The heart of Meridian School District is our students. They are our focus and priority. This year, we are interviewing students to hear what is important to them and what they think about school. Each interview is just as unique and special as the student being featured. Part one of the series focuses on Irene Reither Elementary School. This series will run through the end of the school year. We are so fortunate to be in a community that loves and supports our students! Please enjoy this continuation of Meet Meridian!
Harleen, fifth grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“I like science. Right now we are doing science and learning about water. I like science and art. I like going to Ms. Updike’s class and doing art because she’s really nice and open. Right now we are drawing an eye.
All the teachers and everyone here are pretty helpful. Like your teachers can help if you’re feeling sad inside class and other people are helpful when you’re feeling sad or mad outside the classroom. The recess monitors are really nice.
Our teacher helps around the classroom and makes us like working. If someone doesn’t like something, she makes it fun. Like math, she makes math fun and now everyone wants to do math. We do this thing called Math-a-Day every morning. It’s like multiplication and division you do in the morning just to refresh your brain to be aware at school of what we’re going to do.
If there was a new student at school, I would show them around and tell them what there’s to do. I’d make sure they feel comfortable. I’d probably play with them and make them feel pretty welcome.”
Oliver, second grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“When I grow up I would say I’m probably either going to be a computer engineer or game programmer. I am really interested in programming and I’m good at engineering thinking. I could actually code things and make really cool things.
Math is my favorite. Math is kind of fun because you have to use a bunch of strategies and I always think of strategies. My teacher helps me out with spelling words because I’m not really good at spelling but I am good at reading.
I like that school is a place where I actually have the materials in work time choices to make all the things that I need to make. That is the only way to get it out of my head is actually making it. My favorite part of work time is art. I am always engineering. I’m always making something.”
Viktoria, third grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“My favorite thing is recess because I get to play my favorite game, gaga ball. I like it because my friend played it and explained the rules. Now every day I go and play it. The recess monitors help keep our games fair. If you are fair then people will trust you more. I really like when we have specialties like PE. We get to play lots of games.
I like doing lots of activities and I really like art because I get it. I’m a pretty good artist. I copy stuff really good and I can draw them kind of good. I have a notebook and I make it my own coloring book. I want to be an artist when I grow up. I can draw lots of kinds of things. I can draw a pretty good cake. I can draw cupcakes pretty well and I can draw decorations on it.
I like doing math and sometimes math tests. We had a math test today, our very first one. I only messed up on three of them but it was just like to see what I need to learn.
My teacher is really nice. He lets us have breaks and go to the playground and then we come back and read. He helps me learn a lot of things like what I need to work on and what I already know. He sometimes helps me with hard questions or he helps me fix them.”
Gaby and Cal, kindergartners at Irene Reither Elementary School
What is your favorite thing to do during work time?
Cal: I like making the superhero headband.
Gaby: Kitchen. To be the chef. I like to cook pizza.
What are your favorite stories?
Gaby: I like books about fish.
Cal: I like this animal book, there are animal pages and you have to find things.
What is one of your favorite things at school?
Cal: I like Friday PE because we get to go to the lunch room. We do soccer then nerf balls then scooters then rubber balls.
What is your favorite school lunch?
Gaby: Chicken nuggets and the cookies with the smiley face and the milk with chocolate.
Do you like recess?
Cal: I like recess because I’m kind of good at doing the little monkey bars.
Gaby: Yes, because I like to climb. I climb a little high. I don’t climb super high because I am scared of the heights.
What else do you do at recess?
Gaby: I like to swing.
Cal: I like to slide down.
Declan, fourth grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“I like learning about math and doing mental math in my head. It feels good whenever you figure out a hard problem. If there is a problem in your math book that you don’t really understand you can work with your friend to help explain it.
In school, we get to do hands-on work or work on our math journal. We get to do stuff with our hands again instead of doing Zooms like in COVID.
It is easier to be at school than to have a schedule for different Zooms like when we were remote. During COVID, you didn’t get to sit next to anybody. You never really got to interact with each other.
In school you can get help whenever you need it. I really like the teachers. They’re really nice. They are very kind and they don’t get mad easily. It’s really fun at recess and the recess monitors make sure kids are being safe.”
Silas, Luke and Magnolia, first graders at Irene Reither Elementary School
What is your favorite thing about school?
Magnolia: My favorite thing about school is seeing my friends, playing at recess and sitting by my friends at lunch.
Luke: My favorite thing about school is learning new people’s names.
Silas: My favorite part of school is recess because I get to meet new friends and I get to play a lot.
What did you learn in school this week?
Luke: We learned about being kind. You can be kind by raising your hand, listening and helping friends.
Why is coming to school important?
Silas: Because you can get smarter. You get smarter by listening to the teachers well and teachers help us learn until we can do it by ourselves.
How does your teacher help you?
Luke: She helps us remember people’s names through songs like Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
Who are some of the other adults in the school that help you?
Magnolia: I know a bus driver. His name is Chad and he used to be a police officer. This was my first full week on the bus and I liked it. I had to sit with my brother.
Besides recess and lunch, what is the most fun part of being in school?
Magnolia: The most fun thing is to be with my friends and everybody. Meeting new friends and playing with friends.
What if I was nervous and didn’t know how to make friends, how would I make a new friend?
Magnolia: You could play with someone you know.
Silas: You could play with someone you know until you get brave. And then go to that person and say, do you want to be friends with me? And if they say yes then you’re friends.
Luke: You would probably ask somebody that you know and if they know that person, then you can ask them if they want to say it for you.
If I was brand new and I didn’t know anybody, how would I make friends?
Luke: I would say to you, hey do you want to be my friend?
Silas: You could go on the swings until you bump into somebody. Not like running into them, but you look at each other and you’re like, do you want to be friends?