What were your favourite kindergarten memories?

[LSUmiss]

The only one I can remember was Jiminy Cricket's "Bug-a-Boo." I can still hum the tune and sing the chorus.

I remember that one & Step In Time from Mary Poppins.

 

[holden]

I loved the flower shaped cookies with the hole in the middle. We would put them our finger and eat around trying to leave the smallest ring of cookie on our finger.

We also learned how to spell Saturday by listening to “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers.

 

[MomofKatie]

My teacher was Mrs. Collins and she was so pretty! She had red hair.

Our classroom had a piano in it and Mrs. Collins played and sang to us.

I walked to school with my big brother (he was in the 4th grade). We lived about 5 blocks away in the city.

My crush was a cute little red haired boy with freckles- Timmy O'Connor. I chased him around the playground during recess.

 

[dotfurio]

I guess kindergarten is still optional in 35 states in the U.S. Not California, I attended 1962-1963. My wife was in Texas, and it was still optional there. My FIL would have been in kindergarten in Texas in about 1935, except he got expelled on the second day!

Kindergarten isn't currently mandatory in California.

One favorite memory I have of K is holding up the line at the slide so I could wait for my imaginary friend to finish sliding down before I went

 

[hereyago]

I went in the early 70's. I got Chicken Pox right before it started,lol.

I recall it being a half day program and got home in time to watch Search for tomorrow and Young and Restless with my mom lol.

I recall having a mat for nap time
Wearing one of my dad's old shirt as an art smock for finger painting

Snack time
That's all I've got.

 

[disneychrista]

Nap Time.

 

[tvguy]

Kindergarten isn't currently mandatory in California.

Yeah, just looked that up. School is mandatory when they turn 6 (before September 1), but it is up to the local school district whether that student is placed in kindergarten or first grade. Which is odd given that so many districts are pushing parents to enroll their children in pre-kindergarten (or transitional kindergarten in some districts) at age 4. My kids were in a private program from age 3 on. DD could read by the time she was 5.
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/kindergartenfaq.asp

 

[JaneBanks]

My very own cubby hole where we put our things.

Singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" while the teacher (Mrs. Baumgarten) played the piano.

The smell, I can still smell it in my mind.

My kindergarten picture:

 

[aristocatz]

I only have one memory of kindergarten.....my first crush David
We were pals because we also took ice skating class together. I remember walking with him at school & holding his hand and my hand was sweating lol. I have several memories of nursery school & also first grade, but this is literally my only memory of kindergarten!

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

To be honest kindergarten was pretty uneventful for my memories lol.

I can recall preschool much better. Seems weird I know.

From kindergarten I remember I loved my teacher and then she ended up being my niece and newphew's teacher as well.
I met one of my best friends that moved away a couple years later. Her name was Melinda which is my middle name.
Oh and there was a bathroom in the back of the room and I sat at the table closest to it because I always had to pee haha.

And now I'm trying to remember if it was kindergarten that I had chicken pox because I remember that I went to my grandma's house when I had that and All I wanted to eat was strawberry jello with bananas in it and I sat naked on a towel on the couch all day because I could not stand having clothes touch the itchiness.

 

[bjscheel]

I remember riding the kindergarten station wagon home. It was half-day K and so they took us home in station wagons instead of using the busses. Kevin used to try to kiss me and the other girls on the station wagon would shield me with their bodies. Then my mom had a talk with his mom and that ended.

I remember crying because we had an Easter bunny cake with coconut frosting and I didn't like coconut. Also one time our snack was hard boiled eggs and the teacher checked our milk cartons to make sure we didn't hide our eggs in them.

 

[Sweetpancake]

The last day of kindergarten I remember our teacher having us stand up at our desk while the pre-schoolers walked through to check out the class they would be in the next year and feeling so proud that I was entering grade 1.

 

[Mirielle]

The main thing that stands out in my mind is a musical we were going to perform. I was soooo excited and hoped to have the part leading a parade and twirling (really slinging it all around) a baton. I didn't get that part and was devastated. The girl who did get the part leading the parade with the baton wasn't really all that interested. I made up my mind right then, at age 4, that I would have my very own baton and I'd learn to twirl it....not just sling it around for fun. I was a majorette 4 years of high school and 2 years of college. Finally got to lead a parade...many times and still like to twirl on occasion.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I had bad, bad asthma. My mom came to " help" in our class a lot. She was a fabulous baker and brought treats for everyone. If it was a bad asthma day, I went home with her.

I was the calendar changer girl. Every day, I put up the wooden numbers of what the date was and picked the corresponding weather block.

Our milk had crappy paper straws that just turned to mush.

