Our First Grader
by Ashley Weeks Cart
Today she graduated from Kindergarten. Tomorrow is Move Up Day and she’ll spend the morning in her new first grade classroom.
And yes, I am breathing deeply in and out of a brown paper bag.
During the graduation ceremony, the kids all sang “Kindergarten Wall.”
I’m fortunate my camera didn’t malfunction from water damage.
When I was a little kid not so long ago
I had to learn a lot of stuff I didn’t even know
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope
But of all the things I learned my favorite of them all
Was a little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall
Of all you learn here remember this the best:
Don’t hurt each other and clean up your mess
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street
And remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!