As a middle schooler, have you ever wondered how the elementary kids viewed you? Do they see you as kind and friendly or annoying and obnoxious? As a middle schooler, I’ve always wondered how they viewed me, and I now got the opportunity to interview them. There were multiple different answers for my questions, and I can conclude some answers after interviewing.

Since Catharine Blaine is a k-8 school, we get the opportunity of sharing a building with elementary kids. Knowing how elementary kids feel about middle schoolers is a key part so you know what actions you need to take to make it just right for the interactions of middle schoolers and elementary kids. I asked kids from kindergarten, 2^nd grade, and 1^st grade questions relating to this topic. There were similarities with the different kids in each grade.

When I talked with kindergarteners a recurring word came up, it was fun. This is good news showing that they see middle schoolers as a positive thing and not negative. When I talked with 2^nd graders, they gave multiple answers and there wasn’t much of a pattern. They were more honest than the kindergarteners were.  One kid said middle schoolers are “chaotic” because “they ruined the bathroom”. A few kids said middle schoolers were “loud” when the “art kids were going to class”. This demonstrates that the problem isn’t that were unkind but its how we impact them at school.

For 4^th grade it was mostly positive, all said they would like to do buddies more often and say the experience is fun. There were some concerning words said like “annoying”, “loud”, “irresponsible”, and the most concerning was when a middle schooler called one of the 4^th graders a rude name. From this information I can conclude that some 4^th graders have some cons about being in a school with middle schoolers but more pros when having buddies.

What can you do? As a middle schooler, you could try to be quieter when in the hallways of the elementary side or treat the bathrooms with respect. Those are the main things that elementary kids find bad about being in a school with middle schoolers. If you’re a teacher, you should create more opportunities for elementary kids and middle schoolers to interact knowing that elementary kids like the idea of buddies and find it fun.

When having an opportunity to have middle schoolers and elementary kids to be in the same school is rare. That’s why the school and the kids in it should use it to its full advantage. You don’t want the elementary kids to see the middle schoolers as something negative, but as more of friends. The best thing to do is to do more stuff with the two age groups, it helps the elementary kids learn more through the middle schoolers and the middle schoolers teach the elementary kids.