My First Day (Half Day) At School

Written By Samara Friedman

Today I woke up for the first time at six o’clock in the morning because the last three days I was so sick!!! I was so excited to go to school, to have a buddy, and I hoped to have an American kid in my class! Simon had one American kid in his class and three kids who speak English. I though I was going to have an American in my class and I was exited!

After we ate breakfast we took the Metro to school. When we got out of the station it was freezing cold! We had to walk about ten minutes to the school, which is when I got really nervous! When we got to school Simon and my mom decided to drop me off first in my classroom. The teacher was not there but some of the kids were there, mostly the boys.

Since I am in fifth grade, in France I am in CM2, which is grade five, six, and seven. CM1 is kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. They never mentione forth grade??  When I went in some of the girls spoke a little bit of English but not very much. There were NO Americans in my class, everyone is French, and I think one person is from Holland.  Luckily, it was a half-day which was the only thing I was thinking about at that moment. And when will I see my mom, when will I see my mom, when will I see my mom, when will I see my mom??????  My mom promised to come back after she dropped Simon off. It seems like it took forever but it was only about three minutes!

Finally she came back my eyes were burning and I felt so sick!!! I wanted to go home, I thought I was going to cry! The teacher came and I had to sit next to only boys because they separate the grades by tables in my room and there is only 1 other girl in my level.  Luckily people were doing their corrections so I could sit by myself quietly and peacefully! Our teacher was really nice and after they did the corrections we made posters about the nice things that people do. It had to be positive! Since I was new I got to pick names out of a pencil case to decide who gets put on the posters! It was really fun to do with everyone because I got to know them better! A couple of minutes later I went with a girl named Julia who is in sixth grade, I can already tell she is going to be my good friend in France!

Later Julia and I went to a French lesson together with Simon and three of his friends. We take extra French lessons to get better in French! At the end of the day we had to clean up the room and we could not leave until it was spotless! We had to sweep, wash the white boards, push in our chairs and throw out any garbage.

Overall I think it was a very fun experience. It was a little chaotic in the morning but as my day moved on it was fun.

After school we went to get new school supplies. It’s different then in New York because here everyone has to have all of their own supplies – protractors, pencil sharpeners, rulers, binders, colored pencils, glue sticks.  And they use graph paper which goes into a 4 ring binder.  They also tell us to bring in a mug and herbal tea.

When we got home I had to help Simon catch up on some of his French homework because it was a bit confusing. Now I better get some sleep before my school tomorrow because on Thursdays and Fridays school starts at 8:30 and goes until 5:30.