My first pair of Levi 501 jeans, which never quite fit.
Black and white saddle shoes.
A Tupperware lunchbox, which I quickly traded in for brown bags.
Feathered bangs.
Learning cursive, multiplication and a mnemonic for the planets in the Solar System.
Placing third in the school spelling bee.
A dark haired, blue eyed boy named Bill.
Digging through the trash for my friend Rachel's retainer.
Avery has just started her third week of third grade.
So far third grade has been blisters from the monkey bars.
And lots and lots of writing, which is really hard to do with blisters.
Avery turned 8 three days after school started, and while I really wanted to write a nice little birthday post, I just couldn't do it. I was emotionally drained from our back to school drama. So instead of belated birthday wishes, I'd like to ask you to share a third grade memory. Avery would get such a kick out of reading about your third grade experience, and let's face it, so would the rest of us.
I'll be back in a few days to show you what I made Avery for her eighth birthday. It's a little something I think every girl might need.
Mrs. Winterbottom.
ReplyDeleteYes that's true, and I recall her being about 6' tall and very serious. Handwriting skills were her most serious subject-I failed.
My handwriting has not progressed since. The other memory is "lack of imagination". Which is strange since that doesn't seem to be a problem now. But that's another story.
Avery- enjoy 3rd!
Love
Dad (Pa Rich)
My grade 3 teacher's name was Mme Mercer. I thought she was the be all and end all, and she's likely a large part of the reason why I became a teacher. I got my hair cut like her. But my memory from Grade 3 is winning the Easter bonnet contest at school. Mum and I made a hat using a plastic plant pot and some egg carton flowers. I was so excited to win and Mum was a wreck in the audience.
ReplyDelete3rd grd to me is when i moved across town and was in a new school. booo. BUT other town schools closed so there were other new kids just that they knew each other.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Zorse (is a horse of course of course) was my teacher.
We brought our cabbage patch kids (83) that yr after santa gave them to us.
yes, i learned script.
it was a good year.
my 3rd grade teacher was mrs. valentine. and she still teaches 3rd grade at the same little school. so if we still lived there, my daughter would be in her class. she got to meet my daughter when she was a baby - weird.
ReplyDeletei remember having that same care bear lunch duffel bag that's in your picture! and i was all about the clubs. i started quite a few.
oh, and dodgeball.
Third grade was the best! I wasn't the new kid any more (that was second grade), and I had the sweetest, most cheerful teacher I've ever met. She was all hugs and encouragement. When a kid came in grouchy in the morning, she'd say, "Somebody didn't eat their Cheerios this morning." Probably a little silly, but it sure did the trick and made us all laugh, including the grouch. I didn't take my lunch to school because the cafeteria food was fantastic! My favorite was the "dump cake" dessert, which is a LOT better than it sounds!
ReplyDeleteAhh, third grade. Two things:
ReplyDelete1- My most favorite teacher ever, Mrs. Leitz. I wasn't alone. All the kids loved her.
2- The first time I ever saw it snow. It was a complete anomaly, and it was wonderful.
Hmmmm... it seems every single one of my third grade memories was on the playground. I've blanked out the classroom altogether.
ReplyDeleteI remember trying to see who was gutsy enough to jump from the swings... who was willing to take flight from the highest point.
I also remember that we had just moved to a small town where you were from one side of the tracks or the other. All the kids asked me, "Are you black, or are you white?" I had no idea... "um, brown?" It was very clear to me which color was deemed preferable, but not at all clear to me how I was going to claim either category.
I also remember that I had a shirt with a unicorn on it. It had a sparkly, glitter rainbow coming from its horn, and my name in felt letters on the back. I would have worn it every day. :-) Good times.
I had 2 teachers in 3rd grade because the first one was pregnant. I remember hanging out on the monkey bars a LOT. Billy Vickroy chasing girls to kiss them and being too slow to catch them. Multiplication tables. Loring still sucking his thumb. More multiplication.
ReplyDeleteOh, good times.
I remember my teacher's name was Mrs Shadbolt and she was also the vice principal. I remember that I had chicken pox and missed the first 2 weeks of school!
ReplyDeleteAvery--Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteOne positive about going to public school is that you'll be able to remember specific years of your childhood better if you have a different teacher to associate with each of them:-)
3rd grade: Mrs. Wagner. She wore a big yellow wig and was sweet. She taught us a song called "Waiting by the Window" that I've been unable to find anywhere ever since then.
