Love of learning led to essay

Elizabeth Carter is excited about her new school, new friends and new teacher. She shared that excitement Tuesday when she presented an unassigned essay about her first day of third grade at Cedar Ridge Elementary School to her teacher.

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"She has already shown that she is a very eager student," said teacher Melissa Collins. "She seems to be really excited and interested in learning."

Elizabeth is most eager about "learning a lot and having fun."

The daughter of Tway and Branch Carter, Elizabeth said she wrote the essay about her first day at Cedar Ridge because she "really wanted to show my mom and all the other people that I'm really excited about the first day of school."

With the construction of Cedar Ridge, it meant that some students from Euchee Creek, Grovetown Elementary and Brookwood Elementary would be rezoned to the new school. Elizabeth was one of those students and she said she is looking forward to "just meeting lots of people and learning new things." She said she'll miss her teachers and friends at Euchee Creek, but she is eager to make new friends and meet new teachers at Cedar Ridge.

Elizabeth got to know her classmates by taking part in a mystery bag project. Each student was asked to place in a bag three items that told a little about themselves. They then shared the bags with their classmates.

"I put in a math flashcard because I like math a lot," said 8-year-old Elizabeth. "And I put in a reading pen from Euchee Creek because I like to read."

Elizabeth also included two reptiles and a photo of a copperhead her father had killed the night before.

Elizabeth, an avid writer, said she enjoys expressing her feelings and putting them down on paper.

"I like to put in a lot of illustration," she said, adding that she has already written two books.