remember different things and it might joggle our memory a bit. I know you lived on a street named after a bird that started with R- I won`t mention the name here but I remeember!
Enny- Kids at my kindy thought the same thing about xylophone so it must be the same everywhere- cute!
Phillipa- Ash Wednesday is quite late in the school to start year isn`t it? I suppose it depends on how early Easter was that year! I would of been freaked out going to ash wednesday mass if I had no idea what was happening also!!!
Katie- Your shoe story is so funny!!!!!!! I remember a lot about my early years- Shun remembers a fair bit too!!! I have a friend who remembers nothing before age 10 or so- it must totally depend on the type of person you are.
Sherry- Share DD`s day then!!!! I hope to preserve some of my memories from that far back which I hope by writing them down, this will help but I will have to wait and see. What is your first memory!?
Nay- You remember preschool but not grade one? I don`t remember my first day of preschool but very early on in the year I had a birthday and had a cake shaped like a ghost- i was five!
My 1st teacher in Grade 1 was called Sister Stanislaus. She was actually really tiny (I was way taller than her when I left primary school 7 years later) but she seemed ginormous. She was lovely though. I recently met up with some friends from primary school and we spent the whole night reminsicing about all the silly things we got up to (toilet paper fights, bringing out own secret packed lunches etc..) and it was very cool to hear stuff my my friends’ perspective!
I was in secondary school when you started grade one but that would make sense as I was 30 this year.