Program helps elementary students prepare for middle school

JACKSON, Mo. (KFVS) - A program is helping fourth grade elementary students in Jackson, Missouri prepare for middle school.

The program is called 'Girls Night In' held at Orchard Drive Elementary.

It's designed to help students learn the importance of stress management, hygiene, nutrition and career goals.

“That will all help them transition to middle school as their bodies are changing, friendships are changing, their appetite changes,” Orchard Drive Elementary School Principal Shanna Wilson said. “We’re just trying to get them to understand the changes that are happening with them.”

The students go to various stations and visit with a middle school counselor. They make a healthy snacks with the school nutritionist, go over a list and talk with a nurse practitioner about their body changes and the importance of good hygiene.

They also created bottles filled with objects and liquid to help cope with stress they may endure down the line.

Students we talked with said it’s important to be prepared before they go into middle school.

"It may be hard but you have to believe in yourself," Fourth grade student Summer Medlin said. "There's challenges that may block your way to reaching your goal but you just push them out."

Fellow classmate Addi Sander said it’s important to make sure you understand how to fit in and therefore you can be more socially accepted and make more friends.

“They’ll be new people there and so maybe we can make new friends,” Sander said. “It kind of worries me that there’s going to be a lot more people there than there is here.”

Wilson said they will also have a transition program geared for the fourth grade boys in the school later in the spring.

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