By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

One by one, grins spread across the faces of the kindergarten students sitting in the front of Michelle Colburn’s class at Meadow View Elementary School as they saw their parents walk into the room on Oct. 8.

“This is definitely something the students look forward to every year,” MVES Principal Rachea Simms said.

Throughout the day, MVES joined other schools throughout the county in celebrating Parent Involvement Day, during which the kids and parents took part in math- and reading-related activities.

“Today, we are showing the parents how to bring math into reading and reading into math,” first-grade teacher Lynda Glass said as parents and kids split up into small groups to practice a math-related counting game in her classroom.

In Colburn’s class, the kids took turns reading the difference between sentences with question marks and exclamation marks – or “excited marks,” as the kids dubbed them – while their parents prepared to join the kids in small group activities.

“In the past, we’ve had math and reading night, but we’ve noticed a lot more parents showing up during the day,” Simms said. “Some employers allow the parents to take time off to come support the schools.”

Parenting day was one of multiple family related events scheduled at Meadow View during the week, as grandparent breakfasts also were held the mornings of Oct. 7 and Oct. 9.

“We’ve had a lot of visitors so far this week,” Simms said. “It’s been a success so far.”