Growing Up in Santa Cruz- Paragraph Submissions

Growing Up in Santa Cruz, asked our school if any of the students would be interested in writing a paragraph for their newspaper. The topic: What is your favorite thing about school during the pandemic? We made this optional for our class. Below are the heartwarming words of those who participated.

During the pandemic, I am lucky to go to Orchard School.  We have an outdoor classroom, and I like to play outside. We are so lucky that we are not on a screen! When we are outside, we do not have to wear a mask and there has never been a time like this. I will never forget last year and the rest of this school year. I am glad we are at school. 

- Lyla Lou, 9 years old, 4th grade

It feels so special to have gotten the opportunity to go to school in person during covid. There are lots of things I enjoy about school but one stands out to me and that is playing soccer with my friends at recess. It feels like life before the pandemic. Sometimes when I play I can even forget about covid. I am having so much fun. The sense of joy when I score a goal or from just getting to run, it is truly magic.  For a while I was on zoom and I remember hearing that Orchard was coming back, I was so happy. I had missed everything, but especially playing with my friends. 

- Jordan, Age 11, 5th grade

I am very grateful to be going to school right now during the pandemic. I really like being with my friends. We have partner activities which are the best because you get to be with your friends.  The class is reading a book right now, it is called “Holes” and it is the best book, it is so awesome.  There are yellow spotted lizards in the book. My all time favorite thing about my school is that we have a lot of choice over how we learn and what activities we do. For instance, before the pandemic we chose electives, and now we get to choose if we want to draw, knit or sew. There is also a POOL!!!!

- Solomon, Age 10, 4th grade

I'm so grateful to be in school during the pandemic, while a lot of my friends have to stay at home and do zoom. I feel very lucky. It’s been an amazing year so far. We have a pool at our school, and when it's hot we get to swim. We also do art, play soccer, and best of all learn together. Right now we are learning about explorers. I’m learning about James Cook, an explorer from the seventeen hundreds. It's been really fun, a lot more fun than learning on a computer.  There's a lot of things we have done that you can’t do on zoom, like bingo math games or making pie for Thanksgiving.  We are also allowed to bring our unicycles, it's so much fun. I hope all the other kids can go to school soon.

- Siena, Age 10, 4th grade

I am grateful for being able to go to school during the pandemic. It is much more fun than learning on a computer. For example, we got to make a map of our school, and we played explorer games which would have been really hard on a computer. Also, when you’re at school you can see your friends in real life instead of in a tiny box on a screen.

- Julien, Age 10, 4th grade

What I like about school during the pandemic is that we usually use a tent as a classroom, but sometimes we have to go inside when it's raining.  Secondly, I’m very grateful and lucky to even be able to go to school in person, so many people have to use Zoom all day everyday, and Zoom isn’t as fun as in-person school. It takes twice as long for me to do my work on the computer because my teacher isn’t there to help me. At our school sometimes the teachers start playing games with us during recess and we have so much fun that they forget to call the end of recess.  Additionally, in general, we are outside a lot more than before we entered the pandemic. 

-Riley, Age 10, 4th Grade

In the pandemic, I am very grateful that I’m able to go to school because all of my neighborhood friends have to sit down looking at a screen for hours! At school I get to be outside and I have all my friends there in person. My favorite things are that we still have electives like knitting and sewing and that we go to school for about six hours and not only two!

-Sadie, Age 10, 4th Grade