Slice of Life Challenge - Day 1 - First Grade

     My fifth graders and I are going to participate in the Slice of Life Challenge this month, and they're writing memoirs.  I thought I'd do the same kind of writing - memory writing - throughout the challenge.  My new writing idea/goal is to write an early chapter book series based around a character very much like me, so remembering my childhood stories is very important for that project.  I'm going to be writing around photographs and memorabilia.  Day 1:

 

 

     My mom got a job as a first grade teacher in our town the same year I was a first grader, so we were in the same building.  I would go to school with her and help with bulletin boards, name tags, and organizing her room.  Perhaps that's why I became a teacher, too!  My first grade year was not entirely a pleasant memory.  I loved being with my mom, but I also remember getting paddled (and having to stand in line waiting for it to happen), having to put my nose in a circle drawn in chalk on the blackboard, just high enough I had to stand on my tippy-toes to reach it, during recess, and getting sent to the principal's office for kicking a boy on the playground (he had it coming).  I really wasn't a trouble-maker.  Really!  I just talked too much, I think.  My 1st grade report card had all Bs for "Conduct." 

 

 

 

     I was the angel in my first grade Christmas pageant.  I was the tallest kid in my class (except for the boy I had a crush on - he's in the stable playing Joseph).  I don't look very happy playing the angel.  One of the shepherd boys used to chew his crayons.  I had a little crush on him, too (I was nervous to introduce him to my dad at open house), and chased him at recess.  He was about a foot shorter than me.  He may have been the boy I kicked...

 

     When I went to second grade, I had to change buildings, and I remember crying often because I missed my mom.  First grade may not have been the happiest year of school, but my mom was right there, and THAT I loved.  It was difficult to make that transition without her.  Then there was second grade.  Come to think of it, that year wasn't all that happy either...