Bump Up Day
Posted By pamelamyers on June 9, 2016
Yesterday was Kindergarten Bump Up Day. What this means is that the kindergarteners spend almost a full day at school doing things with the first graders, visiting first grade classrooms and getting an idea about what it is like to be in first grade. It is a big transition, in my view, going from half day kindergarten to first grade. They go from only spending two and a half hours at school to spending six and a half hours at school. For Sam, that will be a big deal. She has never spent that much time away from family. She was pretty excited about it though since to a kindergartener like Sam, the first graders are very grown up. Here she is ready to start her day!
From what I was told by the school, they were going to spend the whole day with the first graders and doing first grade things. When I asked Sam at the end of the day what she did with the first graders she told me they went to a first grade classroom, they got to sit at their tables while the first graders sat on the floor, and they asked the first graders questions about first grade. Sam, of course, did not ask any questions. Sigh. I asked her what else did they do? Did they go to the cafeteria, or anything else and she said no. We had the longest discussion (argument?) about this because Sam was insistent that that is all they did. After that, they went to their regular classroom where they had lunch. That was it. Done. I knew that couldn’t be right. At least, I hoped not. The school had led us to believe that the day was to be spent learning about being in first grade. So, being that kind of parent, I emailed her teacher and asked her to tell me what exactly went on because I know Sam is not a fountain of information. Truly, based on Sam’s version of events, they spent about an hour in a first grade classroom then her day went on as usual in her kindergarten class.
I got an email back the next day telling me about the multitude of things they did including visiting the cafeteria, practicing using the pin pad they will use to buy lunch, they visited the rooftop garden, played on the first grade playground, etc. When I asked Sam about this and wanted to know why she had not told me any of these things and was so adamant about what they did at school her response was classic. She said, “You asked me what we did with the first graders. We did all that stuff without them.” OMG. She is SO LITERAL. I told her she knew what I meant, but in her defense, I guess she is right. I did ask what she did with the first graders. Sigh. At least she really did enjoy her day…
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