PHOTOS BY LISA JACKIER

Esther Michlin and Mara Pent!l use their school supplies for the first time.

First Day,
First Grade

CONTINUED FROM page 1

usual crowd. Teeth were missing, hair-
styles had changed and play clothes had
been changed for uniforms.
Some of the children, like Ahuva Blu-
menfeld, were excited to be back in school.
After a summer jam-packed with activi-
ties like visiting relatives in New York
and swimming nearly every day at the
Jewish Community Center camp in Oak
—Park, she was ready to settle into a school
routine.
"I don't really like going to camp and
I really missed my friends from kinder-
garten," she said, adding that she was
excited to have Anna Greenfield as her
teacher.
Basya Durden couldn't agree more.
Her summer vacation had been filled
with her first camp experience and sev-
eral trips to her bubbie and zayde's home.
Now she was looking forward to seeing
her best friend, the almost look-a-like
Kayla Carmen, whom she hadn't seen
since May.
`That was a long time ago," said Basya,
one of Akiva's 342 students.
Basya also was thrilled to use her pink
pencil, pink pencil case and pink eraser
for the first time.
"I don't like purple," she said, twirling

her bobbed hair on her finger. "It is way
too dark."
In front of Kayla and Basya sat Lev
Rubel and Solomon Ylyaguev, both ex-
periencing their first day at Akiva. Lev
was "really worried" that he wouldn't find
a friend. But after being seated next to
Solomon, he felt more at ease and even
shared his brand-new crayons with his
new pal.
"We are going to play together at re-
cess," he said. "He is new, too, you know."
Down the hall in Barbara Wool's first-
grade class, one student was not excited
to be back in school. In fact, Shim Borzak
could not think of a worse thing to do on
such a nice day.
"Oh, yes, you can say that again," Shi-
m said. "We have to do math and Hebrew
and all of that boring stuff
"The funnest thing about the whole
day is lunch and recess and that is a re-
ally, really small part of it," Shira said.
"My mom didn't tell me all of the excit-
ing things (about school), but I know
there aren't many."
After a few hours of grueling work, the
first lunch break and recess were quick-
ly approaching. Shira brightened a bit
after hearing this.
"Just a few prayers and then lunch,"
she said gleefully. ❑

Above:
Ari Blavin works on his first art project of the year.

Below:
Yonah Pollack finished his work early and kept busy with a puzzle.

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