Pages

Thursday, May 05, 2011

The Wonder Years: Third Grade.

I was 8 years old in 1997 when I became a third grader*. Mrs. Scicchitano was the teacher of my class. She always reminded me a little of Mrs. Frizzle, even down to the redness of the hair. I really liked that about her.

For our very first spelling test, our bonus words list included our teacher's last name... that is how I can still remember it today. So yes, Scicchitano** is really her last name.

This is the year Taylor Staten, Ashley Hebert, and I became close friends. We worked on projects together when we could. One in particular was the solar system project. We had decided to make the solar system from styrofoam balls, complete with glitter, of course. I remember when we were in class working on it, we stayed towards the front left corner of the class, separating ourself from the others so they could not see our masterpiece. Also, we sort of used the table that was up there and a couple other objects as a shield. We didn't want our project leaked. We ended up having to work on it outside of the classroom as well. Tay and I went to Ashley's house after school with her one day. Ashley's family had a very long truck... I'm talking three doors on each side and a truck bed. It was exciting to ride in. Anyway, we worked on the project in her bedroom, more specifically, on this rug she had in the floor. When we were finished with the project, there was so much glitter on that rug that there would still be glitter stuck to it today if she still had it. It was nuts.


Third grade is the year you are able to start the SOAR class if you test into it. (I think it was a test that was the deciding factor.) Anyway, it was a "gifted" class we went to once a week. I have been trying to remember the subjects we studied and the things we did in each grade specifically, but I have them jumbled. I will devote a post later on to the things we did in SOAR as a whole. 

I remember one time, Tay and I had some work to make up that we missed while we were in SOAR so we decided to stay in at recess to do it. Mrs. Scicchitano allowed us to stay in without supervision. For some reason, we chose to keep the lights turned off, leaving only the sun to light the room. We sat side by side at a pair of desks that faced the vastness of the room, our backs to the filing cabinets. It was about ten minutes after we started working that we suddenly felt something... a kind of presence behind us, in that small opening between us and the cabinets. Needless to say, we left our work for later and high tailed it out of there.

Once, we were to do a report choosing whichever animal we wanted and stemming from the year before, I chose polar bears. Again. I'm telling you, they were my favorite! (That, along with whales.)

A project that my class partook in was the building of our very own homemade cooler. Dad, of course helped*** me with mine. We had a competition in class to see whose cooler would work best. We were each given a large piece of ice, put it in our cooler, and waited. Mine was one of the last ones to melt, though I think one or two kids had me beat. But still, I was proud of the cooler my dad made. He is a genius.****

The rest of my memories are turning fuzzy.


Movies seen in theaters: 22
DvDs bought: 60

*This is the year we learned that "-er" means "one who" ... "one who third grades"?
**Pronounced shick-uh-tan-o.
***And by "helped" I mean designed and built himself... with MY help. :)
****Um, this whole thing may have taken place in 2nd grade. Either way, it happened.

No comments:

Post a Comment