The Wonder Years: Fifth Grade.

I absolutely loved fifth grade! Not only was I a "top dog" in the school, but I genuinely enjoyed my class/teacher. I had Mrs. Garvin, one of the sweetest people I have ever met.

I actually liked to learn things in elementary school. And as per usual with the quiet kid who likes to learn, I was a teacher's pet with pretty much all of my teachers, including Mrs. Garvin. I would volunteer for anything "behind the scenes" she needed help with (as I was very shy).

One of my favorite things from this year was the colonial times week the entire 5th grade participated in. Every class had a different area of the country (or something like that) that they had to interpret/act out for the other classrooms. We spent part of every day visiting each classroom and learning about different lifestyles of Americans back then. Besides my own classroom, I can remember Mr. Franklin's class acting out (I hope this is right) the Boston Tea Party. They built a ship right there in the middle of their classroom and acted out the event that took place. As one of their food items, I remember trying sauerkraut for the first time, it was awful. It's pungent odor loomed the hall for days. In my classroom, we had several stations set up where the lives of our people were brought to life. I played a woman who sat in a rocking chair and sewed (pretended to, anyway) this cloth using a wooden embroidery hoop. I had several lines that I had to memorize and say as each class came to visit. My shyness made me a nervous wreck that day. I can remember feeling that anxiety of having to speak in front of my peers. I'm telling you, my anxiety was unbearable when I was a kid. I may have had some kind of social or anxiety disorder. Who knows?

This is the year that the girls and boys were split up and taught about our "changing bodies". I remember this discussion - lecture, rather - being a shock. My body is going to do WHAT? I thought to myself. I was not okay with that. Also, I was a little confused as to how it all worked. Whatever the case, I didn't see the big change for a few years, so I was okay. A girl in my class, on the other hand, had been dealing with her "girly problems" for about a year at this point. How sad!

I do believe that 5th grade was the year Taylor, Sydney, and I played "wolf" almost everyday at recess. (Or maybe it was just at SOAR recess.) Anyway, Sydney - a black girl - was the wolf and Tay and I had to chase her when she "escaped" from her "cage". The cage was just this huge hole in the side of a hill. It was one of the most fun things I played at recess but looking back, it's rather weird. ha

Movies seen in theater: 43
DvDs bought: 70