So if you learn a song this year that touches your soul, write it down now so you don't waste hours on google or whatever amazing new thing exists when you're in your 30's.
Molly! Is that you in third-grade? You are so, so cute.
ReplyDeleteI have blocked third grade out of my memory. Wait, except for a memory of my teacher reading aloud to us a story about a good and happy witch -- good, happy witches are the coolest.
happy belated birthday avery!!!!
ReplyDeletethird grade. hmm. mrs reese was my teacher and i swore she MUST have chocolate peanutbutter candy at her house. i remember working on weekly readers, wearing lavender sweats and sweatshirt with white hearts all over it, chasing and punching my "friend" tonya because she threw a worm at me while i was on the swing, winning the long jump competition, throwing up in my mouth as i stood in line for the nasty fish stix hot lunch [i hated fish]but was too embarrassed to throw up on the floor and i remember doing a cartwheel in the hall when i *thought* it was empty and i thought it would be so risky and daring and such a cool thing to tell my friends .... but as soon as i flipped over i looked behind me and my p.e. teacher, mr. halls, had just turned the corner. i was mortified, but he just smiled and never said a word about it. he was awesome.
i hope you have fun making memories in third grade :) can't wait to hear what you've been up to!
xoxoxoxo
Third grade was all about four square on the playground, and who could peel an orange fastest while leaving the skin in one piece. We were so competitive. Mostly with the boys.
ReplyDeleteMy third grade teacher was also Jesse Helms' daughter, and I remember her being so inflexible about everything. Extremely strict and distant.
Happy third grade to Avery, and happy birthday!
Third grade was Mr. Huedepohl (sp?) He fell while policing the playground that year and wrecked his tail bone and spent the rest of the year sitting on a doughnut thing. Much to the hilarity of the whole school, poor guy. He had a son named Denver who was older and Denver seemed like such an exotic name. This was the year that the roof of the school was being tarred (single story) and I was watching out the windows by myself in my classroom -- everyone else was at recess, I was maybe a little bit of a ((ahem)) loner... -- and I saw a fire start. The flames were small at first and got bigger and bigger. And bigger. There was no one around but I figured that someone must be paying attention... but no one was and finally the fire bell rang and we were all sent home for the rest of the day and I never told anyone that I saw the fire well before it became BIG.
ReplyDelete: )
I told my first big lie in third grade.
ReplyDeleteOur class did multiplication minutes each day, and when we got perfect on the 2's timetable, we could move up the 3's, and then 4's etc.
I wasn't getting perfect. My friends were. I moved myself up anyway. Before long I had moved myself up to the 9's, but I still couldn't do the 3's! My teacher caught me, and told my parent's, and I was MORTIFIED.
I learned alot that year, about telling the truth, and about working hard to catch up!
Happy Birthday to Avery! Funny, Brenna's birthday is coming, and it will be 5 days after school starts. But she's turning 9. The cut off date is Sept 1, no exceptions.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember 3rd so well, because I think I had the same teacher for 1st-3rd. I remember she was large, and she gave bear hugs. She loved everyone and told you so. We watched an eclipse one day. There was a girl with jet black hair and blue eyes named Ingrid who colored so darkly with the crayons that she used them all up for herself and didn't leave any for us. I learned scray flips on the playground and once knocked the wind out of myself. The coach pulled one of my teeth without warning me. We had wild strawberries growing at the edge of the playground and ate them during recess. Recess was long.
Third grade was my last happy year of school.
Ms. Lang.
ReplyDeleteShe was very fat and had tiny delicate feet. She was also mean mean mean. We lived in a farming community and had show and tell one day, I remember someone brought their horse. I also met all the kids I spent the rest of my school days with in 3rd grade. My 3rd grade class had the same people as my graduating class.
Third grade, I have two memories. The first was a boy with dark hair and beautiful tanned skin constantly making me laugh so hard that we got moved away from each other. His name was Jeff.
ReplyDeleteThe second, and possibly the most third grade memory, is of the last day of school. My Mom was late picking my sister and I up. My backpack was full of art from the year. I was using it to jump rope with (not a good idea). I fell and broke my front tooth in half, my lip was swollen and bleeding. And the Vice Principal comes out, picks me up and carries me inside. My sister said, "I told you so" and he said "I wonder how my wife is going to get this blood out of my shirt?" Then I passed out.
Happy Third Grade, Avery and Happy Birthday!
We lived in Colorado at the time and all I remember is an awesome class room with bean bags and a bunk bed that was turned into a fort. Oh an a great outside play area. I don't really remember anything thing eles. I couldn't even tell you if the teracher was a man or women. But the bean bags were dope.
