SPANISH FORK, Utah — Rees Elementary in Spanish Fork is celebrating its 120-year birthday with balloons, a cake, candles, and cheers. The school is the oldest in Spanish Fork, but that's only part of what makes it our Cool School of the Week.
At Rees Elementary students and staff live by S.O.AR.
"What soar means to us is we serve and support, we own our actions and words, we aim high and achieve, and we show respect," said Rees Elementary Principal Adam Gull. "That's what we teach every day here at Rees Elementary."
The students at Rees Elementary actively practice acts of service.
"Today with the help of fifth grade we will be putting together hygiene kits for a local food pantry Tabitha's Way," said one student.
"Together as a school, we collected and will donate over 1,5000 items," added another.
Spanish Fork has a robust rodeo community, so it's only right that the city puts on the Fiesta Days Rodeo Reading Challenge, which encourages reading in schools. Rees Elementary is a two-time winner.
"This last spring we participated in the challenge, and we read over 31 minutes on average per student and took home the trophy," said Principal Gull.
"There was team roping which was buddy reading and there was 'Lasso a Good Book' which means you just read outside," one student said.
If this wasn't enough to convince you this is one cool school, you might want to watch the video about to hear their choir sing or get a sneak peek at one of their classrooms with Mr. Craig takes learning with technology to the next level.
"They are demonstrating what they've learned about people in the middle ages with robots and coding," Mr. Craig said.
All of these things are what make Rees Elementary our Cool School of the Week.
