"You better cherish the people you meet and the things you learn now, kiddo. Otherwise, you'll be bitter and have nothing to be happy about later on in life." - my grandpa in a dream I have every once in awhile. When you make that transition from elementary school to middle school, you don't quite realize just how great you had it. With minor responsibilities and barely any homework, my elementary school years turned out to have truly been the easiest years of my life.
1. Book Fairs
And by book fairs, I mean when Scholastic would bring in their pop-up bookstore and instead of buying books, students would spend their money on scented pencils in a tube and long erasers that had a smiley face or a flower on the end.
2. Naptime
While those sleep mats absolutely sucked, you can't help but regret taking this sacred time for granted when you were younger.
3. Stickers
Did well on a test? Sticker. Helped another student pick up their books? Sticker. Helped the teacher erase the board? Sticker. Came to school? Sticker. Answered a question wrong on a test? At least you tried, here's a sticker.
4. No Worries
Includes: no finals, no midterms, no eight-page papers, no taxes, no paying for your own food, no paying for your own anything really, and no sleepless nights over stupid people or problems or politics or anything.
5. Award Ceremonies
You get a certificate and you get a certificate and you get a certificate! You can literally get a certificate for EVERYTHING!! Didn't get a certificate? Don't worry; you'll have another chance next month.
6. Holiday Activities
Valentine's Day, Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and St. Patrick's Day were big deals in elementary school. Placing Valentine's into your classmates' handmade paper bag "mailboxes", the annual Christmas concert, wearing your Halloween costume to school once a year, dressing up as either a Native American or a pilgrim for Thanksgiving, and the schoolwide hunt for a leprechaun were just some of the many ways we celebrated holidays and made our small minds aware of how excited we should be that Santa Claus is coming to town, or that we don't need a boyfriend or girlfriend to get candy and cheesy cards in a paper bag once every year.
7. Celebrating the 100th Day of School
It was truly a holiday like no other. It was the time of glasses that had a 1, then two 0's as the eye holes, creating posters that had 100 of something that were arranged to spell out "100", and to happily waste yet another day of learning to excite students about surviving another 100 days of their lives in school!
8. The Birthday Wall
It was always so satisfying to see your name up there under your birth month. At least you knew that you would be able to hear everyone in your class sing "Happy Birthday" to you while you received a pencil and a star-shaped sticker that said, "It's my birthday today!".
9. Story Time
#tbt to Eric Carle, Shel Silverstine, Junie B. Jones, and Dr. Seuss. Your teacher reading to you during school only came in second to your mom reading to you at night.
10. Easy Gym Classes
Remember scooter basketball, the giant parachute, and the beginning stages of the FitnessGram Pacer Test? This was the time in your life when your parents knew whether you'd end up on the field or handing out water to the athletes.
11. Everyday Math
Straight outta The University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. This was the easiest way to teach us the basics while still making us dread having homework. Thanks to this iconic math collection, we all know how to count money, how many apples Timmy had left, and how to estimate.
12. Recess
The best 30 minutes of your day was spent outside during recess. Playing outside has become a thing of the past for the upcoming generation, which is why recess should obviously be a grade-wide activity, and high schools should install swing sets and allow for a 30 minute game of "red hot lava" every day.
13. Snack Time
This is the one thing that has yet to disappoint me. Snacktime always makes me happy and still happens every day.
14. These Characters
Wanna talk about iconic? If your classroom didn't have at least one poster or desk tag or something with an inanimate object with a face and a pink nose, we can't be friends.
