4th Grade- Straight A's, Paddington Bear, & The Best Elementary Soap Opera ever written!

Here is my next chapter in my Recording My Youth project for Mommy's Piggy Tales. Enjoy!

Here I am in all my 9 1/2 year old glory. Gotta love the plastic necklace and oh so very 80's dress. The ensemble wouldn't be complete without the SAME barrettes I'd worn since 1st grade. These were the only barrettes we could find that would hold my super-thick hair back without coming out. I wonder what ever happened to those things?

My BFF Ashley and I spent many days playing "Barbies in the Jungle" in her crepe myrtle tree. My groupies in the neighborhood were Aaron, Carla, Marisa, Ashley, Davonne, Saloni, & Kara-Leigh. You could find me at one of their houses if I wasn't at home. Carla and I had a little garage dance band that we called it. We had dance routines to Belinda Carlise's "Circle in the Sand", Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love", and Madonna's "La Isla Bonita". We actually sold tickets for $1 in our neighborhood for people to come watch us perform! I saw my first PG-13 movie at Carla's house, Poltergeist II. Carla's parents weren't as strict as mine were and she was allowed to watch all kinds of stuff. My mother had a fit when she found out I saw it. It scared me pretty badly, but I had good memories of being huddled under the blanket on Carla's couch waiting for the scary parts!

I believe this was the year that our neighborhood got repaved. We all followed those asphalt trucks all over our subdivision all day long amazed at the power of pavement...ha! After school, you could find me watching He-Man, She-Ra, Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors or Thundercats! Aaron and I spent many afternoons playing with his Thundercats action figures.

Anybody remember Polar Cup? Gosh, what good times we had chasing the Polar Cup frozen lemonade truck around the neighborhood. I remember all the $.25 small frozen lemonades I got!

I dearly loved 4th grade. I was in Mrs. Brown's class just across the hallway at Aloma Elem. from the 3rd grade room. It was 1986-87 and life was good. I was in the high reading group and I remember our reading book was called "Gateways". I was always a good reading and great speller. This was the year I made straight A's on my report card for the first time. I remember Mrs. Brown writing the names of the kids who got all A's on the board. I was BEAMING! I had worked so hard to accomplish this. My mom was a 2nd grade teacher's aide downstairs at the school so I was allowed to go get her and bring her to my classroom. I made her close her eyes so she couldn't see the board. She was so proud of me when she opened her eyes and saw my name under All A's!

One of my favorite parts of 4th grade was our Paddington Bear play we put on in class. We read the play in our reading books and Mrs. Brown decided to take on the task of doing it live. God bless that woman. Organizing 9 & 10 year olds is tough. I played the character of "Mrs. Brown", the mother, in the play. We splie the class in 1/2 so each kid would have a role. I was on Team A. The best part was when "Paddington" threw a pie into "Mr. Brown's" face. We got to use real whipped cream in a pie tin. Awesome! I remember asking the other girl, Vanessa, who played Mrs. Brown if she would let me take the role twice in a row. My kindergarten teacher and her class were coming to our room to watch us perform. I wanted DEARLY to perform for my former teacher. Vanessa was fine with it so I got my wish! I let her go twice in a row after my performance.

Like sands through the hourglass...A couple of girls in our class, Jenny being the main one, decided to start a class story one day. She incorporated every student in the class and wrote chapter after chapter. Mrs. Brown let her read a chapter of her story every week after lunch. We were hooked like housewifes to Days of Our Lives. We waited with baited breath each and every week to see what the next chapter of the story would be. I was in charge of writing out the cast list. I had a notebook and gosh, I wasted SO much notebook paper. I wrote list after list. I guess I just liked writing names :-) I sure wish I remembered my character's name!

Ugh...the Columbus outline & Michael Collins! Mrs. Brown wanted to introduce us to writing outlines to help with a report. We had to copy blackboard after blackboard of an outline on Christopher Columbus and write a report about him. I hated copying the board, especially so much information. I still have my outline and report. Btw, I got an A!
Michael Collins was the thorn in my side this year. He was the first boy whoever made it known that he had a crush on me. He followed me everywhere, drove me crazy, and even bought me a huge chocolate heart on Valentine's Day. I was absent that day due to being sick, so I found it in my desk when I got back to school. He chased me all over the playground after school wanting a piece. Gosh, he was annoying. Oh and GUESS WHO the photographer had me sit by in our class picture!!! UGH!