Top 10 Things in Elementary School You Probably Forgot About

There was nothing quite as special as walking into the gym and seeing that parachute. Something about creating a dome with it and playing games underneath it was so much fun. That was PE at its absolute best in my opinion. If you didn't do this at least twice, did you even go to elementary school?

I MISS YOU PLEASE COME BACK. I always dream that my boss would just come into the room and yell, "Parachute time!" and we would all play with the parachute like we were back in elementary school. Too bad that day never happened.

These would come around every so often, and when they did, man, did they get you more hyped than ever to read. I remember teachers would always show a preview which highlighted some of the books at the book fair. There were other trinkets there as well, like special pencils and posters, but you either didn't buy anything or you'd beg your parents for $10 to buy a book. It was truly a unique event.

I remember these, but I couldn't find anything I wanted, so I usually got a Wimpy Kid book or something.

For whatever reason, it seems like every fourth-grader in the US learned how to play this thing that was basically like a clarinet. You would learn different notes and have to play different songs. I don't know why they taught us how to play a recorder, maybe to get kids into music? I don't know, but it seems like nobody ever remembers that weird era where you played a recorder and then never again.

We learned how to play these in music class in fourth grade. My music teacher was terrible, though, so it wasn't a fun experience. When I moved and went to a new school in fifth grade, they were just starting to learn them while I had a year head start. I still have both recorders.

We would go by alphabetical order by our last names, and this would SUCK because my last name started with a Y and I would always be last. Want lunch? Wait for all the other students to get theirs. Besides, when we did the graduation thing at the end of the school year, I would be called up last and I just hated the feeling of being last. If your last name starts with the letters A-D, consider yourself very lucky.

For whatever reason, elementary school teachers decided to enforce walking in a single file line like you were military troops. They did this EVERY time no matter if it was going to PE, music, lunch, recess, or whatever. I get why they did it, but it was so weird. If your last name started with anything from S-Z, have fun being near the end of the line most of the time.

These things were kinda like lockers, but not really. They weren't secure, and yet, you had to store everything in them. I don't know what it was about everyone storing their belongings in the same general area, but something about it is unsettling looking back. Also, did anyone else remember the teachers assigning you a certain number, or is that just me?

Mainly in 1st grade, I want to say this introduced this weird way of putting stuff up that wasn't a locker quite yet. We didn't have assigned numbers or anything like that. We just put them wherever we wanted to, as long as we recalled where we put our backpacks and other things.

This was fun, but the only problem was that friends would only pick their other friends, and I wasn't the most social person ever. So most of the time, I just had to pray that the one nice kid who included me in everything would choose me to stand in the front of the class to pick. However, if I was the one who did the thumbs thing, everybody would cheat and say it was me.

This game I'm pretty sure was universally played in elementary school, at least in the US. It was rare to play as a way to pass time, but basically, 7 people are chosen and have to tap another person's thumb. After everyone has picked, those people have to guess who picked them. I don't know what it is, but this game is so much fun.

I hated recess. I was always left out with nothing to do. The only thing I liked about it was that it gave us a bit of a break from doing work.

These were the most fun days of the year. Instead of learning stuff, you got to basically party in your Halloween costume at school, get candy, play games, and maybe do a parade. On Valentine's Day, you just brought a box, took turns handing out valentines to your classmates, and ate some treats and stuff. Yeah, those were the good days.

I remember how I would always look forward to the harvest parade (from 2012 - 2014 before my school stopped having it) and getting candy from my classmates every February 14th. In fact, I still occasionally find some old glittery heart-shaped rings I got from Target in February 2012 when I was in kindergarten around my apartment.

I'm entering 6th grade in September, and in 4th grade, we used to have these all the time. Then my teacher found out that they didn't teach anything, so she stopped giving them to us.

The most stressful thing about elementary school was these things. You were given a sheet of about 20-30 problems that you had to complete in a certain amount of time. They were all easy looking back, but at the time learning facts from 0-12 could be hard.

Oh yeah, in 3rd and 4th grade, we had to know the basic multiplication sheets from 0x0 to 12x12. In 4th grade, you got some sort of contemporary prize if you scored well on a test with at least an A-.

I would usually get an A on every spelling test. I think it helps that I've pretty much always been able to read above grade level.

Hell, I was told that I was reading at an eighth-grade level when I was only in the third grade. Now I'm a high school sophomore, and I'm reading at a university level.

Ugh, I was never a fan. They weren't hard, but trying to spell words like mountain or important was hard in 2nd grade.

Oh yeah, try writing the same word 10 times a day for homework. Those were my dark ages.

My elementary school would have Dr. Seuss Day every year. In the week leading up to it, we would wear various wacky things such as oversized hats. I wore an oversized purple hat to school once for Dr. Seuss Day in 2014 when I was in 2nd grade.

I remember the library always tried to celebrate Dr. Seuss Day. There were a lot of Dr. Seuss classics like Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and The Grinch.

They really tried to get all the Dr. Seuss in your face, didn't they?

My third-grade teacher had something similar to this where we'd all get a star numbered based on our last names. The chart would read "W" (for warning), 1 check, 2 checks, and 3 checks. If your star was in the punishment zone, you wouldn't be able to earn a raffle ticket for that day (the raffle tickets were for buying prizes in class on Fridays). Additionally, 3 checks would mean that your parents would be called. More often than not, my star would be moved to the warning zone.

Also, when I was in second grade, we had behavior charts that we took home and showed our parents every single day. "E" stood for excellent (meaning you didn't get in trouble that day), "S" was satisfactory (usually given to you if you were caught talking in class), and "N" was needs to improve (such as if you talked in class a lot during the day or broke a more serious rule). Usually, I'd come home with an "S" on my behavior chart for talking in class a few times, but I did get an "N" on my behavior chart a few times, once for talking way too much in class. I got an "E" a few times.

I don't know why, but for whatever reason, these were seen as being popular in elementary school. Having these made you "cool" even though the scent was somewhat hard to tell and usually would wear off. The same applies to markers as well.

Weirdly, I didn't get a hold of these pencils until around middle school.

I didn't have any scented pencils, but a lot of people I knew had them.

The time when you got to lie down on a pillow after every lunch.

I didn't forget this! I eat, sleep, and breathe that one word: "relaxation."