School Days

Just to update you on the life of a kindergartner helper: Week one
The teacher gave me many important jobs which included 

Filling 26 bags with Fruit Loops for a math activity




Organizing 26 birthday bags

Writing the initial of each child's first name on a Styrofoam tray  

Arranging alphabet letters

One student arranged magnetic letters on a cookie sheet to spell out my name








Kindergartner helper observations: Light-up shoes are still in

as well as fancy hair dos

and they like to be silly and have fun

and they love this new book their teacher read to them.

It was a very cute story about a turtle who was searching for something red and all the animals ran after him wondering where he was going in such a hurry.

And to their surprise the red that the turtle was in a hurry to get to was a sunset.

Perhaps you have some first day of school remembrances

• a notebook with clean white pages
• a box of new crayons with all their tips
• freshly sharpened pencils
• a new folder with corners that are not bent
• new clothes
• lots of rules to remember
• name tags
• riding the school bus
• story times, games and lots of new friends
• school lunches
• backpacks
• missing mom and dad

The First Day of School

Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?
And what if I get lost on my way back to class?
And what if the other kids are a hundred, a thousand, times smarter than I am?
And what if we have a spelling test, or a reading test, or an...anything test, and I'm the only person who doesn't pass?
And what if my teacher decides she doesn't like me?
And what if, all of a sudden a tooth gets loose?
And what if I can't find lunch, or I sit on my lunch, or I (oops!) drop my lunch someplace like the toilet?
Will they let me starve or will somebody lend me a sandwich?
A cookie? A cracker? An apple? Some juice?
And what if they say, "Do this," and I don't understand them?
And what if there's teams and nobody picks me to play?
And what if I took off my sneakers, and also my socks, and my jeans, and my sweatshirt and T-shirt,
And started the first day of school on the second day?

By Judith Viorst