UNION COUNTY — Close to 250 of the La Grande School District’s youngest students are no longer going online each weekday morning and afternoon for classes. Instead they are getting in line — for recess and school bus rides.

The boys and girls are children in kindergarten through third grade who started attending school in person this week for the first time in at least six months after being taught only online by the school district due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The young students have been able to attend on-site since Monday, Oct. 5, after the La Grande School District met the state’s K-3 COVID-19 safety standards.

The students are the only ones in the La Grande School District able to attend classes on-site.

Island City Elementary School Principal Brett Smith said Tuesday the children appear very happy to be back at school. This is most evident at the end of the school day.

“Some have been asking teachers ‘Can we stay?’ and ‘Do we have to go?’” Smith said.

Island City second-grade teacher Kylee Goodwin said children seemed eager while being taught online to get back to a bricks and mortar school.

“Some wanted to know when they were going to get back to real school,” Goodwin said.

Children are not the only ones demonstrating excitement about on-site learning again being offered. Teachers and staff at the school district’s three elementary schools also are elated.

“Overall it is fabulous for us, just having kids,” said Central Elementary principal Suzy Mayes.

Kelli Aken, a second-grade teacher at Greenwood Elementary, will likely never forget the sense of anticipation she felt last weekend just before students were about to return.

“It was like I was a first-year teacher all over again,” she said. “I was so excited I could not sleep the night before.”

Greenwood Elementary first-grade teacher Katie Burright said she has been impressed with how much the students learned while they were being taught online.

“It has been amazing to see how much has soaked in,” Burright said.

She said it is hard to tell when teaching virtually how much content students are picking up. One reason is you can only see a student’s face online and can’t view how children are doing on assignments the same as walking around a classroom.

Goodwin and Island City third-grade teacher Holly Wagner are delighted to have students back in their classrooms because like all primary grade teachers they provide reading instruction during a critical phase of children’s lives, when they are best able to learn to read.

“It is much easier to teach fundamentals like letter sounds (in person),” Goodwin said.

She also said it is easier in person to get children to become familiar with books and how to hold them.

Familiarizing children with how to use computers, ironically, proved harder while teaching online, Wagner said.

“Things we think are simple, like using a mouse to drag something across a screen, took a lot of time to teach students,” Wagner said.

All on-site K-3 students have to follow extensive school district protocols to protect everyone from COVID-19. Students are kept with their classmates all day, are served meals only in their classrooms, must social distance and more.

Burright said the children are adapting well to school rules for protecting them from COVID-19. She noted her students are maintaining 6-foot distances from one another for social distancing purposes and are being courteous by keeping their distance from classmates.

“That is not typical of first graders,” Burright said.

Greenwood Elementary first-grade teacher Jessica Troutman also is impressed with how students have taken to wearing masks.

“It is not a big deal for them at all,” she said.

Troutman also noted said students are learning to interact without really touching each other.

“Instead of doing high fives,” Troutman said, “they are doing elbow bumps.”