Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UMKC chapter.

A lot of people have great memories from childhood or from school that make them reminisce about those times and miss being a kid. Here are four things I find nostalgic from elementary school in the 2000s:

silly bandz

Silly Bandz were a massive trend at my elementary school. I remember every single kid having them. Kids would often trade to have the Silly Bandz they preferred. From holiday-themed ones to Justin Bieber-inspired bands, there was every possible shape you could think of. I remember that in the third grade, a boy had confessed to having a crush on me and then gifted me a heart Silly Band. I kept it for months until it eventually snapped. Silly Bandz still exists today and can be purchased online.

Scholastic book fair

I felt a huge amount of excitement every time a Scholastic book fair would make an appearance at my school. I remember my class would go to the library and watch a trailer for all the popular books coming to the fair. We then would receive a pamphlet with most of the items that were  sold at the book fair and circle all of the items we wanted. I was interested in book series such as Rainbow Magic, Junie B. Jones and—my favorite—Geronimo Stilton. After figuring out which books I wanted, of course, then came the begging for money from  my parents. I am forever thankful for them supporting all the random things I wanted to buy. I think the Scholastic book fair continued in middle school for me; however the feeling it had in elementary school remains unmatched.

Giant parachute in gym class

I’m not sure if this is a universal thing, but my elementary would pull the parachute out at the end of the school year or for field day. It always felt like a special activity, so everyone was always really excited whenever the teacher came out of the storage closet with it. I remember we played a shark game that involved someone inside the parachute having to pick someone outside of it. We would always pick our best friends or the person we were crushing on. We would also do the iconic act of lifting the parachute high all at once, then sitting on it to make it into a big marshmallow shape. I would personally still enjoy this as an adult and I hope kids still get to enjoy this in schools.

Computer Games

My favorite part of any time was getting to take a break and playing a computer game. I remember playing games such as Club  Penguin, Coolmath games and Starfall. However, my absolute favorite game was Poptropica. The game  was especially popular during my third and fourth grades. I would not only play it at school, but then I would go home, take my parents’ laptop, and play it for hours. My favorite island to go on was Game Show or Escape from Pelican Rock. I visited the new website and everything seems to be similar. There is also an app available to play on the go. I wish the app was available earlier because, as a kid, I would have loved to play Poptropica on car rides.

I hope you either agreed with how I felt or had a memory unlocked you didn’t think you had. This list was shortened to four  but I could go on forever about nostalgia in elementary school. This will forever remain such a fun and innocent time for me. I hope you search for some of the memories I mentioned. I know personally, I will be playing Poptropica.

Hello everyone! I am a first-year student at UMKC studying criminal justice and psychology. Despite not being an education major, I love working with children. In my free time, I can be found at a preschool or babysitting. Some of my hobbies are journaling and baking. I can also often be found re-watching the vampire diaries or binging 80s movies.