As hard as it was to let go of the pastel uniforms, it was a welcome sight to wear the blue skirt and the white blouse.  We also had to wear that tiny ribbon for a tie.  Being a first grade, we had to fight the "elders" for a driveway slab to play "patintero."  If none were available, then we turned our sights to the stairs in front of the Information Office or the dreaded Principal's Office for a game of "Land, water, twinkle, heaven."  For those who avoided being "madungis," there were always "Pass the Message" or "Spin the Bottle" games.  Grade School was not just play,  although that is mostly how I remember it. (~Kulot :p ) 

     We had a variety of classes from Music, P.E. to Arts, Araling Panlipunan to Religion, both English and Filipino, Science and Math, whew!  That was a lot but they were able to squeeze everything in one day with teachers rotating from different classrooms.  Let us not forget those Penmanship lessons . . . where every line and curve of a letter must be just like Peterson's.  You know there was something wrong with your handwriting when you finished the third grade still using a Mongol pencil. 

     As years passed, we played less and hung out more in the library so we can hide the latest Nancy Drew or Choose Your Own Mysteries books for later reading.  We also started inching our way to the High Schooler's turf.  We grew tired of our small canteen and wanted to try the famous cafeteria.  It was something to look forward to, while we munched our "baon" under the acacia tree.  Sixth grade came and on our graduation we worried if we will still see each other next year.