ReplyDeleteAvery I hope you make some good memories.
Mrs. Lang...so sweet! Let's see - I remember lots of kickball, lots of swinging, and one day we were on the playground, Mrs. Lang blew the whistle b/c it was time to go in...well, I was getting up to run in and this boy jumped on my back (he was above me on monkey bars) and it forced me to the ground hitting my head on a big rock...well, I had to get stitches and still have the scar! I also remember Valentine's Day vividly how we all made card boxes at home and put them on our desk...mine was the prettiest b/c my Mommy helped me! :) Have a wonderful 3rd grade Avery, and happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteThe kindest teacher I had was third grade. I had a bad day and she pulled me into her lap and hugged me and when I cried all over her silk blouse she said "Oh, a boobie tear! Those are the best kind". Thanks for scrounging up the memory...and happy birthday to the 8 year old.
ReplyDeletei loved third grade...
ReplyDeletemrs. vines.. nature hikes... best friends... saddle shoes... bobby lambert... and horribly scary math tests...
Happy Birthday, Avery,
ReplyDeleteThird grade was the year I read The Boxcar Children. I loved the idea of living in the woods all on my own. It so happened that my school bordered on some woods, all spruce trees and deep moss. At recess time I would sneak into the woods to my favorite tree with low overhanging branches and big gnarly roots that made perfect shelves, table and chair.
It seemed like the perfect place to live, so I began stealing food from home and taking it to my tree. I took canned milk, canned fruit, sunflower seeds, raisins, leftover toast from breakfast, stuff I saved from my lunch, whatever I could think of. It was a pretty cool idea, then it began snowing and blowing and I forgot all about it. I never even went back and got the stuff, don't know what ever happened to it. Someone must have come along and found it eventually and really wondered what was going on. I bet the squirrels had a good time with some of it too.
If you decide to run away and live in the woods, I'm sure you'll remember to plan and pack better than I did. Be sure an take a cast iron fry pan, lots of canned food, a tent and a sleeping bag. Don't forget to take lots of clothes, books to read, flashlight and batteries, first aid kit, hairbrush, something for dessert, lots of water to drink...you know, all the stuff you need.
Best of luck with third grade, and may eight years old be good to you.
Oh my goodness... the blisters from the monkey bars are so familiar! And then comes blisters on top of blisters! I don't know how they do it!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Owens was my third grade teacher and I loved her. She read The Great Brain books to us.
ReplyDeleteI was in the third year of my crush on Matt Estes, a blond haired freckled boy in my class.
I shared my record from The Muppet Movie and all the kids laughed at me when the record unexpectedly rolled out of the jacket and shattered on the floor.
We went to Malakoff Diggins.
I had a bloody nose that lasted for 4 hours and during that time I asked weakly for my second grade teacher because she looked the most like my Mom.
We played Star Wars in the big wooden fort.
Bittersweet!
third grade had great memories! hope avery does too!
ReplyDeleteoh, third grade! I spent most of my teaching years as a third grade teacher. I love all your memories, which is funny to me because I remember someone telling me that 3rd grade was the most forgotten year! (how "they" know that, I do not know.)
ReplyDeleteHope that blister turns into a nice little tough spot for more monkey bar play.
Can't wait to see the gift.
In 3rd grade I moved from Mesa, AZ to Hurricane, UT. It was a shock going from a city to a little town.
ReplyDeleteI remember that my teacher (Mr. Hinton) was a MAN!! I thought that was so weird.
I also remember a little boy singing "Michelle Michelle go to Hell." and when went to tell my teacher what he said, Mr. Hinton said "did he say H E double hockey sticks?" and I said "No! He said HELL!"
I also remember that I wore my New Kids on the Block T-shirt and a girl named Morgan came up to me and said "New Kids on the Block aren't cool here." It was good to know.
Hope you have a great 3rd grade year!
Love you,
Aunt Michelle
3rd grade was a miserable year for me. New state, new school. Another girl named jenny went into the boys' bathroom, but I got paddled for it, yes, paddled with a wooden paddle. I got lice twice. I wore a dress one day for the first time with heeled sandals, then stumbled while going down the stairs and ended up falling the rest of the way down.
ReplyDeleteThe only good thing I can remember is the library... every day after school, I walked to the library to meet my mom there and then we drove home.
