The 5th graders are coming! The 5th graders are coming! They're he-ere!

Today the 5th grade class from the local elementary school took their grand tour of Adams Junior High. This is different from the Open House, where parents (and some 5th graders) came here in dress clothes to find out what the school was about. Lindsey wasn't at Open House, but Kathryn (Kit) and Carissa were, so I saw all three of them today.

All the sixth grade class officers had groups of five or six they had to take around the school. I had a group, Meredith had a group, Megan had a group, Mia had a group, and another girl named Heather something-or-other had a group. And the groups were divided randomly. In my group was this girl that looked Asian, another girl with long brown hair, Carissa, Kit, and Lindsey.

Carissa mentioned her dad was also thinking about private school for her, so she didn't say much. Kit and Lindsey were there too. But I was most interested in the pretty Asian girl in the long pink and orange skirt.

She'd said her name was Jessica, Jess for short, and she'd come from spending a year in Belize with her parents who are archeologists. They'd both gotten jobs at the local university as professors, so it was goodbye Belize and hello school -- but what school? They were still trying to decide.

I introduced Kit and Lindsey to my friends. Harriet and Kristy knew them from Girl Scouts, but Hilary and Katarina had never met them. Lindsey said she was trying to talk Jess, who'd just moved here, into joining Girl Scouts. Kit said she was looking forward to joining the newspaper staff and becoming sixth grade class president. I'll say this -- if anyone's gonna be my successor as sixth grade class president, I'd rather it be someone who shares my ambition and desire to learn. Seems like Kit does.

I'm starting a buddy program, where a 5th grader will be paired off with one of us 6th graders to help with the change between elementary and junior high school. It's not my original idea, though. It's something I read on Wendy's blog that her school is doing, and so I'm gonna try it here. I kinda wish something like this was around when I started 6th grade and didn't know a soul. Unfortunately, even though I started the program I won't actually be doing the pairing. The student council sponsor will. And that means I could end up with anybody, even someone I don't like.

The 5th graders will be here till Friday, so I have to come up with 2 more days of activities for them. I'm considering showing them the Chrissa movie and giving a talk on bullying, since I finally finished that project I was doing. Not sure what else I'll do though. I do know some of the girls are staying after school for cheerleading tryouts (blech!).