 

[dotfurio]

Yeah, just looked that up. School is mandatory when they turn 6 (before September 1), but it is up to the local school district whether that student is placed in kindergarten or first grade. Which is odd given that so many districts are pushing parents to enroll their children in pre-kindergarten (or transitional kindergarten in some districts) at age 4. My kids were in a private program from age 3 on. DD could read by the time she was 5.
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/kindergartenfaq.asp

I think it should be mandatory. K isn’t like it used to be - there are educational standards for K yet there’s no requirement for attendance. It really leaves kids behind if they skip it and go straight into 1st.

 

[ols386]

Making those round plaster things, where you made your handprint.

 

[aprilgail]

I remember loving the wooden blocks there. And the jungle gym outside on the kindergarten playground- it was like one of those dome shaped things that you climbed up on, I remember finally getting the courage to climb to the very top of that!

I remember that after the 1st day I came home saying that I was not going back again, I remember them forcing me to drink the milk- not physically but to a 5 year old having a teacher tell you that you have to drink that milk was "force"- and her saying I could not have a cookie until I drank the milk. I did not even drink milk at home, hated it-still do---and the milk in kindergarten was delivered to the door hours before we drank it so it was warmish--SO gross!! The next day my mom wrote a note saying I did not have to drink the milk and I went to school happy-until they would not give me anything else to drink instead of the milk, no water, nothing...try doing that now LOL, no way it would be ok!

 

[aprilchem]

I'm surprised that everyone has so many kindergarten memories . I went to kindergarten, but I have no memories of it. I know the name of my teacher, but I don't remember what she looked like or anyone who was in my class. I know that we had to learn to write our full names with perfect penmanship, but only because my mom saved the sheets where I practiced and the one where I finally got it perfect. Other than that - nothing.

And before anyone says that something traumatic happened and I blocked out kindergarten - no, nothing like that. I have a great memory in general, but not for things that happened a long, long time ago.

 

[tvguy]

I think it should be mandatory. K isn’t like it used to be - there are educational standards for K yet there’s no requirement for attendance. It really leaves kids behind if they skip it and go straight into 1st.

I think education pre-school, pre-K and Kindergarten greatly benefited both my kids

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Some good, and not so good moments:

1. We had to take a bus for the 1st half of the year because our neighborhood school's kindergarten room was under construction. I didn't like the bus, really, but thought I was so cool because my 1st grade sister still had to walk to school.

2. My teacher would have us all sit on the floor on a carpet sample and the Birthday kid would go up to the front, be put over her knee and she would give "birthday spankings" with this wooden paddle. She would make a big deal about it and pretend to really whack the kid, but stop just in time to barely tap their bottoms. I was so terrified at first and thanked the heavens that my birthday wasn't until May lol, but then the kids would laugh instead of cry, so I figured out that she wasn't really hitting them. She would also give them a "pinch to grow an inch" on their arm, which I didn't like either. I can't even imagine either of those things being done in a classroom today!

3. I learned the words to London Bridge is Falling Down, and loved to play it.

4. Not a good memory, but I had a speech issue in K (not being able to say L and R properly), and went to a speech therapist a time or two every week. I would get called out of class and all the kids would state at me when I came back. Once, I did really good and the teacher gave me a card with a stick of candy in it (like a candy cane, but no hook). I didn't want to other kids to see it, so I hid it in my shirt and sat with it all through reading time until I could go to my backpack and hide it lol I worked really hard and graduated out of speech therapy really fast lol because I hated getting pulled out of class for it!

5. I was "tested" at the end of K for our assessment, and the teacher read my scores to me - I got a "PASS" in every area except telling my right from left. I still can't do it under pressure! I tell everyone that I failed it in Kindergarten and am ruined for life.

I loved playing in the house area more than anything in the world. The way the classroom was configured, the house area was in a little alcove with windows kind of set apart from the actual classroom, so when you went in there, it felt like you were really in a house and not at school. There were real curtains in the windows and a tablecloth on the table and everything. It was my favorite part of Kindergarten!

Not really pertinent or anything, but sadly interesting. My K teacher's name was a really long Italian name that had the letters "no" at the end. I remember being so scared to meet her because my sister told me she was really mean and all the kids woudl emphasize the "NO" at the end of her name (as if to say "NO" we don't want her! lol) But they had good reason - their original sweet, kind, gentle K teacher passed away suddenly in the middle of the year and Mrs. G, who was older, not young and pretty in the eyes of 5 year olds and more strict, was the replacement. She was a great teacher and I ended up liking her, but now as an adult, I think about how terrible the sudden death of a beloved K teacher must have been to those kids and school!