It's the noon recess for the children in this Jenks public School, kindergarten and pre-K class.

From out here, it looks about like any other playtime at any other school anywhere in the country.

But there's something about this school we haven't shown you yet that makes it like no other anywhere.

I thought it was a very exciting concept because it's never been done before.

And we were being we tend to be to become very innovative in our school district and try to do things that are exciting and new.

We have been and continue to be trying to find ways to attack loneliness and attack boredom and helplessness in our nursing homes.

It's our belief.

It's our company philosophy that people suffer not just from physical pain, but from emotional, spiritual pain.

And so the Jenks Public Schools, needing more classrooms for their youngest students and Grace living centers needing more life for people who may be perilously close to death, got together.

I've been in this business 20 years, always brought children into the facility.

But it's an hour here, an hour there.

Come trick or treating, come to a Christmas party, sing carols.

Never really integrated.

And I could just see it was this magical run away she had attended years ago.

The liberty and justice for.

For the young and the old.

at all.

Because these children aren't just here for a visit.

They go to school at this nursing home every day.

They're not in classrooms set aside from the facility, but right in the middle of it.

We didn't want it just attached to the back.

We wanted it part of the mainstream of the facility.

You've got to if you're in these halls, you have to go past that three times a day at least, to get to the dining room.

Though many residents would be happy to just stand or sit and watch the children for hours.

Their involvement is much more direct.

The grandmas and grandpas go back to school, so to speak.

And the fact that we actually follow the curriculum and we do planning with the teachers and the specialist from Jenks, and we plan appropriate, parts of the lesson plan that day to go in and do with the children right there with grandma.

You're going to all year.

Elaine Arnold works for the nursing center, but also helps out in the classrooms when the seniors are there.

Each year we have groups that just are drawn more to the children and work more with them.

And it's a definite wellness tool in their care plan that that exists here at this nursing center.

So it's just a wonderful thing for our residents to be able to come out if they want to, that day and enjoy the children.

It has given our residents those involved in the program.

Something to look forward to every day.

A reason to live.

They are engaged in life.

Today is a pom pom big day.

Pom pom sits on Jan's lap.

Must be his birthday.

And it has given the children more than just an extra set of grandparents.

The Book Buddies program brings young and old together.

Every morning.

We go down and read with them or not like to play with them and not, that's about it.

With the children.

But I really enjoy working with them.

I had my grandson here for two years.

And last year was his last year.

Mary Johnson may not be related by blood to anyone in this year's class, but she treats them all like her own grandchild.

Over the five years of the program, she has been one of the most active senior readers.

We get them to start, let them start reading, and then we help them with the words that they don't can't make.

They sound the mind pretty good.

They've got them so that they'll sit there and keep warm the fun.

In fact, 80% of the kindergarten students here read at a third grade level.

A significantly higher percentage than other kindergarten classes in the Jenks system.

And the children here don't just learn about letters and numbers.

Well, I'll bet you they learn about life.

The children do study careers, so it's always interesting to have the seniors in and and have them tell what they did with their lives.

And of course, the children, we've gone through times in the fall where we had orchards and we were studying farming, and so many of our people grew up on farms.

So that was a wonderful time to bring a lot of the people and the elders here and let them explain how it was.

And they were amazed because they were so lacking in televisions and computers and all of that.

Growing up.

In this village with them here and then, you know.

And once in a while, the children also learn about death and what it's like to lose someone you've grown close to.

They understand that that is possible.

And, I think they have a better understanding.

You can, you know, you can lose a loved one, but, yet their time is up, and we just have to move forward.

So, I think that's one of the major things that's come out of this program.

They've learned a lot of, tolerance of things that, you know, they can't control.

And for instance, the wheelchairs.

When we did, signage, like the stop sign and the yield sign and all that this year, the first one they picked out was the wheelchair with the handicapped parking on it, because they all knew that.

And the children have really benefited from it, because I have parents that now are putting their other second sibling in the program.

So we know that they were certainly satisfied.

Begin to punch out.

It looks like we're ready for the punching bag.

Get ready to punch left left right right.

From the nursing homes perspective too the program has worked wonders with residents.

They don't spend nearly as much time alone in their rooms.

They're out socializing, so to speak, with the children and with each other.

They're much more open.

They're much more outgoing.

They love the children, whether they participate in the reading program or the puppet plays or or not.

If their participation is sitting and watching them play on the playground, they love it.

They time their day to it.

We know that we're doing something that's worthwhile educationally, socially and emotionally for both seniors and for for young children, and I would hope that others would take advantage of that, that what we started in use it where they are.

Don Greiner hope so too.

He's planning more cooperative ventures between his nursing homes and our schools, so that the youngest and least experienced can take advantage of the knowledge being shared by the oldest and most experienced.

They are, in many cultures, the center of the community because they have the most wisdom.

And yet in our culture, they've been relegated to the back to the background.

While this has brought them very much back into the center of our community, which is how we were born, created to live.

And so it's validated them.

It's given them a reason to live.

To be a kid again, a way to almost see themselves when they were young in body, not just in spirit.