A Look Back:Remembering our grammar school teachers

Last week we visited some of our early teachers at Huntington Beach High, and I would be amiss if I didn’t do the same for our own elementary school teachers before they give me an “F” on my report card.

This week we’ll journey back to grammar school, to a time when America was in the last days of World War II and our residents were feeling safer from a surprise attack.

It was on April 25, 1945 that Huntington Beach Central Elementary School chose to unveil the talents of its students during public school week.

On Wednesday evening more than 1,500 parents and friends came to see our school children’s original works in all their finery. That was about a quarter of our town’s population at the time.

On their first stop inside the school, the parents of kindergarten students would meet Dora Mae Ellis and Elnora Hagen, who were the kindergarten teachers at the time.

The parents were shown displays of seashells that the kids had found and a collection of cocoons and artwork that the children had completed.

In the first-grade classroom of Mrs. Nichols, her students had on display six songs that they had composed and illustrated themselves.

These songs were “Thunder Song,” “Rain Song,” “Valentine Song,” “Easter Song” and songs about our great American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

The children helped make a large illustration of the story of “Mr. Penny,” and each of Mrs. Nichols’ students not only wrote about the character but also drew him.

Esther Funkhouser’s class of first graders had a display of birds, birdhouses and bird books in honor of spring along with a small spring flower garden.

Moving on to the classroom of Miss MacMillan, we find her students displaying a collection of their original drawings and stories that they had completed.

Her students also created a moving picture based on the Story of Horace.

In the last of the first-grade classrooms, we find the students of Miss Jones engaged in making a large illustration about “The Three Little Pigs,” in which each student added their own touch to the picture.

Also in Miss Jones’s class were displays of the children’s workbooks showing their skills in learning to write and use numbers.

Leaving the first grades behind we now tackle the harder grade of the second grade, where in Dora Dow’s classroom was featured a large panorama her students made depicting the story of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

I’ll bet Disney could have taken some tips from these students for his movie.

A diorama showing out town was on display in Ina Blossom’s second-grade class. Her students created a scale model of the City Hall, Police Department and the Chamber of Commerce buildings and Blossom’s students also drew pictures of places in town that interested each pupil.

I wonder if they still do this in today’s second-grade classes?

A child-sized grocery store was the prominent feature made by the students in Elinore Greer’s classroom.

This store was built to resemble a grocery store, and the kids learned about the role of a grocer in the community.

On each student’s desk were colorful folders in which each student kept their work for mom and dad to see.

Pictures of people, boats and airplanes that Mrs. Bernier’s students had painted in calcimine were hung on the wall in her second-grade classroom.

I sure remember mixing those colored powders when I was in second grade at Miramonte School in Los Angeles. But the pictures I painted only a mother could love.

Next week we’ll continue our journey through the halls and classrooms during public school open house.

These looks into the classrooms of yesterday not only give a chance for a former student to remember their teacher, but they also give parents an opportunity to remember a time when their child was young and innocent ? a time that passes all to quickly when the sounds of “look mommy what I drew” no longer come from the lips of their child.

But for now my feet are sore, and I’m getting tired from going from class to class, so we’ll stop until next week.