I'm stopping by here for the first time, but just had to write something down about third grade. What is it about that Grade that makes us all remember it so vividly? My teacher's name was Mme. Giraffe. I also lost my first tooth in Grade 3, rather than in Grade 2 where I would have been rewarded with a piece of bubblegum :(
ReplyDeleteI remember rabbit ears and matching clothes and chasing boys. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have a third grader. I can't wait to watch the year unfold.
I don't remember 3rd grade. So in lieu of a personal reminiscence, I am linking to a South Park episode about public schooling vs home schooling.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103887
Happy 3rd Grade Avery!
ReplyDeleteIn third grade my friend and I wrote graffiti all over the bus stop one afternoon. It turned into this big whodunit mystery. My friend eventually broke and told on us. My dad made me scrub every bit of it off myself.
I am not going to tell you that the lesson of the story is to not have an accomplice when you get into mischief but I do remember my little 3rd grade self thinking that.
And in conclusion, graffiti is BAD!
Enjoy your year!
Tracey
Well Molly, my brain is exhausted trying to think of 3rd grade, I've even enlisted the help of Grandma is trying to remember something! Nothing, absolutely nothing (so far) My comment is that I didn't realize the tupperware lunch box had traumatized you. Sorry! You look awfully cute in that picture.
ReplyDeleteLove that picture of you in 3rd grade :)
ReplyDeleteMy 3rd grade teacher was Ms. Sufuentes. I remember counting to 10 in sign language and once the whole class got to "10", the entire class should be silent or there was going to be trouble. (I'm not sure what kind of trouble, though.) I still like to count to 10 in sign language and it probably inspired my interest in s.l. Someday maybe I will learn more.
I also remember one boy chasing all the girls on the playground. I'm not sure where the other boys were, probably playing a game somewhere.
OH, and I tried out for choir in the 3rd and didn't make it :( Me, me, me, meeee....
Anyways, my 3rd grade teacher was a tough one, but I remember her fondly. I can't remember my 4th grade teacher or my 5th.
I can't believe Avery is eight!!
Third grade...hmmm. I don't remember much. I had Mrs. Johnson who was ok, but I remember that noone would ever be like my second grade teacher, who was about the sweetest person on the whole planet earth. Third grade, that might have been the grade that I beat the pants off of the girl that would become the track star in high school in the 50 or 100 meter dash. But I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteThird grade! Mrs. Oger (pronounced Oh-jay, with a french accent). It was the first year I was in a split grade, and only six of us got to be the smart kids that went with the 4th graders. I was in Young Authors and we wrote stories at lunch time and got them all "published". We also got to do dances and the science fair and Electives a year early because the grade fours were doing it. We were allowed to choose our own words for spelling and my friend and I chose supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. We wanted a challenge. Someone brought a de-scented skunk in for show and tell. Our classroom was in the basement of the school, no windows, and no amount of artwork and bulletin boards could keep it from feeling like a dungeon. We got to make a shoebox diorama of our dream bedrooms and mine was a glassy conservatory with jungle plants and a glass floor over a fish pond. With my own monkeys and parrots, of course. And I thought I remembered nothing about third grade!
ReplyDeleteMolly, I'm weighing in late on this one but I have two vivid third grade memories (Central NJ, still farming country in those days, would have been 1974.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I won the township science fair and placed 4th in the state -- hydroponics! I was SO proud of that project!
Second, Ricky Powers. I remember playing tackle football at recess with him and the other boys and getting stuck inside for a week for it. I also remember a lot of secret glances. And his tattered sneakers (tennis shoes to some of you). His family wasn't very well off (mine either but shoes were a priority). In my 8-year old wisdom though, I thought his ripped up shoes were very cool. So, I ripped mine up. Yeah, um. That went over big with my mom! And I remember dodgeball with him, somehow secretly managing to work as a team.
Wow, thanks for the opportunity to walk down memory lane. Best wishes to Avery for a wonderful year!
Oh, yes, cursive!
ReplyDeleteAnd eye glasses. I remember feeling like everyone was STARING at them, and thus, me all through that first day wearing them to school. Fortunately, I had a life saver of a best friend who had glasses already and so she gave me sympathetic looks across the room and talked me through that entire day while I felt like I was beet red and sweating bullets.
Oh, and I remember being so angry at the school nurse because she'd told my parents that she thought I should see an eye doctor so, of course, it was HER fault that I had to get glasses in the first place. Then, I remember figuring out a year or two later that she had nothing to do with it and that she was actually a really, truly kind person with my best interests at heart.
Ah, third grade. Much fun.