'That’s so cool!': Austin elementary students, parents experience total eclipse together

“You’ll always remember this,” Denise Ammerman told her third grade students in Spanish as the day grew darker and temperatures began cooling down Monday afternoon ahead of a total solar eclipse.

Her students at Reilly Elementary, a dual language campus, had watched educational videos and read books about the sun’s relationship with the moon and Earth in advance of the once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event. With Austin being in the path of totality — the first time since 1397 — the moon completely blocked the sun, ushering darkness and revealing the sun’s glowing corona.

“It’s just a special day,” Ammerman said Monday in the school’s expansive, open field out back where the campus hosted an eclipse viewing celebration. “We were learning together in class that the next time there was going to be another total eclipse, I believe, is in another 20 years that will happen in the United States. I just thought it was special that the parents that were able to send the (students), that we could experience that together. It’s a moment in time.”

Ammerman, who still remembers her third grade teacher because of the experiences they shared, said the eclipse marked a momentous day in which everyone, regardless of age or background, was able to marvel at a natural occurrence. 

The students “even made a little booklet about this is my classroom, this is my teacher, this is what I ate for lunch today,” Ammerman said. “So, it’s a booklet of a reminder of today’s events, so it’s really, really sweet.”

“We’ve experienced birthdays together, we’ve experienced first-day cries, and just everything that they’ve learned — I just hope that it’s just to make them a better person, not only academically but socially,” she said.

As students laid out on the lawn, wearing their colorful eclipse viewing glasses, they’d yell in excitement when the clouds would break and offer glimpses of the partial eclipse. Parents joined their children at the school for the event, many affixing glasses on their kids, laying out blankets and taking selfies to commemorate the celestial phenomenon.

What to know about the 2044 eclipse:The next solar eclipse will be visible to Texans.

‘¡Si me voy acordar!’

“Yes, I will remember,” one student told Ammerman in Spanish of the eclipse. 

Her third graders, huddled around her, would blurt out “that’s so cool!” and “Did you see it? Did you see?” when they’d get peeks of the eclipse. 

Others were running around, dancing and doing flips as they soaked in the palpable energy of the day. 

“I really commend Reilly and the Reilly community for holding an event that not only our kids got to experience but they welcomed in parents as well, and I think that made it really special,” said Adrienne Arroyo, who was volunteering with PBS Austin at the school. “It just added to the special feeling of the event.”

More:Here are the best photos from the 2024 solar eclipse as it passed through Texas

Reilly Elementary, in partnership with PBS Austin, hosted educational stations for students before, during and after the total solar eclipse. 

Arroyo, a former educator, was teaching students about exploring the eclipse not with just sight, but with sound and touch. As the moon blocked the sun, Arroyo pulled out a light sound device that turned the sunlight’s intensity into sound. She also had a book from NASA with a 3D model of the eclipse. 

“There was lots of squealing,” Arroyo said of the students as they looked through the book and played with the sound equipment. “Some kids just wanted to sit and watch, others were running around, doing flips.”

After the eclipse, we'll have posters and framed prints from Statesman photojournalists available at usatodaystore.com.