Kindergarten Stars

I attended Kindergarten at Holdaway Elementary School in Thayne, Wyoming. My teacher was Miss Jane Hyde.

Miss Hyde had a bulletin board that she used for attendance. The bulletin board had cutouts themed for the month (e.g., leaf for September, pumpkin for October, turkey for November, etc.). Each student in my class had a cutout with his/her name on it. When we arrived in the classroom each day, we were supposed to find our cutout hanging on the bulletin board an move it to the basket. That way Miss Hyde would know who was in class and who was absent.

In addition, Miss Hyde used our name tag cutouts for her classroom discipline and reward system. At times during the day, Miss Hyde would invite a student who had behaved exceptionally well to put a star-shaped sticker on his/her name tag. Over the course of the year, I received a few stars. I really do not remember how often Miss Hyde awarded stars. But I remember that I received some.

On the other hand, if a student was misbehaving in the classroom, Miss Hyde would walk to the front of the room to retrieve that student's name tag cutout. Then she would take her handheld hole puncher and punch a hole in the name tag.

At the end of the month, when we transitioned to a new theme for the next month, Miss Hyde would call out the students who did not have any holes punched in their cutout.

In January, we had a snowman as our name tag cutout. One day in January, Miss Hyde called me out for misbehaving. I do not remember what I was doing. I vaguely recall that it was me plus 2 or 3 of my friends who were called out. Miss Hyde punched holes in each of our name tags.

I was devastated. I was also very ashamed. I vowed that I would be on my best behavior for the rest of the day. In fact, for the rest of the month, I tried to be the best-behaved child in the classroom at all times every day in class. Before the end of the month, I was rewarded. Miss Hyde called me out for my good behavior and gave me a star sticker to add to my name tag.

I walked to the front of the class to find my name tag. Then I carefully placed the star sticker over the top of the punched hole in my snowman name tag! I have no idea if Miss Hyde noticed. I do not remember. However, I do remember how happy I felt that I was able to cover up the blemish on my snowman.