Month: October 2016

Grandparents & Special Friends Day

By: Meridian 1st Graders

Meridian School Grandparent and Special Person Day 2016Everybody in the whole grade was looking forward to Grandparents and Special Friends Day, even the people who didn’t have a grandparent or special friend visiting, because it is exciting to get to meet new people and have fun activities to do. There were so many guests that Kennedy’s class was too full, and two first graders had to be honorary guests in Ms. Fonner’s classroom!

Grandparents and Special Friends Day is a day for us to see grandparents and friends who are special, and to have a little company in school. It’s a chance for the visitors to learn about Meridian and what we do here, and to experience some of our classrooms!

There was a lot to do on Friday! We played fun games like Domino Top Drop and Four Strikes You’re Out, and taught a miniature music lesson about what we’re learning, like staccato and legato. We also counted the steps it took to get from the music room to our classroom (but we can’t remember how many it was). Then we drew pumpkins that had facts about our family, like how many people lived in our house.

Meridian School Grandparent and Special Person Day 2016The day is a really good time to have company, make friends, and show your special people around. It’s not all the time that you get to spend time with your family at school, and sharing that is really fun, because it’s a great place! It makes them feel like they’re one of us, because they are one of us. It makes them feel important a school too, not just at home with our families.

Camp Seymour Overnight

By: Meridian 3rd Graders

3rd-grade-camp-seymourWe had loads of fun on our trip to Camp Seymour. It wasn’t was even that far away! There was a lot to do, and even though we were there for only one night, we filled up all of our time. There was a reptile house, a forest and wildlife ecology session, marine biology and an interesting outdoor hike. The hike wasn’t very hard, but we learned a lot on it and we played some educational games. One of the games was a rock, paper, scissor game that taught us about the canopy and the understory, which are layers of the forest, and another taught us about different animals around the area. We were surprised by how much we learned by just playing games.

img_4085While we were there, we didn’t just learn by playing games, but also through observing different aspects of the forest. We discovered a bunch of different insects and levels of the forest from the canopy all the way to the underground sections! There’s a lot to see in a few inches of the forest floor. We examined a small square of the ground with a handscope, and it was really eye opening! We saw so much more than we expected. We also got to learn about animals that lived in the water. We didn’t just see the animals, we got to interact with them, too! It was funny to see a hermit crab steal a piece of food off of an anemone. That was our favorite part!

Lewis & Clark Overnight

By: Meridian 5th Graders

class_taraclarkphotographyIt was really fun making our way to Oregon! It was great to step in to our history books and to dig deeper into Lewis and Clark’s discoveries.
We were surprised by how close together the historical places were–when we read about them in class they seemed scattered around, so seeing them in person was eye opening! Our hands-on experience made the locations come to life. Learning new information was even more engaging because we could see and imagine how Lewis and Clark felt when they were discovering the area. We were all pretty surprised to find out that they celebrated Christmas, with a full ceremony and gift giving!

During our trip, we went kayaking on the Columbia River, visited Fort Clatsop and Fort Stevens, and went to the Maritime Museum and the Astoria Column. One group even got to play on the sand dunes and see the Peter Iredale (an old shipwreck on the beach).

lc_taraclarkphotographyThere were a lot of challenges on the trip, some of us had never kayaked before and almost fell over! But it was definitely worth it. Some advice that we’d give to 5th graders next year is to bring a raincoat, a sweater and a hairbrush. It will be colder and wetter than you think it will be. In general, wear more layers than you think you will need, because there’s no harm in being extra prepared. When you’re kayaking, don’t be afraid of tipping. The tenser you are, the more likely it’ll happen. Lastly, the trip might not be what you expect, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be awesome!

Camp Orkila Overnight

By: Meridian 4th Graders

We had a great time at Camp Orkila! We took a ferry to get there, and stopped at Lopez and Shaw Island before we finally got to Orcas. We enjoyed being at the front of the boat–it was windy and awesome. We were looking into the water for ocean creatures. Some of us were trying to see jellyfish, but all we saw were schools of regular fish. The roaring wind was definitely the best part of the ferry ride!

img_4999There were so many exciting things to do at Camp Orkila…it’s hard to keep track of them all. We learned survival skills like archery, rock climbing, how to build a lean-to shelter, and more. We also went on a zip line and played gaga ball (if you don’t know what it is, look it up!). There was free time every day before dinner and we could do art, go boating, or just play games as a group. At night there were fun activities like dancing contests and campfire songs!

We learned more than we thought we would on the trip! It’s definitely a lot different than school because you’re spending so much time together (sometimes it’s hard to be quiet after lights out because all your friends are there)! One of the best parts of the whole trip was stargazing and seeing stars you can’t normally see from Seattle. The sky looked like salt spilled over a table.

Two pieces of advice that we’d give to next year’s fourth graders are 1. remember to bring a sweater and flashlight for night games and 2. don’t be scared of the zipline! Just go for it and you’ll have lots of fun!

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