This is a continuation of our Meet Meridian series focusing on our students. Stay tuned as we launch into middle school in the new year!
Gabby, fifth grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“My favorite thing about school is I like math a lot and I like doing math. And I like reading a lot. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Lunch and recess are some of the best things.
I like how nice everybody is around the school and how open they are for emotions. We have our counselors, and our teacher always has time to talk, and if we aren’t feeling good, the nurses are always ready for us.
My brother just started kindergarten this year. I think he’s started making friends already and I’m really happy.
This is just my honest opinion but I think this is the best school ever. So many people here know everybody. It is so surprising, they know a lot of students’ names and we know most of the students around here because we’ve been with almost all of them since kindergarten. We’re gonna be with them until maybe high school unless they move. We’re used to everybody, we’re used to this school. It’s gonna be really sad going to middle school because we aren’t going to be here anymore.”
Alice, second grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“My favorite part of the day is work time choices. There are lots of choices like building and painting. My favorite is painting. I like that we can paint stuff and we can hang it on our walls. My favorite thing to learn about is reading. I like all the books. I like my teacher. She is nice. She gives us a lot of work time choices.
At school, I like talking to my friends. I like lunch. They give us good food, like oranges and milk and banana bread and other good stuff. We get to talk to our friends.
During recess I usually just play on the monkey bars. The monkey bars are the best because we can actually swing around and have fun.”
Nathan and Kevin, fourth graders at Irene Reither Elementary School
What is your favorite thing about school?
Nathan: PE!
Kevin: PE!
What do you love about PE?
Kevin: We get to run. We get to play games.
Nathan: Golf. I like golf and soccer and running around.
Kevin: I like to play football at recess. I just like scoring touchdowns.
Nathan: I play soccer and gaga ball.
Are there any school subjects you really like?
Nathan: I like math and reading. My teacher helps me with reading hard words.
Kevin: Reading and read alouds. We get to read my favorite book, Poppy. We read it yesterday.
Nathan: I don’t have a favorite book, I want to read all of them.
What else do you like learning about?
Kevin: I like science, we got to learn about salmon.
Nathan: Oh, I learned about salmon too!
Kevin: It is important for their insides to be healthy.
Nathan: It is important for them to have clean, cold water.
Nathan and Kevin, fourth graders at Irene Reither Elementary School
Olivia, fourth grader at Irene Reither Elementary School
“I like reading and writing. I like to read books that have history. I really like the Land of Stories series and Dear America. They are both fantasy but one is historical fiction. It’s just fun to learn about the world and what America has been through and other places. It is important to learn history so we can get it right and we can know what not to do again and what to keep the same.
I also like writing because you can use your imagination or if the teacher tells you to write about something you can put it in your own words.
In reading we are learning how to do fiction summaries. In math we are doing multiplication and in science we are learning about salmon. I like science because there’s a lot of activities like writing down what salmon look like so we can know what kind they are.
It is fun to come to school and see friends and learn. School is important because we can learn and grow up to live lives that are good. We can go to college or even if we don’t, we can do a lot of different things.
At our school the staff help you, they make sure you have a good and safe learning environment and they are all very kind.”
Knox, third grader at Irene Reither Elementary School.
“I like coming to school, everyday is a new day and there is more learning. It is always nice to see my teacher. I really like my teacher. He is very funny and very nice.
I just think it’s a very good school and people are always welcome here. We are kind to everyone and support them in all their learning if they are new and even if they are not. If there was a new student here I’d be kind to them. I’d play with them at recess. I’d help them out if they needed it.
I like the library. It is kind of quiet and you get to check out books. I like to read the How to Train Your Dragon series. I actually got three of them today. The librarian is really nice. If we don’t know where the series is, she will show us and she is kind.
I just think it’s an amazing school that I go to and I love it.”